# Can traefik act a a client with mTLS to backend?

**URL:** <https://community.traefik.io/t/can-traefik-act-a-a-client-with-mtls-to-backend/8937>\
**Category:** Traefik v2\
**Tags:** file, tcp\
**Created:** [December 9, 2020, 12:20am UTC](https://community.traefik.io/t/can-traefik-act-a-a-client-with-mtls-to-backend/8937 "2020-12-09T00:20:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kevdog](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.traefik.io/kevdog/32/2825_2.png) [@kevdog](https://community.traefik.io/u/kevdog)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2020, 12:20am UTC](https://community.traefik.io/t/can-traefik-act-a-a-client-with-mtls-to-backend/8937/1 "2020-12-09T00:20:02Z")

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This issue came up in another post but I was hoping to hear from the traefik people if traefik has the capability of acting as a client which can pass SSL client certificates to the backend as a part of mTLS. I've read the documentation many times and it seems per documentation traefik can only act on the server side of a mTLS connection, not as a client.

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**Author:** ![jbd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.traefik.io/jbd/32/341_2.png) [@jbd](https://community.traefik.io/u/jbd)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2020, 10:08am UTC](https://community.traefik.io/t/can-traefik-act-a-a-client-with-mtls-to-backend/8937/2 "2020-12-09T10:08:36Z")

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Hi @kevdog,

The PR [#7203](https://github.com/traefik/traefik/pull/7203) allows to tune connection per service thanks to [serverstransport](https://doc.traefik.io/traefik/master/routing/services/#serverstransport), so you will be able to configure mtls.  
It will be shipped in the v2.4, and before you ask, the v2.4-rc1 will come in the coming weeks. 😉

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**Author:** ![kevdog](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.traefik.io/kevdog/32/2825_2.png) [@kevdog](https://community.traefik.io/u/kevdog)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2020, 3:48pm UTC](https://community.traefik.io/t/can-traefik-act-a-a-client-with-mtls-to-backend/8937/3 "2020-12-10T15:48:17Z")

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Hey thanks for that link. @juliens mentioned this release version in another post. I looked at the link to the PR however I was very unclear if this PR actually allows mTLS with traefik acting as the client. There isn't a preview for any documentation associated with this new release is there?

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**Author:** ![jbd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.traefik.io/jbd/32/341_2.png) [@jbd](https://community.traefik.io/u/jbd)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 10:22am UTC](https://community.traefik.io/t/can-traefik-act-a-a-client-with-mtls-to-backend/8937/4 "2020-12-11T10:22:49Z")

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The documentation is available [here](https://doc.traefik.io/traefik/master/routing/services/#serverstransport_1), let me know if it helps you. 🙂

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**Author:** ![kevdog](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.traefik.io/kevdog/32/2825_2.png) [@kevdog](https://community.traefik.io/u/kevdog)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 12:38pm UTC](https://community.traefik.io/t/can-traefik-act-a-a-client-with-mtls-to-backend/8937/5 "2020-12-11T12:38:43Z")

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I believe that's just a link to the old documentation. I don't see anything in the documentation regarding mTLS with traefik as the client.

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**Author:** ![jbd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.traefik.io/jbd/32/341_2.png) [@jbd](https://community.traefik.io/u/jbd)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 1:33pm UTC](https://community.traefik.io/t/can-traefik-act-a-a-client-with-mtls-to-backend/8937/6 "2020-12-11T13:33:30Z")

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This link point to the experimental version of doc which matches with the master branch of code.  
You have all the new configuration options available on a service like:

> `certificates` is the list of certificates (as file paths, or data bytes) that will be set as client certificates for mTLS.

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**Author:** ![kevdog](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.traefik.io/kevdog/32/2825_2.png) [@kevdog](https://community.traefik.io/u/kevdog)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 1:46pm UTC](https://community.traefik.io/t/can-traefik-act-a-a-client-with-mtls-to-backend/8937/7 "2020-12-11T13:46:52Z")

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Thank you kindly for this explanation. I see the difference.