ICA · domain
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.
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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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Which component is responsible for distributing the security policies (like AuthorizationPolicy) to the Envoy sidecars?
Easy2A 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?
Medium3Which Istio component is responsible for enforcing the AuthorizationPolicy at the workload level?
Easy4If you set 'mode: PERMISSIVE' in PeerAuthentication, what does this allow?
Medium5What happens if a RequestAuthentication policy is applied, but no JWT is provided in the request?
Medium6You 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?
Hard7Which of the following describes the role of the 'trust-domain' in Istio?
Medium8Which field in the AuthorizationPolicy is used to restrict access based on the verified JWT claims?
Medium9Which THREE fields in an AuthorizationPolicy are evaluated under the 'rules' section?
Hard10Which THREE items are included in an Istio SPIFFE ID?
Medium11What is the default behavior of Istio mTLS if no PeerAuthentication policy is applied?
Easy12Which THREE factors influence whether a service in the mesh will accept traffic?
Hard13If you apply an AuthorizationPolicy with a 'DENY' action and an 'ALLOW' action in the same namespace, how does Istio resolve them?
Medium14Which resource is used to define the root certificate for a custom CA?
Easy15Which THREE actions occur when 'mode: STRICT' is set in a PeerAuthentication policy?
Hard16What is the correct syntax for a principal in an AuthorizationPolicy?
Easy17How do you ensure that a workload ignores a global PeerAuthentication policy?
Medium18When multiple AuthorizationPolicies target the same workload, how are they combined?
Medium19You have a global PeerAuthentication policy. What is the effect of applying a new PeerAuthentication policy in the 'default' namespace with no selector?
Medium20You 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?
Medium21Which TWO of the following are true regarding the RequestAuthentication resource?
Medium22What does the 'jwksUri' field in a RequestAuthentication resource define?
Easy23You 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?
Medium24What does an AuthorizationPolicy's 'operation' field represent?
Easy25When using JWT authentication, where does the Istio sidecar fetch the public key (JWKS) required for token verification?
Medium26Which THREE things are required for mTLS to be successful?
Medium27Which THREE components are involved in the Istio certificate management process?
Medium28Which TWO scenarios indicate that a PeerAuthentication policy is working correctly?
Medium29What happens when an AuthorizationPolicy is applied to a workload without a sidecar?
Medium30Your 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?
Medium31In an AuthorizationPolicy, what does the 'ALLOW' action mean when combined with an empty rule set?
Medium32Which command is used to display the currently active PeerAuthentication policies in the mesh?
Easy33What is the primary function of the 'root-cert.pem' file in the Istio control plane?
Easy34Which of the following is NOT a valid action in an Istio AuthorizationPolicy?
Easy35You 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?
Easy36Which of the following is true regarding PeerAuthentication and sidecar-less ambient mode?
Medium37Why might a 'RequestAuthentication' policy fail to validate a JWT even if the issuer is correct?
Hard38What is the default behavior of Istio when no AuthorizationPolicy is present for a workload?
Easy39You 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?
Medium40How can you restrict traffic to a service based on the presence of a specific request header?
Medium41You 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?
Hard42How can you restrict a service to only accept requests from users authenticated via a specific JWT issuer?
Medium43What is the result of applying an AuthorizationPolicy that has no 'action' field?
Medium44Which tool would you use to verify if a pod has an active mTLS connection?
Easy45You have a legacy service that cannot handle mTLS. How can you exclude this specific service from the namespace-wide STRICT mTLS policy?
Hard46You 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?
Medium47You have a requirement to use a custom JWT claim to authorize users. How can you map this claim in an 'AuthorizationPolicy'?
Hard48What is the primary purpose of the 'RequestAuthentication' resource?
Medium49When using JWT, what is the 'forwardOriginalToken' flag in the RequestAuthentication resource?
Hard50Your 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?
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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.