SPIFFE/SPIRE Deep Dive

Introduction It is 2026. Are your microservices still embedding "API keys" in environment variables? Or, are you still placing static credentials on on-premise servers just to use AWS IAM roles? All of these boil down to the "Secret Zero" problem — the chicken-and-egg dilemma of "how to securely deliver the first secret (credential)." SPIFFE (Secure Production Identity Framework For Everyone) and its implementation, SPIRE, are the global standards for "Workload Identity" that fundamentally solve this problem. In this article, we will dissect the SPIRE source code ( pkg/agent , pkg/server ) and explain in detail the mechanism by which a process proves "who it is" at the kernel level to construct a Chain of Trust. 1. Internal Architecture: Plugin Ecosystem SPIRE is highly modularized, with all core functions implemented as plugins. 2. Node Attestation: The Origin of Trust (Chain of Trust) When the SPIRE Agent starts up, it must first prove "whether this node (machine) itself is trustwort