🔐 ZeroTrustGate

A Context-Aware Zero Trust API Gateway with Observability

ZeroTrustGate is a production-style Zero Trust gateway that enforces per-request authentication, authorization, and context validation, while providing real-time security observability through Prometheus and Grafana.

The project demonstrates how Zero Trust principles work in practice, including token replay protection, context binding, and measurable security signals — all orchestrated with Docker Compose.

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🚀 Key Features

🔒 Zero Trust Enforcement

• No implicit trust after authentication
• Every request must present a valid JWT
• Role-based authorization at the gateway
• Explicit failure paths (401 / 403)

🧠 Context-Aware Security

• JWTs are bound to User-Agent context
• Token replay attempts from different clients are blocked
• Designed to work correctly in containerized / proxy environments

📊 Security Observability

• Prometheus metrics exposed via /metrics
• Accurate counters for:
  • Total gateway requests
  • Authentication failures
  • Expired token rejections
• Grafana dashboards for real-time visibility

🐳 Infrastructure-Ready

• Dockerfiles for all services
• Docker Compose orchestration
• Persistent volumes for Prometheus and Grafana
• One-command startup and shutdown

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🧱 Architecture Overview

Browser / Client
       |
       v
+-------------------+
|   Auth Service    |  (FastAPI)
|  Issues JWTs      |
+-------------------+
       |
       v
+-------------------+
|  API Gateway      |  (Node.js / Fastify)
|  - Auth Check     |
|  - Authorization  |
|  - Context Check  |
+-------------------+
       |
       v
+-------------------+
| Protected APIs    |
+-------------------+

Gateway Metrics → Prometheus → Grafana

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Auth Service	Python, FastAPI
API Gateway	Node.js, Fastify
Frontend	Next.js (minimal demo client)
Metrics	Prometheus
Dashboards	Grafana
Orchestration	Docker Compose

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📁 Repository Structure

zero-trust-gate/
├── auth-service/
├── gateway/
├── frontend/
├── prometheus/
├── docker-compose.yml
└── README.md

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▶️ Running the Project

docker compose up --build

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📈 Project Status

✔ Feature complete
✔ Demo ready
✔ Dockerized
✔ Observable
✔ Interview-defensible

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🧑‍💻 Author

Koushik Panchadarla

• Built as a security-focused backend infrastructure project to demonstrate Zero Trust principles in real systems.