Zero Trust Workload

Purpose

Zero Trust Workload protects applications and runtime components through explicit identity, hardened run environments, and policy checks at runtime.

Control objectives

• Workload identity integrity: Services use distinct machine identities with clear trust boundaries.
• Runtime hardening baseline: Compute configurations, images, and run settings follow minimum security standards.
• Controlled workload-to-workload access: Service communication is explicitly authorized.
• Continuous runtime assurance: Drift, vulnerabilities, and policy violations are detected and remediated.

Design recommendations

• Separate human and machine identity: Keep workload credentials independent from user identities.
• Harden runtime templates: Define secure defaults for VM images, container settings, and management access.
• Minimize privilege in runtime context: Restrict run permissions, network reachability, and secret exposure.
• Integrate policy checks into delivery flow: Validate workload controls before and after deployment.

Implementation checkpoints

• Workload hardening standard: Baseline for patching, image provenance, and runtime configuration controls.
• Service identity pattern: Consistent model for issuing, rotating, and revoking machine credentials.
• Deployment policy gates: Mandatory checks for critical workloads and high-impact changes.
• Runtime telemetry model: Coverage for workload health, security signals, and policy deviations.

STACKIT references

• Security in Compute Engine: Documentation
• Container Registry: Documentation

Anti-patterns to avoid

• Shared workload credentials: Multiple services rely on one technical identity.
• Runtime hardening as optional: Security controls are deferred until after go-live.
• Policy drift tolerance: Known workload deviations remain unresolved over time.