Kong Gateway DB-less Route with Authorization Header Regex Works in Docker but Fails in Kubernetes

[twlap]

I'm using Kong Gateway 3.4 in a DB-less configuration to set up a route that requires token-based authentication. This setup works perfectly in Docker but fails when deployed to Kubernetes (K8s). Below are the configuration details and the issue observed.

The configuration file (YAML) for the route setup is as follows:

services:
- name: api-with-token
  host: test.demo.com
  port: 443
  protocol: https
  path: /test
  routes:
    - name: api-with-token
      paths:
        - /api/test
      methods:
        - GET
      headers:
        Authorization:
          - ~*Bearer
      strip_path: true

The request that works in Docker but fails in K8s:

curl --location 'https://demo.com/api/test' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer eyJj...'

When deploying to K8s, the request returns:

{
  "message": "no Route matched with those values"
}

To troubleshoot, I tried different regex patterns in the Authorization header, but they didn’t resolve the issue:

Authorization:
   - ~*Bearer
   - /~/*Bearer
   - \~\*Bearer
   - ~^Bearer

Kong Version: 3.4
Environment:

• Working: Docker
• Not Working: Kubernetes (installed via Helm)
• Kong Mode: DB-less

Would appreciate any guidance or troubleshooting steps from the community on why this configuration works in Docker but not in Kubernetes. Thank you!

[randmonkey]

What chart and values did you use to install Kong in k8s? by default we install Kong ingress controller (KIC) + Kong gateway, and in such case, configuration of Kong is controlled by KIC. The configuration loaded from yaml files will be overwritten by configuration generated by KIC.