Kubernetes

title

The Infisical Secrets Operator is a Kubernetes controller that retrieves secrets from Infisical and stores them in a designated cluster. It uses an InfisicalSecret resource to specify authentication and storage methods. The operator continuously updates secrets and can also reload dependent deployments automatically.

Install Operator

The operator can be install via Helm or kubectl

Helm
Kubectl

Install Infisical Helm repository

helm repo add infisical-helm-charts 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/infisical/helm-charts/helm/charts/' 
  
helm repo update

Install the Helm chart

helm install --generate-name infisical-helm-charts/secrets-operator

Sync Infisical Secrets to your cluster

To retrieve secrets from an Infisical project and save them as native Kubernetes secrets within a specific namespace, utilize the InfisicalSecret custom resource definition (CRD). This resource can be created after installing the Infisical operator. For each new managed secret, you will need to create a new InfisicalSecret CRD.

apiVersion: secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
kind: InfisicalSecret
metadata:
  # Name of of this InfisicalSecret resource
  name: infisicalsecret-sample
spec:
  # The host that should be used to pull secrets from. If left empty, the value specified in Global configuration will be used
  hostAPI: https://app.infisical.com/api
  authentication:
    serviceToken: # <-- option 1
      serviceTokenSecretReference:
        secretName: service-token
        secretNamespace: option
    serviceAccount: # <-- method 2
      serviceAccountSecretReference:
        secretName: service-account
        secretNamespace: default
      projectId: "6439ec224cfbf7ea2a95b651"
      environmentName: "dev"
  managedSecretReference:
    secretName: managed-secret # <-- the name of kubernetes secret that will be created
    secretNamespace: default # <-- where the kubernetes secret that will be created

InfisicalSecret CRD properties

If you are fetching secrets from a self hosted instance of Infisical set the value of hostAPI to https://your-self-hosted-instace.com/api

When hostAPI is not defined the operator fetches secrets from Infisical Cloud.

If you have installed your Infisical instance within the same cluster as the Infisical operator, you can optionally access the Infisical backend’s service directly without having to route through the public internet. To achieve this, use the following address for the hostAPI field:

http://<backend-svc-name>.<namespace>.svc.cluster.local:4000/api

Make sure to replace <backend-svc-name> and <namespace> with the appropriate values for your backend service and namespace.

The authentication property tells the operator where it should look to find credentials needed to fetch secrets from Infisical. You can authenticate via two methods as described below.

Service Token
Service Account

Authenticating with service tokens is a great option when you have a small number of services you’d like to fetch secrets for and are looking for the least amount of setup.

1. Generate service token

You can generate a service token for an Infisical project by heading over to the Infisical dashboard then to Project Settings.

2. Create Kubernetes secret containing service token

Once you have generated the service token, you will need to create a Kubernetes secret containing the service token you generated. To quickly create a Kubernetes secret containing the generated service token, you can run the command below.

kubectl create secret generic service-token --from-literal=infisicalToken=<your-service-token-here>

3. Add reference for the Kubernetes secret containing service token

Once the secret is created, add the name and namespace of the secret that was just created under authentication.serviceToken.serviceTokenSecretReference field in the InfisicalSecret resource.

Example

apiVersion: secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
kind: InfisicalSecret
metadata:
  name: infisicalsecret-sample-crd
spec:
  authentication:
    serviceToken: 
      serviceTokenSecretReference:
        secretName: service-token # <-- name of the Kubernetes secret that stores our service token
        secretNamespace: option # <-- namespace of the Kubernetes secret that stores our service token
  ...

Verify managed secret creation

To verify that the operator has successfully created the managed secret, you can check the secrets in the namespace that was specified.

# Verify managed secret is created
kubectl get secrets -n <namespace of managed secret>

The Infisical secrets will be synced and stored into the managed secret every 1 minutes.

Using managed secret in your deployment

Incorporating the managed secret created by the operator into your deployment can be achieved through several methods. Here, we will highlight three of the most common ways to utilize it. Learn more about Kubernetes secrets here

This will take all the secrets from your managed secret and expose them to your container

  envFrom:
    - secretRef:
        name: managed-secret # managed secret name

Example usage in a deployment

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: nginx-deployment
labels:
  app: nginx
spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
  matchLabels:
    app: nginx
template:
  metadata:
    labels:
      app: nginx
  spec:
    containers:
    - name: nginx
      image: nginx:1.14.2
      envFrom:
      - secretRef:
          name: managed-secret # <- name of managed secret
      ports:
      - containerPort: 80

This will allow you to select individual secrets by key name from your managed secret and expose them to your container

env:
  - name: SECRET_NAME # The environment variable's name which is made available in the container
    valueFrom:
      secretKeyRef:
        name: managed-secret # managed secret name
        key: SOME_SECRET_KEY # The name of the key which  exists in the managed secret

Example usage in a deployment

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: nginx-deployment
labels:
  app: nginx
spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
  matchLabels:
    app: nginx
template:
  metadata:
    labels:
      app: nginx
  spec:
    containers:
    - name: nginx
      image: nginx:1.14.2
      env:
        - name: STRIPE_API_SECRET 
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: managed-secret # <- name of managed secret
              key: STRIPE_API_SECRET
      ports:
      - containerPort: 80

This will allow you to create a volume on your container which comprises of files holding the secrets in your managed kubernetes secret

volumes:
  - name: secrets-volume-name # The name of the volume under which secrets will be stored
    secret:
      secretName: managed-secret # managed secret name

You can then mount this volume to the container’s filesystem so that your deployment can access the files containing the managed secrets

volumeMounts:
  - name: secrets-volume-name
    mountPath: /etc/secrets
    readOnly: true

Example usage in a deployment

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx-deployment
  labels:
    app: nginx
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx:1.14.2
        volumeMounts:
        - name: secrets-volume-name
          mountPath: /etc/secrets
          readOnly: true
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
      volumes:
      - name: secrets-volume-name
        secret:
          secretName: managed-secret # <- managed secrets

Auto redeployment

Deployments using managed secrets don’t reload automatically on updates, so they may use outdated secrets unless manually redeployed. To address this, we added functionality to automatically redeploy your deployment when its managed secret updates.

Enabling auto redeploy

To enable auto redeployment you simply have to add the following annotation to the deployment that consumes a managed secret

secrets.infisical.com/auto-reload: "true"

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx-deployment
  labels:
    app: nginx
  annotations: 
    secrets.infisical.com/auto-reload: "true" # <- redeployment annotation
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx:1.14.2
        envFrom:
        - secretRef:
            name: managed-secret
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80

Global configuration

To configure global settings that will apply to all instances of InfisicalSecret, you can define these configurations in a Kubernetes ConfigMap. For example, you can configure all InfisicalSecret instances to fetch secrets from a single backend API without specifying the hostAPI parameter for each instance.

Available global properties

Property	Description	Default value
hostAPI	If `hostAPI` in `InfisicalSecret` instance is left empty, this value will be used	https://app.infisical.com/api

Applying global configurations

All global configurations must reside in a Kubernetes ConfigMap named infisical-config in the namespace infisical-operator-system. To apply global configuration to the operator, copy the following yaml into infisical-config.yaml file.

infisical-config.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: infisical-operator-system
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: infisical-config
  namespace: infisical-operator-system
data:
  hostAPI: https://example.com/api # <-- global hostAPI

Then apply this change via kubectl by running the following

kubectl apply -f infisical-config.yaml

Troubleshoot operator

If the operator is unable to fetch secrets from the API, it will not affect the managed Kubernetes secret. It will continue attempting to reconnect to the API indefinitely. The InfisicalSecret resource uses the status.conditions field to report its current state and any errors encountered.

$ kubectl get infisicalSecrets
NAME                     AGE
infisicalsecret-sample   12s

$ kubectl describe infisicalSecret infisicalsecret-sample
...
Spec:
...
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2022-12-18T04:29:09Z
    Message:               Infisical controller has located the Infisical token in provided Kubernetes secret
    Reason:                OK
    Status:                True
    Type:                  secrets.infisical.com/LoadedInfisicalToken
    Last Transition Time:  2022-12-18T04:29:10Z
    Message:               Failed to update secret because: 400 Bad Request
    Reason:                Error
    Status:                False
    Type:                  secrets.infisical.com/ReadyToSyncSecrets
Events:                    <none>

Uninstall Operator

The managed secret created by the operator will not be deleted when the operator is uninstalled.

Helm
Kubectl

Install Infisical Helm repository

helm uninstall <release name>

Overview

Platform

Self-host Infisical

Command line

Integrations

Install Operator

Helm

Kubectl

Sync Infisical Secrets to your cluster

InfisicalSecret CRD properties

Service Token

Service Account

1. Generate service token

2. Create Kubernetes secret containing service token

3. Add reference for the Kubernetes secret containing service token

Example

Verify managed secret creation

Using managed secret in your deployment

Auto redeployment

Enabling auto redeploy

Global configuration

Available global properties

Applying global configurations

Troubleshoot operator

Uninstall Operator

Helm

Kubectl

Overview

Platform

Self-host Infisical

Command line

Integrations

​Install Operator

Helm

Kubectl

​Sync Infisical Secrets to your cluster

​InfisicalSecret CRD properties

Service Token

Service Account

1. Generate service token

2. Create Kubernetes secret containing service token

3. Add reference for the Kubernetes secret containing service token

Example

​Verify managed secret creation

​Using managed secret in your deployment

​Auto redeployment

​Enabling auto redeploy

​Global configuration

​Available global properties

​Applying global configurations

​Troubleshoot operator

​Uninstall Operator

Helm

Kubectl

Install Operator

Sync Infisical Secrets to your cluster

InfisicalSecret CRD properties

Verify managed secret creation

Using managed secret in your deployment

Auto redeployment

Enabling auto redeploy

Global configuration

Available global properties

Applying global configurations

Troubleshoot operator

Uninstall Operator