HashiCorp Vault on Kubernetes: Secret Injection Using the External Secrets Operator

In the modern cloud-native ecosystem, securely managing secrets is critical to application deployment and management. HashiCorp Vault is a powerful tool designed to handle secrets management, encryption as a service, and privileged access management. Integrating Vault with Kubernetes, a popular container orchestration platform, enhances security by injecting secrets directly into Kubernetes pods. The External Secrets Operator simplifies this process by dynamically injecting secrets from external sources like HashiCorp Vault into Kubernetes.

Have you ever wondered how to manage secrets securely in a Kubernetes environment? In this article, we will cover the following topics:

1. Introduction to HashiCorp Vault
2. Setting up Vault on Kubernetes
3. Installing the External Secrets Operator
4. Configuring the External Secrets Operator to Use HashiCorp Vault
5. Injecting Secrets into Kubernetes Pods

1. Introduction to HashiCorp Vault

HashiCorp Vault is an open-source tool that provides secure access to secrets, such as API keys, passwords, certificates, and other sensitive data. Vault offers robust features like dynamic secrets, leasing and renewing secrets, revocation, and detailed audit logs.

2. Setting up Vault on Kubernetes

We can use the official Helm chart to deploy Vault on Kubernetes, which simplifies the installation and management process. Here are the steps:

Adding the Helm Repository

helm repo add hashicorp https://helm.releases.hashicorp.com
helm repo update

Installing Vault

helm install vault hashicorp/vault --set "server.ha.enabled=true"

This command installs Vault in high-availability mode.

Initializing and Unsealing Vault

Once Vault is installed, it needs to be initialized and unsealed. You can do this by port-forwarding to the Vault pod and running the following commands: