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Service Mesh Proxy Models for Cloud-Native Applications
Published
Author(s)
Ramaswamy Chandramouli, Zack Butcher, James Callaghan
Abstract
The service mesh has become the de facto application services infrastructure for cloud-native applications. It enables the various runtime functions of an application through proxies that form the data plane of the service mesh. Depending on the distribution of the network layer functions and the granularity of association of the proxies to individual services and computing nodes, different proxy models or data plane architectures have emerged. This document describes a threat profile for each of the data plane architectures with a detailed threat analysis to make recommendations on their applicability for cloud-native applications with different security risk profiles.
Chandramouli, R.
, Butcher, Z.
and Callaghan, J.
(2024),
Service Mesh Proxy Models for Cloud-Native Applications, Special Publication (NIST SP), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-233, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=958767
(Accessed October 16, 2025)