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Securing Workloads

This domain covers Istio's security APIs for authenticating and authorizing workloads: PeerAuthentication for mTLS modes (STRICT, PERMISSIVE, DISABLE), AuthorizationPolicy for L7 access control, and RequestAuthentication for JWT validation. Questions present namespace- or workload-scoped YAML scenarios and ask you to choose the correct policy, scope, or istioctl command to enforce encryption and least-privilege access.

50 questions13 easy28 medium9 hard

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What this domain covers

What to know about Securing Workloads

You must be able to write and scope PeerAuthentication and AuthorizationPolicy YAML, then verify enforcement with istioctl. The single most important thing: remember that more specific policy scopes (workload) override broader ones (namespace, mesh), so a STRICT namespace policy can be weakened by a workload-level PERMISSIVE.

Applying PeerAuthentication with mode: STRICT at namespace scope to enforce mutual TLS for all workloads in a namespace.

Interpreting AuthorizationPolicy operation fields: methods, paths, hosts, and ports for allow/deny rules.

Using istioctl commands such as istioctl authn tls-check or istioctl analyze to inspect active PeerAuthentication policies.

Scoping security policies correctly: mesh-wide, namespace-wide, or workload-specific selectors and their precedence.

Watch out for

Common Securing Workloads exam traps

  • ▸Assuming a namespace-level STRICT PeerAuthentication overrides a workload-level PERMISSIVE policy; workload-specific policies take precedence.
  • ▸Confusing AuthorizationPolicy operation (HTTP methods, paths, hosts, ports) with source/destination identity fields or JWT claims.
  • ▸Believing istioctl authn tls-check shows AuthorizationPolicy state; it reports mTLS status, not authorization rules.

Question index

All Securing Workloads questions (50)

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1

Which component is responsible for distributing the security policies (like AuthorizationPolicy) to the Envoy sidecars?

Easy
2

A security team requires that all traffic to the 'payments' service must originate from a specific IP range (10.0.0.0/24). How can this be achieved?

Medium
3

Which Istio component is responsible for enforcing the AuthorizationPolicy at the workload level?

Easy
4

If you set 'mode: PERMISSIVE' in PeerAuthentication, what does this allow?

Medium
5

What happens if a RequestAuthentication policy is applied, but no JWT is provided in the request?

Medium
6

You are using Istio's authorization policies to secure a workload. You want to allow requests only from a specific service account in another namespace, but only for HTTP GET requests to the path '/api/v1/data'. The service account is 'data-reader' in namespace 'analytics'. Which AuthorizationPolicy rule correctly implements this?

Hard
7

Which of the following describes the role of the 'trust-domain' in Istio?

Medium
8

Which field in the AuthorizationPolicy is used to restrict access based on the verified JWT claims?

Medium
9

Which THREE fields in an AuthorizationPolicy are evaluated under the 'rules' section?

Hard
10

Which THREE items are included in an Istio SPIFFE ID?

Medium
11

What is the default behavior of Istio mTLS if no PeerAuthentication policy is applied?

Easy
12

Which THREE factors influence whether a service in the mesh will accept traffic?

Hard
13

If you apply an AuthorizationPolicy with a 'DENY' action and an 'ALLOW' action in the same namespace, how does Istio resolve them?

Medium
14

Which resource is used to define the root certificate for a custom CA?

Easy
15

Which THREE actions occur when 'mode: STRICT' is set in a PeerAuthentication policy?

Hard
16

What is the correct syntax for a principal in an AuthorizationPolicy?

Easy
17

How do you ensure that a workload ignores a global PeerAuthentication policy?

Medium
18

When multiple AuthorizationPolicies target the same workload, how are they combined?

Medium
19

You have a global PeerAuthentication policy. What is the effect of applying a new PeerAuthentication policy in the 'default' namespace with no selector?

Medium
20

You want to enforce that only requests with a valid JWT issued by 'https://accounts.example.com' are allowed to access the 'orders' service. You have applied a RequestAuthentication policy. What additional step is required to actually block requests without a valid JWT?

Medium
21

Which TWO of the following are true regarding the RequestAuthentication resource?

Medium
22

What does the 'jwksUri' field in a RequestAuthentication resource define?

Easy
23

You have a namespace 'prod' and you need to ensure that all workloads in this namespace only accept mutual TLS (mTLS) encrypted traffic. What is the most effective way to configure this?

Medium
24

What does an AuthorizationPolicy's 'operation' field represent?

Easy
25

When using JWT authentication, where does the Istio sidecar fetch the public key (JWKS) required for token verification?

Medium
26

Which THREE things are required for mTLS to be successful?

Medium
27

Which THREE components are involved in the Istio certificate management process?

Medium
28

Which TWO scenarios indicate that a PeerAuthentication policy is working correctly?

Medium
29

What happens when an AuthorizationPolicy is applied to a workload without a sidecar?

Medium
30

Your team runs an Istio service mesh in STRICT mutual TLS mode across the cluster. A new workload in the 'payments' namespace must accept only traffic from workloads that present a SPIFFE identity of 'cluster.local/ns/payments/sa/payment-processor'. All other inbound traffic, including from other namespaces, must be denied. You create an AuthorizationPolicy in the 'payments' namespace. Which configuration correctly enforces this requirement?

Medium
31

In an AuthorizationPolicy, what does the 'ALLOW' action mean when combined with an empty rule set?

Medium
32

Which command is used to display the currently active PeerAuthentication policies in the mesh?

Easy
33

What is the primary function of the 'root-cert.pem' file in the Istio control plane?

Easy
34

Which of the following is NOT a valid action in an Istio AuthorizationPolicy?

Easy
35

You need to configure mutual TLS for a specific workload 'database' in the 'data' namespace, but you want to allow plaintext traffic from a legacy service that cannot use mTLS. Which PeerAuthentication configuration should you use?

Easy
36

Which of the following is true regarding PeerAuthentication and sidecar-less ambient mode?

Medium
37

Why might a 'RequestAuthentication' policy fail to validate a JWT even if the issuer is correct?

Hard
38

What is the default behavior of Istio when no AuthorizationPolicy is present for a workload?

Easy
39

You have a namespace 'finance' where all traffic must be encrypted using mutual TLS. You apply a PeerAuthentication policy with 'mode: STRICT' at the namespace scope. A developer reports that a legacy service in the same namespace is failing to communicate. What is the most likely reason?

Medium
40

How can you restrict traffic to a service based on the presence of a specific request header?

Medium
41

You have an external service 'legacy-db' outside the mesh. You want to allow access to it from 'webapp' while ensuring 'webapp' presents a valid certificate. How is this achieved?

Hard
42

How can you restrict a service to only accept requests from users authenticated via a specific JWT issuer?

Medium
43

What is the result of applying an AuthorizationPolicy that has no 'action' field?

Medium
44

Which tool would you use to verify if a pod has an active mTLS connection?

Easy
45

You have a legacy service that cannot handle mTLS. How can you exclude this specific service from the namespace-wide STRICT mTLS policy?

Hard
46

You are configuring a RequestAuthentication policy for a workload that must accept JWTs from two different issuers: 'https://accounts.google.com' and 'https://auth.example.com'. Each issuer uses a different JWKS endpoint. Which configuration correctly validates tokens from both issuers?

Medium
47

You have a requirement to use a custom JWT claim to authorize users. How can you map this claim in an 'AuthorizationPolicy'?

Hard
48

What is the primary purpose of the 'RequestAuthentication' resource?

Medium
49

When using JWT, what is the 'forwardOriginalToken' flag in the RequestAuthentication resource?

Hard
50

Your team needs to allow end-users to authenticate using JWT tokens issued by an external OIDC provider. Which resource should you define to validate these tokens?

Medium

Frequently asked questions

What does the Securing Workloads domain cover on the ICA exam?
You must be able to write and scope PeerAuthentication and AuthorizationPolicy YAML, then verify enforcement with istioctl. The single most important thing: remember that more specific policy scopes (workload) override broader ones (namespace, mesh), so a STRICT namespace policy can be weakened by a workload-level PERMISSIVE.
How many questions are in this domain?
This page lists all 50 Securing Workloads questions in the ICA question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
What is the best way to practise this domain?
Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
Can I practise only Securing Workloads questions?
Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.
Istio Certified Associate (ICA, CNCF/Linux Foundation) (ICA) Securing Workloads Practice Questions