Kubernetes KMS Plugin Provider for HashiCorp Vault

Kubernetes 1.10 (PR 55684, Docs) added the ability to:

• Abstract the encryption provider from the Kubernetes API server
• Manage the encryption external to the Kubernetes cluster in a remote KMS

This Kubernetes KMS Plugin Provider for HashiCorp Vault extends the previous functionality and enables an end state setup as shown in the following diagram.

About the Kubernetes KMS plugin provider for HashiCorp Vault

The Kubernetes KMS Plugin Provider for HashiCorp Vault implementation is a simple adapter that adapts calls from Kubernetes to HashiCorp Vault APIs using configuration that determines how the plugin finds the HashiCorp Vault installation. The plugin is implemented based on the Kubernetes contract as described in Implementing a KMS plugin.

Getting Started

Before building the KMS plugin provider for HashiCorp Vault, it is highly recommended that you read and understand Encrypting Secret Data at Rest and Using a KMS provider for data encryption to understand how Kubernetes encrypts secrets at rest.

Requirements

The Kubernetes KMS Plugin Provider for HashiCorp Vault has the following requirements:

• Kubernetes 1.10 or later
• Go 1.9 or later

Building the KMS plugin provider for HashiCorp Vault

To build the KMS plugin provider:

mkdir -p $GOHOME/github.com/oracle
cd $GOHOME/github.com/oracle
git clone [email protected]/oracle/kubernetes-vault-kms-plugin.git
go install github.com/oracle/kubernetes-vault-kms-plugin/vault/server

Starting the KMS plugin provider for HashiCorp Vault

Note: The KMS Plugin Provider for HashiCorp Vault must be running before starting the Kubernetes API server.

To start the plugin provider:

1. Create a vault-plugin.yaml configuration file as shown in the following sample, using values appropriate for your configuration.

keyNames:
  - kube-secret-enc-key
transitPath: /transit
ca-cert: /home/me/ca.cert
addr: https://example.com:8200
token: <token>

2. Run the following command to start the plugin.

$GOHOME/bin/server -socketFile=<location of socketfile.sock> -vaultConfig=<location of vault-plugin.yaml>

Configuring the Kubernetes cluster for the KMS Plugin Provider for HashiCorp Vault

To configure the KMS plugin provider for Vault on the Kubernetes API server, edit the encryption-config.yaml configuration file on the server as follows:

1. Include a provider of type kms in the providers array.
2. Specify vault as the name of the plugin provider.
3. Set the following properties as appropriate for your configuration:

• endpoint: Listen address of the gRPC server (KMS plugin). The endpoint is a UNIX domain socket.
• cachesize: Number of data encryption keys (DEKs) to be cached in the clear.

kind: EncryptionConfig
apiVersion: v1
resources:
 - resources:
   - secrets
   providers:
   - kms:
       name: vault
       endpoint: unix:///tmp/kms/socketfile.sock
       cachesize: 100
   - identity: {}  

See Configuring the KMS provider.

Verifying the configuration

You can verify the configuration by starting the Kubernetes API server and testing the features as described in Encrypting your data with the KMS provider.