ACL and access rule samples
This article provides example access controls (ACLs) for common scenarios. For information about the syntax, refer to the tailnet policy syntax.
Example | Description | Uses |
---|---|---|
Allow all | The default tailnet policy that allows all devices within the tailnet to access other devices in the tailnet. | ACLs, SSH |
Users can access their own devices | All tailnet users can access devices they own unless another policy prevents it. | ACLs, SSH |
Resource-level access policies | Allow specific devices to access specific resources within the tailnet. | ACLs, hosts |
Restrict based on purpose (tags) | Allow specific devices to access specific resources within the tailnet using tags. | ACLs |
Restrict based on group | Manage access to resources using autogroups, custom groups, and provisioned groups. | ACLs, groups |
Restrict based on individual users | Manage access to resources for specific users. | ACLs |
Starter plan ACL | Use a basic starter plan that allows employees to access their own devices and devices tagged with corp and lets admins access devices tagged with corp or prod . | ACLs, tag owners |
Application allowlisting for third-party SaaS apps | Allow traffic to a specific application through a designated exit node. | ACLs, autogroups, tags, tag owners, auto approvers |
Access to an internal application (VPN) | Manage user access applications based on their job role. | ACLs, groups, tag owners |
Access to an internal application (VPN) with synced groups | Manage access to internal resources using groups synced to an identity provider. | ACLs, groups, tag owners |
Remote access to a production environment | Manage user access to the production environment based on their job role. | ACLs, groups, tag owners, tests |
VPC access (VPC peering) | Manage access to a virtual private cloud using access control lists. | ACLs, groups, tag owners, auto approvers |
Share access with a contractor | Allow a third-party contractor to access shared resources in the development environment. | ACLs, groups, tag owners |
Remote development | Manage access to a remote development environment. | ACLs, groups, tag owners |
Pair programming | Create a paired programming environment multiple engineers can connect to using SSH. | ACLs, tag owners |
CI/CD deployment pipeline | Manage access to resources based on job roles. | ACLs, groups, tag owners |
Monitoring access to applications | Allow a monitoring server to access all applications on common ports. | ACLs, groups, tag owners |
Application peering | Allow multiple cloud providers or applications to access each other. | ACLs, groups, tag owners |
Network microsegmentation | Allow access to network microsegements, but deny access between them. | ACLs, groups, tag owners, tests |
Allow all (default ACL)
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
All plans | ACLs, SSH, autogroups |
When you first create your Tailscale network (known as a tailnet), Tailscale initializes it with a default allow all access policy to make it easy to connect to and use Tailscale without restricting any traffic in your network.
You can reset your ACL policy file to the original default by deleting the existing policy file contents and selecting Reset to default. Policy file changes can also be reverted from the Configuration logs page of the admin console.
Here’s a breakdown of what the default policy does:
- Allows all devices in the tailnet access all other devices in the tailnet.
- Allows all users to establish a Tailscale SSH session to their own devices using check mode, as either root or non-root.
- If you have a subnet router initialized with
--snat-subnet-routes=false
, then any devices on the same local network as the subnet router can also access all devices in the tailnet. - If you have a device shared from another network in your tailnet, that device cannot access any devices in the tailnet. The device can only respond to incoming connections from the tailnet.
{
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"*"
],
"dst": [
"*:*"
]
}
],
"ssh": [
{
"action": "check",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"autogroup:self"
],
"users": [
"autogroup:nonroot",
"root"
]
}
]
}
In the default ACL, the ssh
rule uses autogroup:self
for the dst
field andautogroup:nonroot
in the users
field. If you change the dst
field fromautogroup:self
to some other destination, such as an ACL tag, also consider replacing autogroup:nonroot
in the users
field. If you don't removeautogroup:nonroot
from the users
field, then anyone permitted by the src
setting will be able to SSH in as any nonroot user on the dst
device.
Users can access their own devices
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
All plans | ACLs, tags, tag owners |
This example allows all users to access their own devices. It is suitable for many use cases where you want to allow users to access their own devices, but not other devices in the tailnet.
{
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"autogroup:self:*"
]
}
],
}
Resource-level access policies
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
All plans | ACLs, hosts |
You can enable connectivity from one device or network to another using their IP addresses. Additionally, the hosts
section lets you define a human-friendly name for an IP address or CIDR range, to make access rules more readable.
What this example does:
- The device with the IP address
100.101.102.104
can access the device with the IP address100.101.102.103
. - The device with the IP address
100.101.102.104
can access devices in the subnet192.0.2.0/24
through a subnet router. - The device with the hostname
frontend-server-01
can access devices in the subnet192.0.2.0/24
. - The device with the hostname
frontend-server-01
can access the device with the hostnamedev-network-01
.
{
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"100.101.102.104"
],
"dst": [
"100.101.102.103:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"100.101.102.104"
],
"dst": [
"192.0.2.0/24:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"frontend-server-01"
],
"dst": [
"192.0.2.0/24:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"frontend-server-01"
],
"dst": [
"dev-network-01:*"
]
}
],
"hosts": {
"frontend-server-01": "100.101.102.103",
"dev-network-01": "203.0.113.0/24"
}
}
Restrict based on purpose (tags)
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
All plans | ACLs, tags |
Tags let you assign an identity to a device that is separate from human users, and use that identity as part of an ACL to restrict access. Tags should be used when adding servers to your Tailscale network, so that their access is based on their purpose, not based on which member of your operations team enrolled them.
What this example does:
- Devices tagged with
tag:frontend
can access devices tagged withtag:backend
. - Devices tagged with
tag:backend
can access devices tagged withtag:logging
.
{
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"tag:frontend"
],
"dst": [
"tag:backend:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"tag:backend"
],
"dst": [
"tag:logging:*"
]
}
]
}
Restrict based on group
You can enable access to resources in your tailnet with autogroups, custom groups, or groups provisioned from supported identity providers.
With autogroups
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
All plans | ACLs, autogroups, tags |
Autogroups are built-in groups that automatically include users, destinations, or usernames with the same properties.
What this example does:
- All tailnet members
autogroup:member
can access devices tagged withtag:frontend
. - All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) can access devices tagged withtag:backend
ortag:logging
.
{
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"tag:frontend:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"dst": [
"tag:backend:*",
"tag:logging:*"
]
}
]
}
With custom groups
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, groups, autogroups, tags |
Custom groups let you define a shorthand for a group of users, which you can then use in access rules instead of listing users out explicitly.
What this example does:
- The Engineering team
group:engineering
consists ofalice@example.com
andbob@example.com
. - The DevOps team
group:engineering
consists ofamelie@example.com
andcarl@example.com
. - The Engineering team
group:engineering
can access devices tagged withtag:frontend
ortag:backend
. - The DevOps team
group:devops
can access devices tagged withtag:frontend
,tag:backend
, ortag:logging
.
{
"groups": {
"group:engineering": [
"alice@example.com",
"bob@example.com"
],
"group:devops": [
"amelie@example.com",
"carl@example.com"
]
},
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:engineering"
],
"dst": [
"tag:frontend:*",
"tag:backend:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:devops"
],
"dst": [
"tag:frontend:*",
"tag:backend:*",
"tag:logging:*"
]
}
]
}
With provisioned groups
You can use group provisioning from supported identity providers and avoid maintaining custom groups in your ACLs.
{
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:engineering@example.com"
],
"dst": [
"tag:frontend:*",
"tag:backend:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:devops@example.com"
],
"dst": [
"tag:frontend:*",
"tag:backend:*",
"tag:logging:*"
]
}
]
}
Restrict based on individual user
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, tags |
You can enable access to resources based on individual users.
What this example does:
- User Alice can access devices tagged with
tag:frontend
. - User Bob can access devices tagged with
tag:backend
.
{
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"amelie@example.com"
],
"dst": [
"tag:frontend:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"bob@example.com"
],
"dst": [
"tag:backend:*"
]
}
]
}
Starter plan ACL
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
All plans | ACLs, autogroups, tags, tag owners |
This example provides remote access to corp and prod devices. It is suitable for many Starter plan use cases.
Your team can use Tailscale to access remote devices. In this scenario, all users can access their own remote devices, as well as any common corporate devices, such as servers, that are tagged. Only Tailscale Admins can access production devices. Admins can configure which devices are tagged. No corporate or production devices can access each other, and no shared users can access devices.
What this example does:
- All employees can access their own devices.
- All employees can access corporate devices tagged with
tag:corp
. - All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) can access devices tagged withtag:prod
. - All Tailscale Admins can manage which devices are tagged with
tag:corp
andtag:prod
.
{
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"autogroup:self:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"tag:corp:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"dst": [
"tag:prod:*"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:corp": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"tag:prod": [
"autogroup:admin"
]
}
}
Application allowlisting for third-party SaaS application (IP allowlisting)
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
All plans | ACLs, groups, autogroups, tags, tag owners, auto approvers |
You can use Tailscale to allow users access to third-party hosted applications, where access is restricted using IP application allowlisting. In this scenario, traffic for a certain application, www.example-saas-app.com
, is allowed for your organization’s resources only if coming from a known set of fixed IP addresses. You can host an exit node in your network to route all traffic leaving your network, and use that device’s IP address as part of an application allowlist. You can also use auto approvers to automatically approve exit nodes.
What this example does:
- All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) (such as the IT team) can access the devices tagged withtag:application-exit-node
(for maintenance). - All employees can access the public internet through an exit node in the network. They do not need access to the exit node itself to use it.
- All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) (such as the IT team) can manage which devices are tagged withtag:application-exit-node
. - All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) and devices tagged withtag:application-exit-node
can auto-approve exit nodes.
{
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"dst": [
"tag:application-exit-node:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"autogroup:internet:*"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:application-exit-node": [
"autogroup:admin"
]
},
"autoApprovers": {
"exitNode": [
"tag:application-exit-node",
"autogroup:admin"
]
}
}
Access to an internal application (VPN)
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, groups, tags, tag owners |
You can use Tailscale to allow users to access internal applications, including both custom internal applications and third-party applications hosted internally. In this scenario, users in your tailnet can access applications based on their job role. The IT team can set up internal applications.
What this example does:
- Members of the engineering team
group:engineering
can access the devices tagged withtag:engineering
. - Members of the finance team
group:finance
can access the devices tagged withtag:finance
. - Members of the legal team
group:legal
can access the devices tagged withtag:legal
. - All employees can access the devices tagged with
tag:internal
. - All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) (such as the IT team) can manage which devices are tagged withtag:engineering
,tag:finance
,tag:legal
, andtag:internal
.
{
"groups": {
"group:engineering": [
"alice@example.com"
],
"group:finance": [
"bob@example.com"
],
"group:legal": [
"carl@example.com"
]
},
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:engineering"
],
"dst": [
"tag:engineering:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:finance"
],
"dst": [
"tag:finance:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:legal"
],
"dst": [
"tag:legal:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"tag:internal:*"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:engineering": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"tag:finance": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"tag:legal": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"tag:internal": [
"autogroup:admin"
]
}
}
Access to an internal application (VPN) with synced groups
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Enterprise | ACLs, groups, autogroups, tags, tag owners |
You can use user and group provisioning to include groups synced from your identity provider in access rules. Tailscale treats synced group names as lowercase. They can include spaces, but not the @
symbol.
What this example does:
- Members of the engineering team in the synced group
group:engineering@example.com
can access the devices tagged withtag:engineering
. - Members of the finance team in the synced group
group:finance team@example.com
can access the devices tagged withtag:finance
. - Members of the legal team in the synced group
group:Legal@example.com
can access the devices tagged withtag:legal
. - All employees can access the devices tagged with
tag:internal
. - All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) (such as the IT team) can manage which devices are tagged withtag:engineering
,tag:finance
,tag:legal
, andtag:internal
.
{
"groups": {},
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:engineering@example.com"
],
"dst": [
"tag:engineering:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:finance team@example.com"
],
"dst": [
"tag:finance:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:legal@example.com"
],
"dst": [
"tag:legal:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"tag:internal:*"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:engineering": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"tag:finance": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"tag:legal": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"tag:internal": [
"autogroup:admin"
]
}
}
Remote access to production environment
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, groups, autogroups, tags, tag owners, tests |
You can modify this example to work on the Starter plan by using autogroup:member
instead of a custom group (group:dev
).
Your DevOps, infrastructure, or SRE team can use Tailscale to access their sensitive and highly protected production environment. In this scenario, a DevOps team might be able to access the production environment, whereas other developers might only be able to access resources in a development environment. All developers are able to access monitoring tools, such as Grafana.
What this example does:
- All employees can access their own devices (such as remote workstations).
- Members of the development team
group:dev
can access the devices tagged withtag:dev
(such as license servers). - All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) (such as members of the DevOps team) can access the devices tagged withtag:prod
(such as the production environment). - All employees can access devices tagged with
tag:monitoring
on ports80
and443
(such as monitoring dashboards). - All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) can manage which devices are tagged withtag:dev
,tag:prod
, andtag:monitoring
- Tests ensure that if ACLs change:
- Carl will still be able to access devices tagged with
tag:prod
on port80
. - Alice will still be able to access devices tagged with
tag:dev
(but not devices tagged withtag:prod
) on port80
.
- Carl will still be able to access devices tagged with
{
"groups": {
"group:dev": [
"alice@example.com",
"bob@example.com"
]
},
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"autogroup:self:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:dev"
],
"dst": [
"tag:dev:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"dst": [
"tag:prod:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"tag:monitoring:80,443"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:monitoring": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"tag:dev": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"tag:prod": [
"autogroup:admin"
]
},
"tests": [
{
"src": "carl@example.com",
"accept": [
"tag:prod:80"
]
},
{
"src": "alice@example.com",
"accept": [
"tag:dev:80"
],
"deny": [
"tag:prod:80"
]
}
]
}
VPC access (VPC peering)
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, groups, autogroups, tags, tag owners, auto approvers |
You can modify this example to work on the Starter plan by using autogroup:member
instead of a custom group (group:dev
).
Your DevOps team can use Tailscale to allow developers to access existing internal applications running in a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) on a private or hosted cloud provider. In this scenario, developers can access resources in the VPC, and the DevOps team is able to manage access to the VPC. VPCs can be peered to each other if they don’t have overlapping IP ranges. To connect an existing subnet to your Tailscale network without installing Tailscale on every device, you can use a subnet router. Run a subnet router in the subnet, and advertise the routes so that Tailscale can route traffic for the subnet to the device for forwarding. For devices on a subnet to connect to devices in your tailnet, disable subnet route masquerading. You can also use auto approvers to automatically approve routes.
What this example does:
- All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) (such as the IT team) can access the devices tagged withtag:vpc-peering
(for maintenance). - Members of the development team
group:dev
can access devices in the subnets192.0.2.0/24
and198.51.100.0/24
. - The subnet
192.0.2.0/24
can access the subnet198.51.100.0/24
and vice versa (if subnet route masquerading is disabled). - All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) (such as the IT team) can manage which devices are tagged withtag:vpc-peering
. - All Tailscale Admins (
autogroup:admin
) and devices tagged withtag:vpc-peering
can auto-approve routes for192.0.2.0/24
and198.51.100.0/24
.
{
"groups": {
"group:dev": [
"alice@example.com",
"bob@example.com"
]
},
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:admin"
],
"dst": [
"tag:vpc-peering:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:dev",
"192.0.2.0/24",
"198.51.100.0/24"
],
"dst": [
"192.0.2.0/24:*",
"198.51.100.0/24:*"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:vpc-peering": [
"autogroup:admin"
]
},
"autoApprovers": {
"routes": {
"192.0.2.0/24": [
"tag:vpc-peering",
"autogroup:admin"
],
"198.51.100.0/24": [
"tag:vpc-peering",
"autogroup:admin"
]
}
}
}
Share access with a contractor
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, groups, autogroups, tags, tag owners |
You can modify this example to work on the Starter plan by using autogroup:member
instead of a custom group (group:dev
).
Your development team can use Tailscale to share access to specific resources, such as a database or a hosted code repository, with a contractor. In this scenario, developers can access internal development resources. Specific devices can be shared with a contractor as part of their job.
What this example does:
- All employees can access their own devices.
- Members of the development team
group:dev
can access devices tagged withtag:dev
(such as package registries and databases) - Contractors who have accepted a share invite can access devices tagged with
tag:dev
(that have been shared with them).
{
"groups": {
"group:dev": [
"alice@example.com",
"bob@example.com"
]
},
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"autogroup:self:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:dev",
"autogroup:shared"
],
"dst": [
"tag:dev:*"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:dev": [
"group:dev"
]
}
}
Remote development
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, groups, autogroups, tags, tag owners |
You can modify this example to work on the Starter plan by using autogroup:member
instead of a custom group (group:dev
).
Your development team can use Tailscale as part of their remote development setup. In this scenario, a developer might have a local device, like a laptop, and use it to access a remote workstation, hosted in the cloud or hosted on another device in their network. This is useful if you’re accessing a workstation with more processing power, for example, for machine learning or for building. You might also use a remote code environment like GitHub Codespaces, Gitpod, or Coder. From your development environment, you might access a license server, a package registry, a production database, or another development or build resource. You might also access a self-hosted or private code repository.
What this example does:
- All employees can access their own devices.
- Members of the development team
group:dev
can access devices tagged withtag:dev
(such as package registries and databases). - The development team
group:dev
can manage which devices are tagged withtag:dev
.
{
"groups": {
"group:dev": [
"alice@example.com",
"bob@example.com"
]
},
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"autogroup:member"
],
"dst": [
"autogroup:self:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:dev"
],
"dst": [
"tag:dev:*"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:dev": [
"group:dev"
]
}
}
Pair programming
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, tags, tag owners |
You can modify this example to work on the Starter plan by using autogroup:member
and autogroup:admin
instead of named users.
Your development team can use Tailscale to pair program on the same device remotely. In this scenario, two or more developers can use SSH to connect to a corporate device, such as a virtual machine (VM), and share a terminal (such as a tmux
session).
What this example does:
- Users Alice and Bob can access the corporate device tagged
tag:pair-programming
on port22
(for SSH). - Bob can manage which devices are tagged
tag:pair-programming
.
{
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"alice@example.com",
"bob@example.com"
],
"dst": [
"tag:pair-programming:22"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:pair-programming": [
"bob@example.com"
]
}
}
CI/CD deployment pipeline
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, groups, tags, tag owners |
Your DevOps or infrastructure team can use Tailscale to restrict access to your deployment pipeline. In this scenario, developers can access your development tools, such as your code repository. Then, an automated CI/CD pipeline builds and deploys code. The DevOps team can access the deployment pipeline and production environment.
What this example does:
- Members of the development team
group:dev
can access the devices tagged withtag:dev
(such as code repositories and license servers). - Members of the DevOps team
group:devops
can access the devices tagged withtag:ci
(such as the build tooling) andtag:prod
(such as the production environment). - The DevOps team
group:devops
can manage which devices are tagged withtag:dev
,tag:ci
, andtag:prod
. - The tag
tag:ci
can manage which device are tagged withtag:prod
andtag:dev
(to apply tags as part of the deployment pipeline).
{
"groups": {
"group:dev": [
"alice@example.com",
"bob@example.com"
],
"group:devops": [
"carl@example.com"
]
},
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:dev"
],
"dst": [
"tag:dev:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:devops"
],
"dst": [
"tag:ci:*",
"tag:prod:*"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:ci": [
"group:devops"
],
"tag:dev": [
"group:devops",
"tag:ci"
],
"tag:prod": [
"group:devops",
"tag:ci"
]
}
}
Monitoring access to applications
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, groups, tags, tag owners |
You can modify this example to work on the Starter plan by using autogroup:member
instead of a custom group (group:devops
).
Your DevOps team can use Tailscale to query logs from services in your network and report these as part of your monitoring tooling. In this scenario, your monitoring server (such as Prometheus) can access all applications in your network on common ports.
What this example does:
- Devices tagged with
tag:monitoring
can access services on ports80
,443
,9100
. - Devices tagged with
tag:monitoring
can access services taggedtag:logging
. - The DevOps team
group:devops
can access devices tagged withtag:monitoring
andtag:logging
. - The DevOps team
group:devops
can manage which devices are tagged withtag:monitoring
andtag:logging
.
{
"groups": {
"group:devops": [
"carl@example.com"
]
},
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"tag:monitoring"
],
"dst": [
"*:80,443,9100",
"tag:logging:*"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:devops"
],
"dst": [
"tag:monitoring:*",
"tag:logging:*"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:monitoring": [
"group:devops"
],
"tag:logging": [
"group:devops"
]
}
}
Application peering
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, groups, tags, tag owners |
You can modify this example to work on the Starter plan by using autogroup:member
instead of a custom group (group:infra
).
Your infrastructure team can use Tailscale to connect applications or services running in multiple cloud providers or SaaS applications together. In this scenario, one application can connect with another application in your network, for example, to stream from one database to another, such as with Materialize.
What this example does:
- Devices tagged with
tag:database
can access other devices tagged withtag:database
. - Devices tagged with
tag:gcp
andtag:aws
can access devices tagged withtag:database
, but not vice versa. - The infrastructure team
group:infra
can manage which devices are tagged withtag:database
,tag:gcp
, andtag:aws
.
{
"groups": {
"group:infra": [
"carl@example.com"
]
},
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"tag:database",
"tag:gcp",
"tag:aws"
],
"dst": [
"tag:database:*"
]
}
],
"tagOwners": {
"tag:database": [
"group:infra"
],
"tag:gcp": [
"group:infra"
],
"tag:aws": [
"group:infra"
]
}
}
Network microsegmentation
Plan availability | Features |
---|---|
Personal, Personal Plus, Premium, and Enterprise | ACLs, groups, tags, tag owners, tests |
Network microsegmentation is a security technique that divides network devices, access, and communications into unique logical units. There are many use cases for this—segmenting data centers, virtual networks, customer deployments, and others. Each microsegment is a logical unit that cannot access other microsegments. In some cases, you might still need a support team or tagged devices that can access all segments.
What this example does:
- Members of the support team
group:support
can access devices taggedtag:segment-abc
andtag:segment-xyz
on port443
. - Devices tagged with
tag:support
can access devices taggedtag:segment-abc
andtag:segment-xyz
on port443
. - Tests ensure that if ACLs change:
- Members of the support team
group:support
will still be able to access devices taggedtag:segment-abc
andtag:segment-xyz
on port443
. - Devices tagged with
tag:support
will still be able to access devices taggedtag:segment-abc
andtag:segment-xyz
on port443
. - Devices tagged with
tag:segment-abc
are denied access to devices taggedtag:segment-xyz
on port443
. - Devices tagged with
tag:segment-xyz
are denied access to devices taggedtag:segment-abc
on port443
.
- Members of the support team
{
"acls": [
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"group:support"
],
"dst": [
"tag:segment-abc:443",
"tag:segment-xyz:443"
]
},
{
"action": "accept",
"src": [
"tag:support"
],
"dst": [
"tag:segment-abc:443",
"tag:segment-xyz:443"
]
}
],
"tests": [
{
"src": "group:support",
"accept": [
"tag:segment-abc:443",
"tag:segment-xyz:443"
]
},
{
"src": "tag:support",
"accept": [
"tag:segment-abc:443",
"tag:segment-xyz:443"
]
},
{
"src": "tag:segment-abc",
"deny": [
"tag:segment-xyz:443"
]
},
{
"src": "tag:segment-xyz",
"deny": [
"tag:segment-abc:443"
]
}
],
"groups": {
"group:support": [
"alice@example.com",
"bob@example.com"
]
},
"tagOwners": {
"tag:support": [
"autogroup:admin"
]
}
}