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Consul Intention Check

Command: consul intention check

Corresponding HTTP API Endpoint: [GET] /v1/connect/intentions/check

The intention check command checks whether a connection attempt between two services would be authorized given the current set of intentions and Consul configuration.

This command requires less ACL permissions than other intention-related tasks because no information about the intention is revealed. Therefore, callers only need to have service:read access for the destination. Richer commands like match require full intention read permissions and don't evaluate the result.

Note: This command will always treat intentions with Permissions defined as deny intentions during evaluation, as this endpoint is only suited for networking layer 4 (e.g. TCP) integration.

The table below shows this command's required ACLs. Configuration of blocking queries and agent caching are not supported from commands, but may be from the corresponding HTTP endpoint.

ACL Required
intentions:read1

1 Intention ACL rules are specified as part of a service rule. See Intention Management Permissions for more details.

Usage

Usage: consul intention check [options] SRC DST

SRC and DST can both take several forms.

Enterprise Options

  • -partition=<string> - Specifies the partition to query. If not provided, the partition will be inferred from the request's ACL token, or will default to the default partition. Partitions are a Consul Enterprise feature added in v1.11.0.
  • -namespace=<string> - Specifies the namespace to query. If not provided, the namespace will be inferred from the request's ACL token, or will default to the default namespace. Namespaces are a Consul Enterprise feature added in v1.7.0.

API Options

  • -ca-file=<value> - Path to a CA file to use for TLS when communicating with Consul. This can also be specified via the CONSUL_CACERT environment variable.

  • -ca-path=<value> - Path to a directory of CA certificates to use for TLS when communicating with Consul. This can also be specified via the CONSUL_CAPATH environment variable.

  • -client-cert=<value> - Path to a client cert file to use for TLS when verify_incoming is enabled. This can also be specified via the CONSUL_CLIENT_CERT environment variable.

  • -client-key=<value> - Path to a client key file to use for TLS when verify_incoming is enabled. This can also be specified via the CONSUL_CLIENT_KEY environment variable.

  • -http-addr=<addr> - Address of the Consul agent with the port. This can be an IP address or DNS address, but it must include the port. This can also be specified via the CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR environment variable. In Consul 0.8 and later, the default value is http://127.0.0.1:8500, and https can optionally be used instead. The scheme can also be set to HTTPS by setting the environment variable CONSUL_HTTP_SSL=true. This may be a unix domain socket using unix:///path/to/socket if the agent is configured to listen that way.

  • -tls-server-name=<value> - The server name to use as the SNI host when connecting via TLS. This can also be specified via the CONSUL_TLS_SERVER_NAME environment variable.

  • -token=<value> - ACL token to use in the request. This can also be specified via the CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN environment variable. If unspecified, the query will default to the token of the Consul agent at the HTTP address.

  • -token-file=<value> - File containing the ACL token to use in the request instead of one specified via the -token argument or CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN environment variable. This can also be specified via the CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN_FILE environment variable.

Examples

$ consul intention check web db
Denied

$ consul intention check web billing
Allowed