According to some embodiments, a method is performed by a software defined wide area network (SD-WAN) edge router in a hierarchical SD-WAN network comprising a plurality of edge routers and a plurality of border routers. The method comprises: originating a SD-WAN system route for advertising reachability to the edge router, the system route comprising an encryption key associated with the edge router; and transmitting the system route to one or more SD-WAN border routers. The method may further comprise: receiving a packet destined for the edge router from one of the one or more SD-WAN border routers, wherein the packet is at least partially encrypted with the encryption key associated with the edge router; and decrypting the received packet.