jwe-decrypt

Description

The jwe-decrypt Plugin reads a five-part compact token from a request header, selects a Consumer by the token’s kid, decrypts the ciphertext with AES-256-GCM, and writes the plaintext to a configured header before proxying the request. You can enable the Plugin on APISIX Routes or Services.

The token uses JWE Compact Serialization with the dir key management algorithm and the A256GCM content encryption algorithm, so a token produced by a standard JWE library is accepted. Configure a 32-byte decryption secret on the Consumer.

WARNING

For backward compatibility, the Plugin also accepts a token whose ciphertext was encrypted without the protected header as AES-GCM additional authenticated data (AAD), which is how APISIX itself used to generate them. The header of such a token, including its kid, is not authenticated. Use a trusted token generator, and prefer a JWE library that follows RFC 7516 so that the header is covered by the AAD.

CAUTION

The decrypted plaintext is forwarded in a request header. For sensitive plaintext, do not rely on an HTTPS Upstream alone: APISIX does not verify server certificates for standard HTTP Upstreams. Send the request over an authenticated, protected network path, such as through a proxy or service mesh that validates the upstream server’s identity. Restrict access to the upstream and avoid logging the configured forwarding header.

Attributes

Consumer

Name	Type	Required	Default	Valid values	Description
key	string	True			A unique key that identifies the Credential for a Consumer.
secret	string	True		32 bytes	A shared symmetric key. Use a secret reference, such as `$env://...` or `$secret://...`.
is_base64_encoded	boolean	False	false		Set to true if the secret is base64url encoded. The decoded secret must still be 32 bytes.

Route or Service

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
header	string	True	Authorization	The header to get the token from.
forward_header	string	True	Authorization	Name of the header that passes the plaintext to the Upstream.
strict	boolean	False	true	If true, return a 403 error when the JWE token is missing. If false, continue when the token is not found.

Examples

The examples below demonstrate how you can work with the jwe-decrypt Plugin for different scenarios.

NOTE

You can fetch the admin_key from config.yaml and save to an environment variable with the following command:

admin_key=$(yq '.deployment.admin.admin_key[0].key' conf/config.yaml | sed 's/"//g')

Create a Consumer with the Decryption Key

The following example demonstrates how to create a Consumer with the decryption key and generate a JWE token for it.

Create a Consumer with jwe-decrypt and configure the decryption key:

Admin API

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9180/apisix/admin/consumers" -X PUT \
  -H "X-API-KEY: ${admin_key}" \
  -d '{
    "username": "jack",
    "plugins": {
      "jwe-decrypt": {
        "key": "jack-key",
        "secret": "key-length-should-be-32-chars123"
      }
    }
  }'

ADC

Create a Consumer with jwe-decrypt Credential:

adc.yaml

consumers:
  - username: jack
    plugins:
      jwe-decrypt:
        key: jack-key
        secret: key-length-should-be-32-chars123

Synchronize the configuration to the gateway:

adc sync -f adc.yaml

Ingress Controller

Create a Consumer with jwe-decrypt:

Gateway API

jwe-consumer-ic.yaml

apiVersion: apisix.apache.org/v1alpha1
kind: Consumer
metadata:
  namespace: aic
  name: jack
spec:
  gatewayRef:
    name: apisix
  plugins:
    - name: jwe-decrypt
      config:
        key: jack-key
        secret: key-length-should-be-32-chars123

Apply the configuration to your cluster:

kubectl apply -f jwe-consumer-ic.yaml

APISIX Ingress Controller

ApisixConsumer only supports authentication plugins via the authParameter field, and jwe-decrypt is not among the supported types. This example cannot be completed using the APISIX Ingress Controller.

To generate a JWE token for the Consumer, use any JWE library that supports direct encryption with A256GCM, with the Consumer secret as the key. The token structure is:

base64url(header).<empty>.base64url(iv).base64url(ciphertext).base64url(tag)

where the header is {"alg":"dir","enc":"A256GCM","kid":"<consumer-key>"}; alg and enc are rejected if they are set to anything else. The IV must be unique and randomly generated for every token; never reuse an IV with the same key.

As RFC 7516 requires, a JWE library authenticates the encoded protected header as the AES-GCM additional authenticated data (AAD), which makes the kid tamper-proof. Tokens encrypted without AAD, such as the ones APISIX itself used to generate, are still accepted for backward compatibility.

For example, the following token encrypts the payload {"uid":10000,"uname":"test"} for the Consumer key jack-key with the secret configured above:

eyJraWQiOiJqYWNrLWtleSIsImFsZyI6ImRpciIsImVuYyI6IkEyNTZHQ00ifQ..vi29KBCQKcVmPwTT.VToyPMFbq-ZY05MIpntP1N3AmYeq3zELQ0B6iQ.vuTPG2ODc-DjUTjNCzfA2A

Decrypt Data with JWE

The following example demonstrates how to decrypt the JWE token generated above.

Create a Route with jwe-decrypt to decrypt the authorization header:

Admin API

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9180/apisix/admin/routes" -X PUT \
  -H "X-API-KEY: ${admin_key}" \
  -d '{
    "id": "jwe-decrypt-route",
    "uri": "/anything/jwe",
    "plugins": {
      "jwe-decrypt": {
        "header": "Authorization",
        "forward_header": "Authorization"
      }
    },
    "upstream": {
      "type": "roundrobin",
      "scheme": "https",
      "nodes": {
        "httpbin.org:443": 1
      }
    }
  }'

ADC

adc.yaml

services:
  - name: jwe-decrypt-service
    routes:
      - name: jwe-decrypt-route
        uris:
          - /anything/jwe
        plugins:
          jwe-decrypt:
            header: Authorization
            forward_header: Authorization
    upstream:
      type: roundrobin
      scheme: https
      nodes:
        - host: httpbin.org
          port: 443
          weight: 1

Synchronize the configuration to the gateway:

adc sync -f adc.yaml

Ingress Controller

Gateway API

The following Gateway API configuration uses public HTTPBin only with the non-sensitive demonstration payload shown on this page. Before forwarding real decrypted data, replace it with a controlled upstream and use an authenticated, protected network path. An APISIX HTTPS Upstream does not validate the upstream server certificate by itself; use a proxy or service mesh that validates the upstream server’s identity.

jwe-decrypt-ic.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  namespace: aic
  name: httpbin-external-domain
spec:
  type: ExternalName
  externalName: httpbin.org
---
apiVersion: apisix.apache.org/v1alpha1
kind: PluginConfig
metadata:
  namespace: aic
  name: jwe-decrypt-plugin-config
spec:
  plugins:
    - name: jwe-decrypt
      config:
        header: Authorization
        forward_header: Authorization
---
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  namespace: aic
  name: jwe-decrypt-route
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: apisix
  rules:
    - matches:
        - path:
            type: Exact
            value: /anything/jwe
      filters:
        - type: ExtensionRef
          extensionRef:
            group: apisix.apache.org
            kind: PluginConfig
            name: jwe-decrypt-plugin-config
      backendRefs:
        - name: httpbin-external-domain
          port: 80

Apply the configuration to your cluster:

kubectl apply -f jwe-decrypt-ic.yaml

APISIX Ingress Controller

Send a request to the Route with the JWE encrypted data in the Authorization header:

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9080/anything/jwe" -H 'Authorization: eyJraWQiOiJqYWNrLWtleSIsImFsZyI6ImRpciIsImVuYyI6IkEyNTZHQ00ifQ..vi29KBCQKcVmPwTT.VToyPMFbq-ZY05MIpntP1N3AmYeq3zELQ0B6iQ.vuTPG2ODc-DjUTjNCzfA2A'

You should see a response similar to the following, where the Authorization header shows the plaintext of the payload:

{
  "args": {},
  "data": "",
  "files": {},
  "form": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Authorization": "{\"uid\":10000,\"uname\":\"test\"}",
    "Host": "127.0.0.1",
    "User-Agent": "curl/8.1.2",
    "X-Amzn-Trace-Id": "Root=1-6510f2c3-1586ec011a22b5094dbe1896",
    "X-Forwarded-Host": "127.0.0.1"
  },
  "json": null,
  "method": "GET",
  "origin": "127.0.0.1, 119.143.79.94",
  "url": "http://127.0.0.1/anything/jwe"
}

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