IP Allowlist
Restrict machine, enrollment, and AI-agent access to trusted IP addresses and network ranges.
The IP Allowlist restricts signed access to your vault by source network. Use it to ensure that machines, enrollment-token requests, and AI agents connect only from approved offices, data centers, cloud egress addresses, or other trusted networks.
The allowlist protects machine and AI-agent authentication while keeping the dashboard available for administration and recovery.
#How the IP Allowlist works
When a signed machine or AI-agent request reaches SikkerKey, the service identifies its source IP and compares it with the active vault rules. The request continues when the address matches any entry.
Machine requests are checked before secret access and other machine operations.
Enrollment-token redemption is checked before a new machine identity is created.
AI-agent requests to the management plane are checked before the requested action runs.
Changes are applied across the vault’s authentication services as soon as they are saved.
An enabled allowlist with no entries blocks every protected request. This default-deny state is useful during setup or when you want to pause all machine, enrollment, and AI-agent access while keeping dashboard control.
#Choose the addresses to allow
Add the source address that SikkerKey sees when the workload connects. For workloads behind NAT, a gateway, or a corporate proxy, this is normally the public egress address rather than the workload’s private address.
Add every fixed egress address used by production, staging, development, CI, and disaster-recovery workloads.
For dual-stack environments, add both the IPv4 and IPv6 sources that may be used.
For multi-region deployments, add the egress address or range for each region.
Use a stable egress address for workloads whose local addresses change frequently.
#IP addresses and CIDR ranges
The allowlist accepts individual IPv4 and IPv6 addresses as well as CIDR ranges. A CIDR prefix specifies how many leading address bits identify the network.
Entry | Allows |
|---|---|
203.0.113.50 | One IPv4 address. SikkerKey treats it as 203.0.113.50/32. |
203.0.113.0/24 | IPv4 addresses from 203.0.113.0 through 203.0.113.255. |
2001:db8:1234::10 | One IPv6 address. SikkerKey treats it as /128. |
2001:db8:1234::/48 | The IPv6 network covered by that 48-bit prefix. |
SikkerKey validates the prefix length and stores each range in canonical form. For example, entering 203.0.113.50/24 creates the network rule 203.0.113.0/24. Equivalent ranges resolve to the same rule.
#Enable the IP Allowlist
Collect the egress IP addresses and CIDR ranges used by every workload that needs vault access.
In the dashboard, open IP Allowlist from the sidebar.
Select Enable and confirm. When the list is empty, protected requests are blocked immediately.
Select the plus button and enter an IP address or CIDR range.
Add an optional label such as Copenhagen office, AWS eu-west-1, or Production NAT gateway.
Select Add, then repeat for each trusted source.
Keep your prepared address list nearby during activation. Your dashboard session remains available while you add the first rules.
#Manage allowlist entries
The active allowlist shows each address or range, its label, and the date it was added.
Search by address, CIDR, or label.
Select the IP / CIDR, Label, or Added heading to change the sort order.
Select a label to edit it in place.
Use Remove on a row to delete one rule.
Select multiple rows and choose Remove to delete them together.
To change an address or range, remove the existing rule and add the replacement.
Select Disable to pause enforcement while retaining the saved entries for future use.
When your account uses a passkey, SikkerKey requests a fresh passkey verification for sensitive trust changes such as disabling enforcement or removing multiple rules.
#Understand overlapping rules
Multiple allowlist entries use match-any behavior: a request is accepted when its source falls within at least one vault rule. Choose the narrowest practical ranges for your network design.
The vault allowlist also works alongside more specific controls. A secret access policy can define its own source ranges, and a temporary machine can have a dedicated allowlist. A request covered by several layers must match every active layer before access is granted.
Layer | Scope |
|---|---|
Vault IP Allowlist | All signed machine, enrollment, and AI-agent requests for the active vault. |
Secret access policy | Reads of secrets bound to that policy. |
Temporary-machine allowlist | Requests made by that temporary machine. |
#Monitor allowlist activity
SikkerKey records allowlist changes and blocked requests in the Audit Log.
Adding, removing, and enabling rules produces an IP Allowlist event.
Disabling enforcement produces a Critical IP Allowlist event.
A machine or AI agent connecting from an unapproved address produces an Authentication Failure with the identity and source IP.
A blocked enrollment-token request produces an Enrollment Token Denied event.
Use the Audit Log’s Action, Actor, Severity, and Source IP filters to review allowlist activity. In Alerts, you can subscribe to the same security events by email or webhook.
#Verify a new rule
Run a normal signed request from the workload, such as a secret read or AI-agent management action.
Confirm that the request succeeds from the approved network.
Review the Audit Log to confirm the expected actor and source IP.
Repeat from each approved environment after adding or changing egress infrastructure.
#Recover access
Use the dashboard from your authenticated user session to add the workload’s current egress address, correct a CIDR range, or disable enforcement. Saved entries remain available when enforcement is disabled, making it easy to adjust the configuration and enable it again.
#Control access to the IP Allowlist
Vault owners can view and manage the allowlist. Organization members receive access through their vault role.
View IP allowlist provides read access to the enabled state and configured entries.
Manage IP allowlist adds the ability to enable or disable enforcement and add, label, or remove entries.