Kafka: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition

Chapter 11. Securing Kafka

Kafka is used for a variety of use cases ranging from website activity tracking and metrics pipelines to patient record management and online payments. Each use case has different requirements in terms of security, performance, reliability, and availability. While it is always preferable to use the strongest and latest security features available, trade-offs are often necessary since increased security impacts performance, cost, and user experience. Kafka supports several standard security technologies with a range of configuration options to tailor security to each use case.

Like performance and reliability, security is an aspect of the system that must be addressed for the system as a whole, rather than component by component. The security of a system is only as strong as the weakest link, and security processes and policies must be enforced across the system, including the underlying platform. The customizable security features in Kafka enable integration with existing security infrastructure to build a consistent security model that applies to the entire system.

In this chapter, we will discuss the security features in Kafka and see how they address different aspects of security and contribute toward the overall security of the Kafka installation. Throughout the chapter, we will share best practices, potential threats, and techniques to mitigate these threats. We will also review additional measures that can be adopted to secure ZooKeeper and the ...