Identifying and flagging untrustworthy microservices in zero trust architecture

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• non-transitory computer readable storage media storing code, the code being executable by the processor to perform operations comprising:
• intercepting, at a first policy engine sidecar of a first microservice, a service request from the first microservice to a second microservice, the service request comprising services requested from the second microservice;
• generating, at the first policy engine sidecar, a transaction challenge;
• transmitting the service request, a first token identifying the first microservice, and the transaction challenge to the second microservice;
• intercepting a service request response from a second microservice to the first microservice;
• and
• transmitting a microservice alert to a central policy server in response to a service request response failure, the service request response failure comprising a failure in determining that the service request response comprises a second token properly identifying the second microservice and an acceptable transaction challenge response, wherein the microservice alert comprises an identifier of the second microservice and an indication of the service request response failure.

A program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing code, the code being configured to be executable by a processor to perform operations comprising:

• intercepting, at a first policy engine sidecar of a first microservice, a service request from the first microservice to a second microservice, the service request comprising services requested from the second microservice;
• generating, at the first policy engine sidecar, a transaction challenge;
• transmitting the service request, a first token identifying the first microservice, and the transaction challenge to the second microservice;
• intercepting a service request response from a second microservice to the first microservice;
• and
• transmitting a microservice alert to a central policy server in response to a service request response failure, the service request response failure comprising a failure in determining that the service request response comprises a second token properly identifying the second microservice and an acceptable transaction challenge response, wherein the microservice alert comprises an identifier of the second microservice and an indication of the service request response failure.