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- OIDC Auth
Using the InfisicalSecret CRD
Learn how to use the InfisicalSecret CRD to fetch secrets from Infisical and store them as native Kubernetes secret resource
Once you have installed the operator to your cluster, you’ll need to create a InfisicalSecret
custom resource definition (CRD).
In this CRD, you’ll define the authentication method to use, the secrets to fetch, and the target location to store the secrets within your cluster.
apiVersion: secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
kind: InfisicalSecret
metadata:
name: infisicalsecret-sample
labels:
label-to-be-passed-to-managed-secret: sample-value
annotations:
example.com/annotation-to-be-passed-to-managed-secret: "sample-value"
spec:
hostAPI: https://app.infisical.com/api
resyncInterval: 10
authentication:
kubernetesAuth:
identityId: <machine-identity-id>
serviceAccountRef:
name: <service-account-name>
namespace: <service-account-namespace>
managedKubeSecretReferences:
- secretName: managed-secret
secretNamespace: default
creationPolicy: "Orphan"
template:
includeAllSecrets: true
data:
NEW_KEY_NAME: "{{ .KEY.SecretPath }} {{ .KEY.Value }}"
KEY_WITH_BINARY_VALUE: "{{ .KEY.SecretPath }} {{ .KEY.Value }}"
CRD properties
Generic
The following properties help define what instance of Infisical the operator will interact with, the interval it will sync secrets and any CA certificates that may be required to connect.
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.
This property defines the time in seconds between each secret re-sync from Infisical. Shorter time between re-syncs will require higher rate limits only available on paid plans. Default re-sync interval is every 1 minute.
This block defines the TLS settings to use for connecting to the Infisical instance.
This block defines the reference to the CA certificate to use for connecting to the Infisical instance with SSL/TLS.
The name of the Kubernetes secret containing the CA certificate to use for connecting to the Infisical instance with SSL/TLS.
The namespace of the Kubernetes secret containing the CA certificate to use for connecting to the Infisical instance with SSL/TLS.
The name of the key in the Kubernetes secret which contains the value of the CA certificate to use for connecting to the Infisical instance with SSL/TLS.
Authentication methods
To retrieve the requested secrets, the operator must first authenticate with Infisical. The list of available authentication methods are shown below.
The universal machine identity authentication method is used to authenticate with Infisical. The client ID and client secret needs to be stored in a Kubernetes secret. This block defines the reference to the name and namespace of secret that stores these credentials.
Create a machine identity
You need to create a machine identity, and give it access to the project(s) you want to interact with. You can read more about machine identities here.
Create Kubernetes secret containing machine identity credentials
Once you have created your machine identity and added it to your project(s), you will need to create a Kubernetes secret containing the identity credentials. To quickly create a Kubernetes secret containing the identity credentials, you can run the command below.
Make sure you replace <your-identity-client-id>
with the identity client ID and <your-identity-client-secret>
with the identity client secret.
kubectl create secret generic universal-auth-credentials --from-literal=clientId="<your-identity-client-id>" --from-literal=clientSecret="<your-identity-client-secret>"
Add reference for the Kubernetes secret containing the identity credentials
Once the secret is created, add the secretName
and secretNamespace
of the secret that was just created under authentication.universalAuth.credentialsRef
field in the InfisicalSecret resource.
Make sure to also populate the secretsScope
field with the project slug
projectSlug
, environment slug envSlug
, and secrets path
secretsPath
that you want to fetch secrets from. Please see the example
below.
Example
apiVersion: secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
kind: InfisicalSecret
metadata:
name: infisicalsecret-sample-crd
spec:
authentication:
universalAuth:
secretsScope:
projectSlug: <project-slug> # <-- project slug
envSlug: <env-slug> # "dev", "staging", "prod", etc..
secretsPath: "<secrets-path>" # Root is "/"
credentialsRef:
secretName: universal-auth-credentials # <-- name of the Kubernetes secret that stores our machine identity credentials
secretNamespace: default # <-- namespace of the Kubernetes secret that stores our machine identity credentials
...
The Kubernetes machine identity authentication method is used to authenticate with Infisical. The identity ID is stored in a field in the InfisicalSecret resource. This authentication method can only be used within a Kubernetes environment.
Obtaining the token reviewer JWT for Infisical
1.1. Start by creating a service account in your Kubernetes cluster that will be used by Infisical to authenticate with the Kubernetes API Server.
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
name: infisical-auth
namespace: default
kubectl apply -f infisical-service-account.yaml
1.2. Bind the service account to the system:auth-delegator
cluster role. As described here, this role allows delegated authentication and authorization checks, specifically for Infisical to access the TokenReview API. You can apply the following configuration file:
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
name: role-tokenreview-binding
namespace: default
roleRef:
apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
kind: ClusterRole
name: system:auth-delegator
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: infisical-auth
namespace: default
kubectl apply -f cluster-role-binding.yaml
1.3. Next, create a long-lived service account JWT token (i.e. the token reviewer JWT token) for the service account using this configuration file for a new Secret
resource:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
type: kubernetes.io/service-account-token
metadata:
name: infisical-auth-token
annotations:
kubernetes.io/service-account.name: "infisical-auth"
kubectl apply -f service-account-token.yaml
1.4. Link the secret in step 1.3 to the service account in step 1.1:
kubectl patch serviceaccount infisical-auth -p '{"secrets": [{"name": "infisical-auth-token"}]}' -n default
1.5. Finally, retrieve the token reviewer JWT token from the secret.
kubectl get secret infisical-auth-token -n default -o=jsonpath='{.data.token}' | base64 --decode
Keep this JWT token handy as you will need it for the Token Reviewer JWT field when configuring the Kubernetes Auth authentication method for the identity in step 2.
Creating an identity
To create an identity, head to your Organization Settings > Access Control > Machine Identities and press Create identity.
When creating an identity, you specify an organization level role for it to assume; you can configure roles in Organization Settings > Access Control > Organization Roles.
Now input a few details for your new identity. Here’s some guidance for each field:
- Name (required): A friendly name for the identity.
- Role (required): A role from the Organization Roles tab for the identity to assume. The organization role assigned will determine what organization level resources this identity can have access to.
Once you’ve created an identity, you’ll be prompted to configure the authentication method for it. Here, select Kubernetes Auth.
To learn more about each field of the Kubernetes native authentication method, see step 2 of guide.
Adding an identity to a project
To allow the operator to use the given identity to access secrets, you will need to add the identity to project(s) that you would like to grant it access to.
To do this, head over to the project you want to add the identity to and go to Project Settings > Access Control > Machine Identities and press Add identity.
Next, select the identity you want to add to the project and the project level role you want to allow it to assume. The project role assigned will determine what project level resources this identity can have access to.
Add your identity ID & service account to your InfisicalSecret resource
Once you have created your machine identity and added it to your project(s), you will need to add the identity ID to your InfisicalSecret resource.
In the authentication.kubernetesAuth.identityId
field, add the identity ID of the machine identity you created.
See the example below for more details.
Add your Kubernetes service account token to the InfisicalSecret resource
Add the service account details from the previous steps under authentication.kubernetesAuth.serviceAccountRef
.
Here you will need to enter the name and namespace of the service account.
The example below shows a complete InfisicalSecret resource with all required fields defined.
Make sure to also populate the secretsScope
field with the project slug
projectSlug
, environment slug envSlug
, and secrets path
secretsPath
that you want to fetch secrets from. Please see the example
below.
Example
apiVersion: secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
kind: InfisicalSecret
metadata:
name: infisicalsecret-sample-crd
spec:
authentication:
kubernetesAuth:
identityId: <machine-identity-id>
serviceAccountRef:
name: <service-account-name>
namespace: <service-account-namespace>
# secretsScope is identical to the secrets scope in the universalAuth field in this sample.
secretsScope:
projectSlug: your-project-slug
envSlug: prod
secretsPath: "/path"
recursive: true
...
The AWS IAM machine identity authentication method is used to authenticate with Infisical. The identity ID is stored in a field in the InfisicalSecret resource. This authentication method can only be used within an AWS environment like an EC2 or a Lambda function.
Create a machine identity
You need to create a machine identity, and give it access to the project(s) you want to interact with. You can read more about AWS machine identities here.
Add your identity ID to your InfisicalSecret resource
Once you have created your machine identity and added it to your project(s), you will need to add the identity ID to your InfisicalSecret resource. In the authentication.awsIamAuth.identityId
field, add the identity ID of the machine identity you created. See the example below for more details.
Make sure to also populate the secretsScope
field with the project slug
projectSlug
, environment slug envSlug
, and secrets path
secretsPath
that you want to fetch secrets from. Please see the example
below.
Example
apiVersion: secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
kind: InfisicalSecret
metadata:
name: infisicalsecret-sample-crd
spec:
authentication:
awsIamAuth:
identityId: <your-machine-identity-id>
# secretsScope is identical to the secrets scope in the universalAuth field in this sample.
secretsScope:
projectSlug: your-project-slug
envSlug: prod
secretsPath: "/path"
recursive: true
...
The Azure machine identity authentication method is used to authenticate with Infisical. The identity ID is stored in a field in the InfisicalSecret resource. This authentication method can only be used within an Azure environment.
Create a machine identity
You need to create a machine identity, and give it access to the project(s) you want to interact with. You can read more about Azure machine identities here.
Add your identity ID to your InfisicalSecret resource
Once you have created your machine identity and added it to your project(s), you will need to add the identity ID to your InfisicalSecret resource. In the authentication.azureAuth.identityId
field, add the identity ID of the machine identity you created. See the example below for more details.
Make sure to also populate the secretsScope
field with the project slug
projectSlug
, environment slug envSlug
, and secrets path
secretsPath
that you want to fetch secrets from. Please see the example
below.
Example
apiVersion: secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
kind: InfisicalSecret
metadata:
name: infisicalsecret-sample-crd
spec:
authentication:
azureAuth:
identityId: <your-machine-identity-id>
# secretsScope is identical to the secrets scope in the universalAuth field in this sample.
secretsScope:
projectSlug: your-project-slug
envSlug: prod
secretsPath: "/path"
recursive: true
...
The GCP ID Token machine identity authentication method is used to authenticate with Infisical. The identity ID is stored in a field in the InfisicalSecret resource. This authentication method can only be used within GCP environments.
Create a machine identity
You need to create a machine identity, and give it access to the project(s) you want to interact with. You can read more about GCP machine identities here.
Add your identity ID to your InfisicalSecret resource
Once you have created your machine identity and added it to your project(s), you will need to add the identity ID to your InfisicalSecret resource. In the authentication.gcpIdTokenAuth.identityId
field, add the identity ID of the machine identity you created. See the example below for more details.
Make sure to also populate the secretsScope
field with the project slug
projectSlug
, environment slug envSlug
, and secrets path
secretsPath
that you want to fetch secrets from. Please see the example
below.
Example
apiVersion: secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
kind: InfisicalSecret
metadata:
name: infisicalsecret-sample-crd
spec:
authentication:
gcpIdTokenAuth:
identityId: <your-machine-identity-id>
# secretsScope is identical to the secrets scope in the universalAuth field in this sample.
secretsScope:
projectSlug: your-project-slug
envSlug: prod
secretsPath: "/path"
recursive: true
...
The GCP IAM machine identity authentication method is used to authenticate with Infisical. The identity ID is stored in a field in the InfisicalSecret resource. This authentication method can only be used both within and outside GCP environments.
Create a machine identity
You need to create a machine identity, and give it access to the project(s) you want to interact with. You can read more about GCP machine identities here.
Add your identity ID and service account token path to your InfisicalSecret resource
Once you have created your machine identity and added it to your project(s), you will need to add the identity ID to your InfisicalSecret resource. In the authentication.gcpIamAuth.identityId
field, add the identity ID of the machine identity you created.
You’ll also need to add the service account key file path to your InfisicalSecret resource. In the authentication.gcpIamAuth.serviceAccountKeyFilePath
field, add the path to your service account key file path. Please see the example below for more details.
Make sure to also populate the secretsScope
field with the project slug
projectSlug
, environment slug envSlug
, and secrets path
secretsPath
that you want to fetch secrets from. Please see the example
below.
Example
apiVersion: secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
kind: InfisicalSecret
metadata:
name: infisicalsecret-sample-crd
spec:
authentication:
gcpIamAuth:
identityId: <your-machine-identity-id>
serviceAccountKeyFilePath: "/path/to-service-account-key-file-path.json"
# secretsScope is identical to the secrets scope in the universalAuth field in this sample.
secretsScope:
projectSlug: your-project-slug
envSlug: prod
secretsPath: "/path"
recursive: true
...
The service token required to authenticate with Infisical needs to be stored in a Kubernetes secret. This block defines the reference to the name and namespace of secret that stores this service token. Follow the instructions below to create and store the service token in a Kubernetes secrets and reference it in your CRD.
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. Make sure you replace <your-service-token-here>
with your service token.
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.
Make sure to also populate the secretsScope
field with the, environment slug
envSlug
, and secrets path secretsPath
that you want to fetch secrets
from. Please see the example below.
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
secretsScope:
envSlug: <env-slug> # "dev", "staging", "prod", etc..
secretsPath: <secrets-path> # Root is "/"
...
Operator managed secrets
The managed secret properties specify where to store the secrets retrieved from your Infisical project. This includes defining the name and namespace of the Kubernetes secret that will hold these secrets. The Infisical operator will automatically create the Kubernetes secret in the specified name/namespace and ensure it stays up-to-date.
The managedSecretReference
field is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
Replace it with managedKubeSecretReferences
, which now accepts an array of references to support multiple managed secrets in a single InfisicalSecret CRD.
Example:
managedKubeSecretReferences:
- secretName: managed-secret
secretNamespace: default
creationPolicy: "Orphan"
The name of the managed Kubernetes secret to be created
The namespace of the managed Kubernetes secret to be created.
Override the default Opaque type for managed secrets with this field. Useful for creating kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson secrets.
Creation polices allow you to control whether or not owner references should be added to the managed Kubernetes secret that is generated by the Infisical operator. This is useful for tools such as ArgoCD, where every resource requires an owner reference; otherwise, it will be pruned automatically.
Available options
Orphan
(default)Owner
When creation policy is set to Owner
, the InfisicalSecret
CRD must be in
the same namespace as where the managed kubernetes secret.
Manged secret templating
Fetching secrets from Infisical as is via the operator may not be enough. This is where templating functionality may be helpful. Using Go templates, you can format, combine, and create new key-value pairs from secrets fetched from Infisical before storing them as Kubernetes Secrets.
This property controls what secrets are included in your managed secret when using templates.
When set to true
, all secrets fetched from your Infisical project will be added into your managed Kubernetes secret resource.
Use this option when you would like to sync all secrets from Infisical to Kubernetes but want to template a subset of them.
When set to false
, only secrets defined in the managedKubeSecretReferences[].template.data
field of the template will be included in the managed secret.
Use this option when you would like to sync only a subset of secrets from Infisical to Kubernetes.
Define secret keys and their corresponding templates. Each data value uses a Golang template with access to all secrets retrieved from the specified scope.
Secrets are structured as follows:
type TemplateSecret struct {
Value string `json:"value"`
SecretPath string `json:"secretPath"`
}
Example template configuration:
managedKubeSecretReferences:
- secretName: managed-secret
secretNamespace: default
template:
includeAllSecrets: true
data:
# Create new secret key that doesn't exist in your Infisical project using values of other secrets
NEW_KEY: "{{ .DB_PASSWORD.Value }}"
# Override an existing secret key in Infisical project with a new value using values of other secrets
API_URL: "https://api.{{.COMPANY_NAME.Value}}.{{.REGION.Value}}.com"
For this example, let’s assume the following secrets exist in your Infisical project:
DB_PASSWORD = "secret123"
COMPANY_NAME = "acme"
REGION = "us-east-1"
API_URL = "old-url" # This will be overridden
The resulting managed Kubernetes secret will then contain:
# Original secrets (from includeAllSecrets: true)
DB_PASSWORD = "secret123"
COMPANY_NAME = "acme"
REGION = "us-east-1"
# New and overridden templated secrets
NEW_KEY = "secret123" # New secret created from template
API_URL = "https://api.acme.us-east-1.com" # Existing secret overridden by template
To help transform your secrets further, the operator provides a set of built-in functions that you can use in your templates.
Available templating functions
Function name: decodeBase64ToBytes
Description: Given a base64 encoded string, this function will decodes the base64-encoded string. This function is useful when your secrets are already stored as base64 encoded value in Infisical.
Returns: The decoded base64 string as bytes.
Example:
The example below assumes that the BINARY_KEY_BASE64
secret is stored as a base64 encoded value in Infisical.
The resulting managed secret will contain the decoded value of BINARY_KEY_BASE64
.
managedKubeSecretReferences:
secretName: managed-secret
secretNamespace: default
template:
includeAllSecrets: true
data:
BINARY_KEY: "{{ decodeBase64ToBytes .BINARY_KEY_BASE64.Value }}"
Applying CRD
Once you have configured the InfisicalSecret CRD with the required fields, you can apply it to your cluster. After applying, you should notice that the managed secret has been created in the desired namespace your specified.
kubectl apply -f example-infisical-secret-crd.yaml
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
To make use of 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
```yaml
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
The definition file of the Kubernetes secret for the CA certificate can be structured like the following:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
name: custom-ca-certificate
type: Opaque
stringData:
ca.crt: |
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIEZzCCA0+gAwIBAgIUDk9+HZcMHppiNy0TvoBg8/aMEqIwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEL
...
BQAwDTELMAkGA1UEChMCUEgwHhcNMjQxMDI1MTU0MjAzWhcNMjUxMDI1MjE0MjAz
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
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
How it works
When a secret change occurs, the operator will check to see which deployments are using the operator-managed Kubernetes secret that received the update. Then, for each deployment that has this annotation present, a rolling update will be triggered.
Propagating labels & annotations
The operator will transfer all labels & annotations present on the InfisicalSecret
CRD to the managed Kubernetes secret to be created.
Thus, if a specific label is required on the resulting secret, it can be applied as demonstrated in the following example:
apiVersion: secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
kind: InfisicalSecret
metadata:
name: infisicalsecret-sample
labels:
label-to-be-passed-to-managed-secret: sample-value
annotations:
example.com/annotation-to-be-passed-to-managed-secret: "sample-value"
spec:
..
authentication:
...
managedKubeSecretReferences:
...
This would result in the following managed secret to be created:
apiVersion: v1
data: ...
kind: Secret
metadata:
annotations:
example.com/annotation-to-be-passed-to-managed-secret: sample-value
secrets.infisical.com/version: W/"3f1-ZyOSsrCLGSkAhhCkY2USPu2ivRw"
labels:
label-to-be-passed-to-managed-secret: sample-value
name: managed-token
namespace: default
type: Opaque
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