Kafka Security Beyond TLS
Enabling TLS doesn't encrypt your message payloads. It encrypts the connection. Anyone with broker access can still read the data. Conduktor adds field-level encryption and audit logging at the proxy layer. Applications don't change; the broker never sees plaintext.
Most Kafka clusters have TLS enabled and call that Kafka security. TLS protects data in transit. Once the message reaches the broker, any process with broker access can read it. Native ACLs are topic-level or broader, with no concept of team namespacing or role inheritance. And there's no audit trail of who consumed what, when, from which partition.
Conduktor adds these capabilities at the proxy layer. Applications connect to Gateway instead of directly to Kafka, with no code changes required.
Field-Level Encryption
Encrypt specific fields in Kafka messages before they're written to the broker. Only authorized consumers with the right key can decrypt. Brokers never see plaintext for sensitive fields.
Role-Based Access Control
Fine-grained RBAC for producers, consumers, and admins across topics, consumer groups, and clusters. Replace brittle ACLs with team-based role assignments.
mTLS Authentication
Mutual TLS for application-level authentication. Each service gets its own certificate. Revoke access by revoking the certificate, with no broker config changes.
Data Masking
Mask sensitive fields in real time for consumers that need to see the event structure but not the PII content. Field values are masked at the proxy layer before delivery.
Audit Logging
Complete audit trail: who produced to which topic, who consumed from which partition, who changed which configuration. Timestamped, user-attributed, exportable to SIEM.
Compliance Enforcement
Enforce data retention limits, schema validation, and encryption requirements as infrastructure policies. Violations are blocked, not just logged.
Data in Transit
TLS 1.2/1.3 between clients and Gateway. mTLS for mutual authentication. Cipher suite and protocol restriction configurable per deployment.
Data at Rest (Payload)
Field-level encryption using your KMS — AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, GCP Cloud KMS, HashiCorp Vault, or Fortanix. Keys never stored in Kafka; broker compromise doesn't expose plaintext.
Data in Use
Role-based access ensures consumers only see topics they're authorized for. Data masking delivers sanitized views to teams that need event structure without PII.
Identity & Access
Integrate with your IdP (LDAP or OIDC-based SSO). User permissions sync automatically. Service accounts scoped to specific topics and operations. Schema Registry operations are also covered: control who can register, update, or delete schemas per subject via a dedicated SR proxy with OIDC auth — no Schema Registry reconfiguration needed.
Security for Regulated Industries
GDPR Compliance
Field-level encryption + crypto shredding: make individual records permanently unreadable by destroying their encryption key. No topic deletion, no expensive reprocessing.
DORA & Financial Regulation
Audit trails, access controls, and incident response tooling for financial services. Bitvavo implemented DORA compliance on Kafka with Conduktor in production.
HIPAA Data Handling
Encrypt PHI at the field level before it reaches Kafka brokers. Healthcare organizations use Conduktor to protect patient data in streaming pipelines.
SOC 2 Audit Readiness
Complete audit logs of all data access and administrative actions. Evidence export for compliance audits without manual log aggregation.
Read more customer stories
Does Conduktor replace Kafka's native security?
No. It extends it. TLS, ACLs, and SASL still work. Conduktor adds field-level encryption, fine-grained RBAC, data masking, and audit logging on top. You get both broker-level and application-level security.
How does field-level encryption work without code changes?
Conduktor Gateway intercepts produce requests and encrypts specified fields before writing to the broker. Consume requests trigger decryption for authorized consumers. Applications see plaintext; the broker never does.
Can I audit all data access?
Yes. Every produce, consume, and admin request through Conduktor is logged with user identity, timestamp, topic, and partition. Logs are queryable from Console and exportable to your SIEM.
How is this different from Confluent's security features?
Confluent's security is designed for Confluent Cloud. Conduktor works with any Kafka cluster (MSK, self-managed, Confluent, Redpanda) and adds capabilities like field-level encryption and data masking that aren't available natively.
Get a Kafka Security Assessment
Production Kafka security requires more than TLS. 30-minute demo: we'll review your current Kafka security posture and show you exactly what Conduktor adds — without changing application code.