Envoy Filter

    NOTE 1: Some aspects of this API are deeply tied to the internal implementation in Istio networking subsystem as well as Envoy’s XDS API. While the EnvoyFilter API by itself will maintain backward compatibility, any envoy configuration provided through this mechanism should be carefully monitored across Istio proxy version upgrades, to ensure that deprecated fields are removed and replaced appropriately.

    NOTE 2: When multiple EnvoyFilters are bound to the same workload in a given namespace, all patches will be processed sequentially in order of creation time. The behavior is undefined if multiple EnvoyFilter configurations conflict with each other.

    NOTE 3: To apply an EnvoyFilter resource to all workloads (sidecars and gateways) in the system, define the resource in the config , without a workloadSelector.

    The example below declares a global default EnvoyFilter resource in the root namespace called istio-config, that adds a custom protocol filter on all sidecars in the system, for outbound port 9307. The filter should be added before the terminating tcp_proxy filter to take effect. In addition, it sets a 30s idle timeout for all HTTP connections in both gateways and sidecars.

    The following example enables Envoy’s Lua filter for all inbound HTTP calls arriving at service port 8080 of the reviews service pod with labels “app: reviews”, in the bookinfo namespace. The lua filter calls out to an external service internal.org.net:8888 that requires a special cluster definition in envoy. The cluster is also added to the sidecar as part of this configuration.

    1. apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
    2. kind: EnvoyFilter
    3. metadata:
    4. name: reviews-lua
    5. namespace: bookinfo
    6. spec:
    7. workloadSelector:
    8. labels:
    9. app: reviews
    10. configPatches:
    11. # The first patch adds the lua filter to the listener/http connection manager
    12. - applyTo: HTTP_FILTER
    13. match:
    14. context: SIDECAR_INBOUND
    15. listener:
    16. portNumber: 8080
    17. filterChain:
    18. filter:
    19. name: "envoy.filters.network.http_connection_manager"
    20. subFilter:
    21. name: "envoy.filters.http.router"
    22. patch:
    23. operation: INSERT_BEFORE
    24. value: # lua filter specification
    25. name: envoy.lua
    26. typed_config:
    27. "@type": "type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.filters.http.lua.v3.Lua"
    28. inlineCode: |
    29. function envoy_on_request(request_handle)
    30. local headers, body = request_handle:httpCall(
    31. "lua_cluster",
    32. {
    33. [":method"] = "POST",
    34. [":path"] = "/acl",
    35. [":authority"] = "internal.org.net"
    36. },
    37. "authorize call",
    38. 5000)
    39. end
    40. # The second patch adds the cluster that is referenced by the lua code
    41. # cds match is omitted as a new cluster is being added
    42. - applyTo: CLUSTER
    43. match:
    44. context: SIDECAR_OUTBOUND
    45. patch:
    46. operation: ADD
    47. value: # cluster specification
    48. name: "lua_cluster"
    49. type: STRICT_DNS
    50. connect_timeout: 0.5s
    51. lb_policy: ROUND_ROBIN
    52. load_assignment:
    53. cluster_name: lua_cluster
    54. endpoints:
    55. - lb_endpoints:
    56. - endpoint:
    57. address:
    58. socket_address:
    59. protocol: TCP
    60. address: "internal.org.net"
    61. port_value: 8888

    The following example overwrites certain fields (HTTP idle timeout and X-Forward-For trusted hops) in the HTTP connection manager in a listener on the ingress gateway in istio-system namespace for the SNI host app.example.com:

    The following example inserts an attributegen filter that produces istio_operationId attribute which is consumed by the istio.stats fiter. filterClass: STATS encodes this dependency.

    1. apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
    2. kind: EnvoyFilter
    3. metadata:
    4. name: reviews-request-operation
    5. namespace: myns
    6. spec:
    7. workloadSelector:
    8. labels:
    9. app: reviews
    10. configPatches:
    11. - applyTo: HTTP_FILTER
    12. match:
    13. context: SIDECAR_INBOUND
    14. patch:
    15. operation: ADD
    16. value:
    17. name: istio.request_operation
    18. typed_config:
    19. "@type": type.googleapis.com/udpa.type.v1.TypedStruct
    20. type_url: type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.filters.http.wasm.v3.Wasm
    21. value:
    22. config:
    23. configuration: |
    24. {
    25. {
    26. "output_attribute": "istio_operationId",
    27. "match": [
    28. {
    29. "value": "ListReviews",
    30. "condition": "request.url_path == '/reviews' && request.method == 'GET'"
    31. }]
    32. }]
    33. }
    34. vm_config:
    35. runtime: envoy.wasm.runtime.null
    36. code:
    37. local: { inline_string: "envoy.wasm.attributegen" }

    The following example inserts an http ext_authz filter in the myns namespace.

    A workload in the myns namespace needs to access a different ext_auth server that does not accept initial metadata. Since proto merge cannot remove fields, the following configuration uses the REPLACE operation. If you do not need to inherit fields, REPLACE is preferred over MERGE.

    1. apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
    2. kind: EnvoyFilter
    3. metadata:
    4. name: mysvc-ext-authz
    5. namespace: myns
    6. spec:
    7. workloadSelector:
    8. labels:
    9. app: mysvc
    10. configPatches:
    11. - applyTo: HTTP_FILTER
    12. match:
    13. context: SIDECAR_INBOUND
    14. patch:
    15. operation: REPLACE
    16. value:
    17. name: envoy.filters.http.ext_authz
    18. typed_config:
    19. "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.extensions.filters.http.ext_authz.v3.ExtAuthz
    20. grpc_service:
    21. envoy_grpc:
    22. cluster_name: acme-ext-authz-alt

    The following example deploys a Wasm extension for all inbound sidecar HTTP requests.

    EnvoyFilter provides a mechanism to customize the Envoy configuration generated by Istio Pilot.

    EnvoyFilter.ProxyMatch

    One or more properties of the proxy to match on.

    FieldTypeDescriptionRequired
    proxyVersionstring

    A regular expression in golang regex format (RE2) that can be used to select proxies using a specific version of istio proxy. The Istio version for a given proxy is obtained from the node metadata field ISTIO_VERSION supplied by the proxy when connecting to Pilot. This value is embedded as an environment variable (ISTIO_META_ISTIO_VERSION) in the Istio proxy docker image. Custom proxy implementations should provide this metadata variable to take advantage of the Istio version check option.

    No
    metadatamap<string, string>

    Match on the node metadata supplied by a proxy when connecting to Istio Pilot. Note that while Envoy’s node metadata is of type Struct, only string key-value pairs are processed by Pilot. All keys specified in the metadata must match with exact values. The match will fail if any of the specified keys are absent or the values fail to match.

    No

    EnvoyFilter.ClusterMatch

    Conditions specified in ClusterMatch must be met for the patch to be applied to a cluster.

    FieldTypeDescriptionRequired
    portNumberuint32

    The service port for which this cluster was generated. If omitted, applies to clusters for any port.

    No
    servicestring

    The fully qualified service name for this cluster. If omitted, applies to clusters for any service. For services defined through service entries, the service name is same as the hosts defined in the service entry.

    No
    subsetstring

    The subset associated with the service. If omitted, applies to clusters for any subset of a service.

    No
    namestring

    The exact name of the cluster to match. To match a specific cluster by name, such as the internally generated Passthrough cluster, leave all fields in clusterMatch empty, except the name.

    No

    EnvoyFilter.RouteConfigurationMatch

    Conditions specified in RouteConfigurationMatch must be met for the patch to be applied to a route configuration object or a specific virtual host within the route configuration.

    FieldTypeDescriptionRequired
    portNumberuint32

    The service port number or gateway server port number for which this route configuration was generated. If omitted, applies to route configurations for all ports.

    No
    portNamestring

    Applicable only for GATEWAY context. The gateway server port name for which this route configuration was generated.

    No
    gatewaystring

    The Istio gateway config’s namespace/name for which this route configuration was generated. Applies only if the context is GATEWAY. Should be in the namespace/name format. Use this field in conjunction with the portNumber and portName to accurately select the Envoy route configuration for a specific HTTPS server within a gateway config object.

    No
    vhostVirtualHostMatch

    Match a specific virtual host in a route configuration and apply the patch to the virtual host.

    No
    namestring

    Route configuration name to match on. Can be used to match a specific route configuration by name, such as the internally generated http_proxy route configuration for all sidecars.

    No

    EnvoyFilter.ListenerMatch

    Conditions specified in a listener match must be met for the patch to be applied to a specific listener across all filter chains, or a specific filter chain inside the listener.

    FieldTypeDescriptionRequired
    portNumberuint32

    The service port/gateway port to which traffic is being sent/received. If not specified, matches all listeners. Even though inbound listeners are generated for the instance/pod ports, only service ports should be used to match listeners.

    No
    filterChain

    Match a specific filter chain in a listener. If specified, the patch will be applied to the filter chain (and a specific filter if specified) and not to other filter chains in the listener.

    No
    namestring

    Match a specific listener by its name. The listeners generated by Pilot are typically named as IP:Port.

    No

    EnvoyFilter.Patch

    Patch specifies how the selected object should be modified.

    FieldTypeDescriptionRequired
    operationOperationNo
    value

    The JSON config of the object being patched. This will be merged using proto merge semantics with the existing proto in the path.

    No
    filterClassFilterClass

    Determines the filter insertion order.

    No

    One or more match conditions to be met before a patch is applied to the generated configuration for a given proxy.

    EnvoyFilter.EnvoyConfigObjectPatch

    Changes to be made to various envoy config objects.

    FieldTypeDescriptionRequired
    applyTo

    Specifies where in the Envoy configuration, the patch should be applied. The match is expected to select the appropriate object based on applyTo. For example, an applyTo with HTTP_FILTER is expected to have a match condition on the listeners, with a network filter selection on envoy.filters.network.http_connection_manager and a sub filter selection on the HTTP filter relative to which the insertion should be performed. Similarly, an applyTo on CLUSTER should have a match (if provided) on the cluster and not on a listener.

    No
    matchEnvoyConfigObjectMatch

    Match on listener/route configuration/cluster.

    No
    patch

    The patch to apply along with the operation.

    No

    EnvoyFilter.RouteConfigurationMatch.RouteMatch

    Match a specific route inside a virtual host in a route configuration.

    FieldTypeDescriptionRequired
    namestring

    The Route objects generated by default are named as default. Route objects generated using a virtual service will carry the name used in the virtual service’s HTTP routes.

    No
    actionAction

    Match a route with specific action type.

    No

    EnvoyFilter.RouteConfigurationMatch.VirtualHostMatch

    Match a specific virtual host inside a route configuration.

    FieldTypeDescriptionRequired
    namestring

    The VirtualHosts objects generated by Istio are named as host:port, where the host typically corresponds to the VirtualService’s host field or the hostname of a service in the registry.

    No
    route

    Match a specific route within the virtual host.

    No

    EnvoyFilter.ListenerMatch.FilterChainMatch

    For listeners with multiple filter chains (e.g., inbound listeners on sidecars with permissive mTLS, gateway listeners with multiple SNI matches), the filter chain match can be used to select a specific filter chain to patch.

    FieldTypeDescriptionRequired
    namestring

    The name assigned to the filter chain.

    No
    snistring

    The SNI value used by a filter chain’s match condition. This condition will evaluate to false if the filter chain has no sni match.

    No
    transportProtocolstring

    Applies only to SIDECAR_INBOUND context. If non-empty, a transport protocol to consider when determining a filter chain match. This value will be compared against the transport protocol of a new connection, when it’s detected by the tls_inspector listener filter.

    Accepted values include:

    • raw_buffer - default, used when no transport protocol is detected.
    • tls - set when TLS protocol is detected by the TLS inspector.
    No
    applicationProtocolsstring

    Applies only to sidecars. If non-empty, a comma separated set of application protocols to consider when determining a filter chain match. This value will be compared against the application protocols of a new connection, when it’s detected by one of the listener filters such as the http_inspector.

    Accepted values include: h2, http/1.1, http/1.0

    No
    filterFilterMatch

    The name of a specific filter to apply the patch to. Set this to envoy.filters.network.http_connection_manager to add a filter or apply a patch to the HTTP connection manager.

    No
    destinationPortuint32

    The destinationport value used by a filter chain’s match condition. This condition will evaluate to false if the filter chain has no destinationport match.

    No

    EnvoyFilter.ListenerMatch.FilterMatch

    Conditions to match a specific filter within a filter chain.

    FieldTypeDescriptionRequired
    namestring

    The filter name to match on. For standard Envoy filters, names should be used.

    No
    subFilterSubFilterMatch

    The next level filter within this filter to match upon. Typically used for HTTP Connection Manager filters and Thrift filters.

    No

    Conditions to match a specific filter within another filter. This field is typically useful to match a HTTP filter inside the envoy.filters.network.http_connection_manager network filter. This could also be applicable for thrift filters.

    EnvoyFilter.RouteConfigurationMatch.RouteMatch.Action

    NameDescription
    ANY

    All three route actions

    ROUTE

    Route traffic to a cluster / weighted clusters.

    REDIRECT

    Redirect request.

    DIRECT_RESPONSE

    directly respond to a request with specific payload.

    EnvoyFilter.Patch.Operation

    Operation denotes how the patch should be applied to the selected configuration.

    NameDescription
    INVALID
    MERGE

    Merge the provided config with the generated config using proto merge semantics. If you are specifying config in its entirety, use REPLACE instead.

    ADD

    Add the provided config to an existing list (of listeners, clusters, virtual hosts, network filters, or http filters). This operation will be ignored when applyTo is set to ROUTE_CONFIGURATION, or HTTP_ROUTE.

    REMOVE

    Remove the selected object from the list (of listeners, clusters, virtual hosts, network filters, routes, or http filters). Does not require a value to be specified. This operation will be ignored when applyTo is set to ROUTE_CONFIGURATION, or HTTP_ROUTE.

    INSERT_BEFORE

    Insert operation on an array of named objects. This operation is typically useful only in the context of filters or routes, where the order of elements matter. Routes should be ordered based on most to least specific matching criteria since the first matching element is selected. For clusters and virtual hosts, order of the element in the array does not matter. Insert before the selected filter or sub filter. If no filter is selected, the specified filter will be inserted at the front of the list.

    INSERT_AFTER

    Insert operation on an array of named objects. This operation is typically useful only in the context of filters or routes, where the order of elements matter. Routes should be ordered based on most to least specific matching criteria since the first matching element is selected. For clusters and virtual hosts, order of the element in the array does not matter. Insert after the selected filter or sub filter. If no filter is selected, the specified filter will be inserted at the end of the list.

    INSERT_FIRST

    Insert operation on an array of named objects. This operation is typically useful only in the context of filters or routes, where the order of elements matter. Routes should be ordered based on most to least specific matching criteria since the first matching element is selected. For clusters and virtual hosts, order of the element in the array does not matter. Insert first in the list based on the presence of selected filter or not. This is specifically useful when you want your filter first in the list based on a match condition specified in Match clause.

    REPLACE

    Replace contents of a named filter with new contents. REPLACE operation is only valid for HTTP_FILTER and NETWORK_FILTER. If the named filter is not found, this operation has no effect.

    EnvoyFilter.Patch.FilterClass

    FilterClass determines the filter insertion point in the filter chain relative to the filters implicitly inserted by the control plane. It is used in conjuction with the ADD operation. This is the preferred insertion mechanism for adding filters over the INSERT_* operations since those operations rely on potentially unstable filter names. Filter ordering is important if your filter depends on or affects the functioning of a another filter in the filter chain. Within a filter class, filters are inserted in the order of processing.

    NameDescription
    UNSPECIFIED

    Control plane decides where to insert the filter. Do not specify FilterClass if the filter is independent of others.

    AUTHN

    Insert filter after Istio authentication filters.

    AUTHZ

    Insert filter after Istio authorization filters.

    STATS

    Insert filter before Istio stats filters.

    EnvoyFilter.ApplyTo

    ApplyTo specifies where in the Envoy configuration, the given patch should be applied.

    NameDescription
    INVALID
    LISTENER

    Applies the patch to the listener.

    FILTER_CHAIN

    Applies the patch to the filter chain.

    NETWORK_FILTER

    Applies the patch to the network filter chain, to modify an existing filter or add a new filter.

    HTTP_FILTER

    Applies the patch to the HTTP filter chain in the http connection manager, to modify an existing filter or add a new filter.

    ROUTE_CONFIGURATION

    Applies the patch to the Route configuration (rds output) inside a HTTP connection manager. This does not apply to the virtual host. Currently, only MERGE operation is allowed on the route configuration objects.

    VIRTUAL_HOST

    Applies the patch to a virtual host inside a route configuration.

    HTTP_ROUTE

    Applies the patch to a route object inside the matched virtual host in a route configuration.

    CLUSTER

    Applies the patch to a cluster in a CDS output. Also used to add new clusters.

    EXTENSION_CONFIG

    Applies the patch to or adds an extension config in ECDS output. Note that ECDS is only supported by HTTP filters.

    EnvoyFilter.PatchContext

    PatchContext selects a class of configurations based on the traffic flow direction and workload type.

    NameDescription
    ANY

    All listeners/routes/clusters in both sidecars and gateways.

    SIDECAR_INBOUND

    Inbound listener/route/cluster in sidecar.

    SIDECAR_OUTBOUND

    Outbound listener/route/cluster in sidecar.

    Gateway listener/route/cluster.