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devopscritical PriorityID: cilium-ebpf-wireguard-attestation-enforcement

Kernel-Level Cilium eBPF WireGuard Cryptographic Attestation Enforcement

Enforces deterministic, non-bypassable pod-to-pod WireGuard encryption backed by kernel-level eBPF map attestation. Precludes plaintext transmission fallbacks by requiring cryptographically verified Cilium security identities within eBPF ipcache and peer maps prior to egress routing.

Prohibited Anti-Pattern: Permitting Opportunistic Plaintext Egress or Missing Kernel-Level Node-to-Node WireGuard Verification

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---
description: Kernel-Level Cilium eBPF WireGuard Cryptographic Attestation Enforcement - Enforces deterministic, non-bypassable pod-to-pod WireGuard encryption backed by kernel-level eBPF map attestation. Precludes plaintext transmission fallbacks by requiring cryptographically verified Cilium security identities within eBPF ipcache and peer maps prior to egress routing.
globs: **/cilium-values.yaml, **/values.yaml, **/templates/cilium*.yaml, **/*network-policy*.yaml, **/helmfile.yaml
alwaysApply: true
verified_by: "agentrules.org"
license: "CC-BY-4.0"
source: "https://agentrules.org/rules/cilium-ebpf-wireguard-attestation-enforcement"
---

# Kernel-Level Cilium eBPF WireGuard Cryptographic Attestation Enforcement

> **Severity**: CRITICAL | **Category**: devops
> **Anti-Pattern Warning**: Permitting Opportunistic Plaintext Egress or Missing Kernel-Level Node-to-Node WireGuard Verification

## System Constraints
You are a Principal Infrastructure & Security Architect specializing in Linux eBPF networking and Cilium mesh security. Your task is to enforce zero-trust pod-to-pod cryptographic attestation using Cilium eBPF and WireGuard. Mandate strict kernel-level packet inspection, eliminate plaintext fallbacks, and strictly validate Helm configurations and Cilium Network Policies against identity-spoofing and unencrypted bypass vectors.

## Strict Guidelines
- Engineers MUST ALWAYS configure Cilium with 'encryption.enabled=true' and 'encryption.type=wireguard'.
- Engineers MUST ALWAYS enable 'encryption.nodeEncryption=true' to prevent unencrypted host-to-host overlay leakage.
- Engineers MUST NOT allow fallback-to-plaintext mechanisms when identity resolution fails in the eBPF 'cilium_ipcache' map.
- Cilium DaemonSets MUST be configured with strict eBPF host routing ('bpf.masquerade=true' and 'bpf.hostRouting=true') to avoid iptables-based encryption bypasses.
- Network policies MUST explicitly deny traffic lacking a resolved Cilium Security Identity (identity: reserved:unknown or unallocated).

## Bad vs Good Implementations
### Cilium Helm Configuration for WireGuard eBPF Attestation

#### Bad Antipattern (AI Common Hallucination)
> **Why it fails**: Failing to enable nodeEncryption permits host networking pods and control-plane traffic to bypass the WireGuard tunnel in cleartext. Disabling eBPF host routing routes packets through legacy Netfilter chains where eBPF identity maps cannot enforce pre-routing cryptographic validation.
```yaml
# Insecure: Permits unencrypted node-to-node traffic and iptables routing bypass
enryption:
  enabled: true
  type: wireguard
  # Missing nodeEncryption: true permits raw host-level packets
routingMode: tunnel
bpf:
  masquerade: false
  hostRouting: false # Drops to iptables where unencrypted fallback may occur
```

#### Production Standard (Correct)
> **Standard**: Enforces WireGuard encryption across both pod-to-pod and node-to-node communications. Native eBPF host routing guarantees that outgoing packets are cryptographically paired with destination identities in the eBPF ipcache map before packet transmission through the wg0 interface, dropping unauthenticated flows.
```yaml
# Hardened: Zero-trust kernel-enforced WireGuard encryption mesh
encryption:
  enabled: true
  type: wireguard
  nodeEncryption: true
routingMode: native
tunnelProtocol: ""
bpf:
  masquerade: true
  hostRouting: true
  encryptionState: true
ipcache:
  preFilter: true
operator:
  replicas: 2
  rollOutPods: true
```

Recommended MCP Servers (mcp-serverlist.com)

Equip agent with system tools to verify code for this stack.

Kubernetes Cluster Inspector MCP

Inspects live Cilium DaemonSet configs, CiliumEndpoints, and CiliumNetworkPolicies in active clusters.

Recommended Agent Skills (askills.dev)

Ready-to-use executable skill functions tailored to this stack.

Cilium CLI Security & BPF Status

Validates eBPF ipcache tables, WireGuard peers, and cryptographic encryption status across cluster nodes.

Architectural Specification & Invariant Rationale

Architectural Invariant Design: Kernel-Level Cilium eBPF WireGuard Cryptographic Attestation Enforcement

Kernel-Level Cilium eBPF WireGuard Cryptographic Attestation Enforcement defines an industrial-grade behavioral standard for devops engineering. Enforces deterministic, non-bypassable pod-to-pod WireGuard encryption backed by kernel-level eBPF map attestation. Precludes plaintext transmission fallbacks by requiring cryptographically verified Cilium security identities within eBPF ipcache and peer maps prior to egress routing. Modern software architectures require strict adherence to deterministic patterns to guarantee high availability, maintainability, and zero security vulnerabilities.

Framework Paradigm Shift & Drift MechanicsLLMs are trained on millions of open-source repositories containing outdated code, legacy idioms, and unpatched antipatterns. When coding assistants generate implementations for this stack, they default to common statistical tokens: Permitting Opportunistic Plaintext Egress or Missing Kernel-Level Node-to-Node WireGuard Verification Without an explicit system instruction file, developers spend hours debugging silent failures.

Failure Modes & Production Blast Radius

Hazard Analysis: What Breaks Without This Rule

The following failure modes have been cataloged from hundreds of hours of production code reviews where AI assistants produced non-compliant implementations:

Failure Mode	AI Symptom (The Anti-Pattern)	Severity	Production Impact & Remedy
AI Hallucination & Deprecation Drift	Permitting Opportunistic Plaintext Egress or Missing Kernel-Level Node-to-Node WireGuard Verification	Critical	Violating this industrial standard introduces regression bugs, security risks, and unexpected runtime failures in production. Enforce explicit behavioral system directives across all AI coding assistants in your repository.
Silent Architecture Inconsistency	AI assistants produce mixed paradigms across files, creating fragmented codebase conventions.	Medium	Increases cognitive load during code reviews and leads to maintenance debt across engineering teams. Pin project conventions in .cursor/rules, CLAUDE.md, and AGENTS.md so all team agents follow identical guardrails.

Architectural Directives in Detail

Step-by-Step Production Directives

Each rule constraint below is injected into the AI agent's system prompt to establish deterministic boundaries:

1

Engineers MUST ALWAYS configure Cilium with 'encryption.enabled=true' and 'encryption.type=wireguard'.

Engineers MUST ALWAYS configure Cilium with 'encryption.enabled=true' and 'encryption.type=wireguard'.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.

Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.

2

Engineers MUST ALWAYS enable 'encryption.nodeEncryption=true' to prevent unencrypted host-to-host overlay leakage.

Engineers MUST ALWAYS enable 'encryption.nodeEncryption=true' to prevent unencrypted host-to-host overlay leakage.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.

Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.

3

Engineers MUST NOT allow fallback-to-plaintext mechanisms when identity resolution fails in the eBPF 'cilium_ipcache' map.

Engineers MUST NOT allow fallback-to-plaintext mechanisms when identity resolution fails in the eBPF 'cilium_ipcache' map.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.

Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.

4

Cilium DaemonSets MUST be configured with strict eBPF host routing ('bpf.masquerade=true' and 'bpf.hostRouting=true') to avoid iptables-based encryption bypasses.

Cilium DaemonSets MUST be configured with strict eBPF host routing ('bpf.masquerade=true' and 'bpf.hostRouting=true') to avoid iptables-based encryption bypasses.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.

Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.

5

Network policies MUST explicitly deny traffic lacking a resolved Cilium Security Identity (identity

Network policies MUST explicitly deny traffic lacking a resolved Cilium Security Identity (identity: reserved:unknown or unallocated).

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.

Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.

Technical Questions & Answers

Frequently Asked Technical Questions

Common questions developers face when configuring AI coding assistants for this stack:

Q:Why is Kernel-Level Cilium eBPF WireGuard Cryptographic Attestation Enforcement critical for AI coding assistants?

Enforces deterministic, non-bypassable pod-to-pod WireGuard encryption backed by kernel-level eBPF map attestation. Precludes plaintext transmission fallbacks by requiring cryptographically verified Cilium security identities within eBPF ipcache and peer maps prior to egress routing. Without explicit behavioral boundaries, AI coding assistants (Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Codex) rely on training data averages, which frequently produce deprecated, inefficient, or vulnerable code patterns.

Q:How does adopting this rule prevent AI hallucinations?

This rule explicitly declares what the AI must avoid (Permitting Opportunistic Plaintext Egress or Missing Kernel-Level Node-to-Node WireGuard Verification) and prescribes verified positive examples. Grounding the LLM with negative and positive pairs eliminates guesswork.

Q:Which AI coding environments are supported?

This specification is multi-platform compatible: Cursor (.cursor/rules/*.mdc & .cursorrules), Anthropic Claude Code (CLAUDE.md), Windsurf (.windsurfrules), Codex / Cline (AGENTS.md), and GitHub Copilot (.github/copilot-instructions.md).

Q:Can I combine this rule with other technology stacks?

Yes. Use the Interactive Stack Builder or download an Agent Pack to merge this rule with other frontend, backend, database, security, and DevOps rules without syntax collision.

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