Teleport

Teleport is a self‑hosted identity‑aware access platform that consolidates SSH, Kubernetes, database, RDP, and web application connectivity into a single, auditable gateway. From a developer’s standpoint, Teleport functions as an identity‑centric proxy that issues short‑lived TLS certificates (mTLS) and enforces fine‑grained Role‑Based Access Control (RBAC). Instead of distributing long‑lived secrets, Teleport’s Certificate Authority (CA) signs certificates that are automatically revoked after a configurable TTL, dramatically reducing the attack surface for privileged access.

Architecture & Technical Stack

Teleport is written in Go, leveraging its concurrency model and native static binaries for cross‑platform deployment. The core components include:

• Teleport Server – the daemon that hosts the CA, authentication service, and access control logic.
• Teleport Proxy – a reverse proxy that terminates TLS connections and forwards traffic to the appropriate backend (SSH, Kubernetes API, database driver, RDP listener, or web app).
• Teleport Auth Service – a distributed key‑value store (etcd‑compatible) that persists user identities, roles, and audit logs.
• Teleport Client – a lightweight binary (or CLI plugin) that runs on target nodes, obtains certificates from the Auth service, and establishes mTLS tunnels.

The system stores metadata in a PostgreSQL database (or an embedded SQLite instance for lightweight setups) and uses etcd as the underlying distributed key‑value store for high availability. The entire stack is container‑friendly; each component can run as a Docker image or Helm chart, and the platform natively supports Kubernetes deployments.

Core Capabilities & APIs

Teleport exposes a rich REST/GRPC API surface for programmatic management:

• User & Role Management – create, update, and delete users; define RBAC policies with granular permissions.
• Session Recording & Replay – capture terminal sessions, database queries, and RDP interactions; provide replay APIs for compliance audits.
• Access Requests – a workflow that allows users to request temporary elevated privileges, which are approved by approvers via the API or UI.
• SAML / OAuth2 SSO – integrate with GitHub (open source) or enterprise IdPs via SAML/OAuth2 for federated authentication.
• Audit Log Export – stream logs to external SIEMs or log aggregation services.

Developers can embed Teleport’s Go libraries (e.g., teleport/lib) into custom tooling, enabling seamless integration of Teleport’s authentication and authorization logic within their own services.

Deployment & Infrastructure

Teleport is designed for self‑hosting in production environments:

• Containerization – Official Docker images are available on Docker Hub, and Helm charts simplify Kubernetes deployments.
• High Availability – Multiple Auth services can run in a cluster with shared etcd storage, ensuring zero downtime during upgrades.
• Scalability – The proxy layer can be horizontally scaled behind a load balancer; the Auth service scales with additional replicas and persistent storage.
• Resource Footprint – A single Teleport binary can serve as both Auth and Proxy in small deployments, while larger clusters separate concerns for performance.

The platform supports in‑cluster deployment (Linux daemon) or cloud deployment (Helm), and it can be integrated with existing CI/CD pipelines to automate certificate rotation and role provisioning.

Integration & Extensibility

Teleport’s plugin architecture allows developers to extend functionality:

• Authentication Plugins – custom OIDC, LDAP, or PAM backends can be added via Go modules.
• Audit Plugins – push audit events to external systems (Kafka, Splunk) using webhook or gRPC endpoints.
• Custom Commands – expose CLI commands as Teleport services, enabling developers to run arbitrary code behind the access proxy.
• Webhooks – trigger external workflows on session start/stop, access request approval, or audit events.

Because Teleport uses standard protocols (SSH, TLS, gRPC), developers can integrate it with legacy systems without modifying the underlying services.

Developer Experience

Teleport’s documentation is developer‑centric, offering detailed guides for:

• Enrolling nodes, databases, and Kubernetes clusters.
• Configuring RBAC policies with YAML examples.
• Implementing custom authentication backends.

The community is active, with a dedicated Slack channel and GitHub discussions. Licensing under AGPL‑3.0 encourages open collaboration while protecting the core product from proprietary forks.

Use Cases

• Zero‑Trust Infrastructure – replace static SSH keys with short‑lived certificates, enforce least privilege via RBAC.
• Hybrid Cloud Access – tunnel into on‑prem services from the cloud using Teleport’s SSH and RDP proxies.
• Compliance Auditing – capture full session recordings for PCI, HIPAA, or SOC 2 compliance.
• Developer Onboarding – grant temporary access to new hires via access requests, automatically revoking after approval or expiration.

Advantages

• Security by Design – mTLS, short‑lived certs, and centralized audit logs reduce credential misuse.
• Unified Control Plane – a single binary manages multiple protocols, simplifying ops.
• Scalable & Cloud‑Native – containerized deployment and Kubernetes support align with modern infrastructure patterns.
• **Ext