Hybrid security architecture (HSA) provides a platform for middlebox traversal in the network. The HSA decouples the middlebox control from network forwarding. More specifically, such embodiments may receive a data packet having a packet header including an Ethernet header identifying source and destination addresses in the network. A traffic type of the data packet is determined. Then, layer-2 forwarding information, which encodes a set of non-forwarding network service provider middleboxes in the network to be traversed by the data packet, is determined based on the traffic type. The layer-2 forwarding information is inserted into the Ethernet header and the data packet is forwarded into the network. The data packet will then traverse, according to the layer-2 forwarding information, a sequence of the middleboxes in the network, wherein at least one non-forwarding network service will be provided by each of the middleboxes to the data packet in a sequence.