No proof, no access.
People, outside systems, and workloads each prove themselves differently. Greymatter holds all three to one standard.
One breach stays one breach.
Attackers who get in usually spread by posing as one of your own apps. With Greymatter, no app can pose as another. With enforcement on, a breached app reaches only the services that already expect it.
Every request knows who sent it.
Most apps trust a user name that any attacker can fake. Greymatter verifies the person and carries that proven identity along the request.
An agent is not exempt from the rules.
When AI acts under a person's login, its mistakes look like theirs. With Greymatter, AI agents have their own identity, separate from yours.
One identity layer for people, workloads, and AI agents.
A sign-in provider proves who a person is. SPIFFE and SPIRE prove what a workload is. Greymatter joins the two, enforces them on every connection, and carries the person to the last hop.
| Capability | Sign-in provider alone | SPIFFE and SPIRE alone | Service mesh alone | Greymatter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workloads | ||||
| An ID issued only after the platform confirms what the app is | — | Varies | ||
| Short-lived IDs, replaced with no restart | — | |||
| Both sides prove who they are on every connection | — | — | ||
| Access learned from real traffic, then locked to known callers, one step at a time | — | — | — | |
| People | ||||
| Sign-in through your identity provider, smart cards, or OpenShift | At sign-in | — | Token checks | At the edge |
| Client certificates checked for revocation (OCSP) at the edge | — | — | — | |
| OCSP stapling, verified and refreshed with no restart | — | — | — | |
| A user name typed into a request is recorded, never trusted | — | — | — | |
| The chain between them | ||||
| The verified person carried from hop to hop | — | — | — | |
| Agent work after the request ends still names the person | — | — | — | |
| One forensic chain per request, joined from every hop | — | — | Needs app headers | |
| No reusable password or token in any record or log | — | — | — | |
| AI agent tools granted by role, with the person passed on | — | — | — | Preview |
| Operating it | ||||
| One model in cloud, on premises, and disconnected sites | — | Identity only | Varies | |
Compared by product class, using each class's common defaults. Products within a class vary. Preview: ships in Greymatter 2.5.0 as a technology preview.