HSTS for Kong API Gateway: Pros, Cons, and Setup
HTTP Strict Transport Security sounds simple: send one response header, force browsers onto HTTPS, done. In practice, the hard part is deciding where to manage it in Kong and how aggressively to roll it out without breaking edge cases. If you run Kong API Gateway, you usually have a few choices: Set HSTS in Kong itself Set HSTS in an upstream app behind Kong Set HSTS at an outer load balancer or CDN instead of Kong Use a phased rollout with short max-age first, then increase later I’m opinionated on this one: if Kong is your main HTTPS entry point, HSTS usually belongs there. It keeps policy consistent across services and avoids every team reinventing the same header logic. But there are trade-offs, and some teams absolutely should not flip on preload-style settings on day one. ...