SPIFFE/SPIRE + mTLS for Service-to-Service Authentication

Security Requirement

For service-to-service communication, the recommendation is to use SPIFFE/SPIRE+mTLS. This applies to all service-to-service scenarios including agent-to-agent and agent-to-MCP-server communications.

What SPIFFE/SPIRE Provides

• Workload identity: SPIFFE (Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone) provides a standard for identifying workloads via SPIFFE IDs
• Credential issuance: SPIRE (SPIFFE Runtime Environment) automatically issues and rotates X.509 certificates (SVIDs) for workloads
• No credential exchange over network: SPIRE handles attestation locally, eliminating the need to transmit credentials
• Mutual authentication: Both parties in a connection verify each other's identity via mTLS

SPIFFE ID Format

spiffe://<trust-domain>/<workload-path>