Manage MySQL credentials using KubeVault operator

mysql credentials using kubevault operator

Through the use of HashiCorp Vault’s dynamic secrets engine, managing MySQL credentials with KubeVault offers a safe and automated method of handling database secrets in Kubernetes. By integrating directly with Vault, KubeVault can create policy-driven, temporary MySQL credentials on demand, eliminating the need for hardcoded credentials or static Kubernetes Secrets. This gives teams the option to enforce least privilege access and automatically cycle credentials without downtime, while also removing the dangers associated with long-lived passwords and human secret management.

Utilizing KubeVault’s dynamic secret engine, manage MySQL credentials using Kubevault to do away with static secrets. This allows for automatic credential generation, rotation, revocation, and policy-based access control to be implemented right within Kubernetes for safe and legal database operations.

KubeVault allows Kubernetes-based applications to easily request MySQL credentials, which are provisioned as Kubernetes Secrets automatically and maintained current throughout the application’s lifecycle. By managing rotation and revocation in accordance with time-to-live criteria, Vault makes sure that compromised credentials are promptly rendered invalid. For production-grade MySQL setups, this method improves security posture, auditability, and compliance while significantly lowering operational overhead for DevOps and database teams.

Organizations may standardize secret management across teams and environments without altering how applications use credentials by using KubeVault for MySQL. The credentials that developers previously acquired from Kubernetes Secrets are constantly issued, rotated, and revoked by Vault behind the scenes. This paradigm makes it easier to confidently manage large-scale, cloud-native MySQL deployments by streamlining procedures and enhancing security.

Why Use KubeVault for MySQL Secrets Management

KubeVault enables a contemporary, automated method of managing MySQL secrets by integrating the capabilities of HashiCorp Vault into Kubernetes. KubeVault provides dynamic, transient MySQL credentials that are dynamically generated and cycled by Vault, as opposed to static credentials saved as plain Kubernetes Secrets. Because passwords expire fast and are no longer required to be manually handled or embedded in configuration files or container images, this method significantly lowers the danger of credential breaches or misuse.

To streamline database security, manage MySQL credentials using KubeVault. Credentials are automatically cycled, issued on demand, and secured by Vault without requiring manual secret management or downtime. Credentials are still used by applications like standard Kubernetes Secrets, but they are automatically updated with Vault. Policies in Vault define who can access what, ensuring least-privilege access for developers, CI/CD pipelines, and services. This reduces human mistake, does away with manual interventions during rotations, and guarantees that credentials are always current without generating downtime.

Additionally, KubeVault improves auditability and compliance, two important aspects of production-grade MySQL systems. Vault provides a complete audit trail by recording each request for a secret, credential rotation, and revocation. As a result, companies can more easily comply with legal obligations while upholding robust security procedures. All things considered, KubeVault makes managing MySQL credentials easier, improves security posture, and frees up teams to concentrate on providing features rather than manually managing private information.

Deploy Vault on Kubernetes

Pre-requisites

HashiCorp Vault addresses the shortcomings of Kubernetes’ native Secrets by offering a reliable method for handling sensitive data, such as database access, API keys, and passwords. Unlike normal Kubernetes Secrets, Vault offers enterprise-grade security with encryption, fine-grained access control, dynamic credential generation, and automated rotation. It provides thorough audit logs, many authentication choices, and a seamless interaction with Kubernetes to meet compliance requirements.

You must configure your environment to manage MySQL credentials using KubeVault operator before you can deploy Vault in Kubernetes.

Prerequisites:

Familiarity with Vault and Kubernetes concepts such as clusters, pods, services, and secrets.
A running Kubernetes cluster (this guide uses Kind)).
Helm installed on your system.

Once these requirements are met, you can use KubeVault to deploy HashiCorp Vault in Kubernetes. Ensure that KubeVault is already configured in your cluster before starting. Using your cluster ID, you can get a free license from the AppsCode License Server. Use the following command to get the cluster ID:

$ kubectl get ns kube-system -o jsonpath='{.metadata.uid}'
e5b4a1a0-5a67-4657-b370-db7200108cae

After providing the necessary information and hitting the submit button, the license server will email a “license.txt” file. To install KubeVault, run the following commands:

$ helm install kubevault oci://ghcr.io/appscode-charts/kubevault \
  --version v2025.2.10 \
  --namespace kubevault --create-namespace \
  --set-file global.license=/path/to/the/license.txt \
  --wait --burst-limit=10000 --debug

Verify the installation by the following command:

$ kubectl get pods --all-namespaces -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=kubevault"
NAMESPACE   NAME                                                  READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
kubevault   kubevault-kubevault-operator-f89555d55-rwf49          1/1     Running   0          64m
kubevault   kubevault-kubevault-webhook-server-6497bb6d69-4wvpr   1/1     Running   0          64m

Within a short time all the pods in kubevault namespace will start running. If all pod statuses are running, we can move on to the next phase.

For any confusion regarding KubeVault installation, you can follow the KubeVault-Setup page.

Create a Namespace

After that, we’ll create a new namespace in which we will deploy Vault Server. In this case, we have created vault-demo namespace, but you can create namespace with any name that you want. To create the namespace, we can use the following command:

$ kubectl create namespace demo
namespace/demo created

Deploy VaultServer via Kubernetes KubeVault operator

We need to create a yaml configuration to deploy HashiCorp Vault Server on Kubernetes. We will apply the following yaml:

apiVersion: kubevault.com/v1alpha2
kind: VaultServer
metadata:
  name: vault
  namespace: demo
spec:
  allowedSecretEngines:
    namespaces:
      from: All
  version: 1.18.4
  replicas: 3
  backend:
    raft:
      storage:
        storageClassName: "standard"
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: 1Gi
  unsealer:
    secretShares: 5
    secretThreshold: 3
    mode:
      kubernetesSecret:
        secretName: vault-keys
  terminationPolicy: WipeOut

In this yaml,

spec.replicas specifies the number of Vault nodes to deploy. It has to be a positive number. Note: Amazon EKS does not support HA for Vault. As we using Amazon EKS as our backend it has to be 1.
spec.version specifies the name of the VaultServerVersion CRD. This CRD holds the image name and version of the Vault, Unsealer, and Exporter.
spec.allowedSecretEngines defines the Secret Engine informations which to be granted in this Vault Server.
spec.backend is a required field that contains the Vault backend storage configuration.
spec.unsealer specifies Unsealer configuration. Unsealer handles automatic initializing and unsealing of Vault.
spec.terminationPolicy field is Wipeout means that vault will be deleted without restrictions. It can also be “Halt”, “Delete” and “DoNotTerminate”. Follow this guide to learn more about KubeVault’s termination policy.

We will save this yaml configuration to vault.yaml. Then create the above HashiCorp Vault Server object.

$ kubectl apply -f vault.yaml
vaultserver.kubevault.com/vault created

This will create a VaultServer custom resource. The KubeVault Kubernetes Operator will watch this and create three HashiCorp Vault Server pods in the specified namespace. If all the above steps are handled correctly and the Vault is deployed, you will see that the following objects are created:

$ kubectl get pod,vaultserver -n demo
NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/vault-0              2/2     Running   0          7m5s
pod/vault-1              2/2     Running   0          6m39s
pod/vault-2              2/2     Running   0          6m15s

NAME                              REPLICAS   VERSION   STATUS   AGE
vaultserver.kubevault.com/vault   3          1.18.4    Ready    7m29s

We have successfully deployed Vault in Kubernetes with the Kubernetes KubeVault operator. Now, we will connect to the deployed Vault Server and verify whether it is usable or not. First, check the status,

$ kubectl get vaultserver -n demo
NAME    REPLICAS   VERSION   STATUS   AGE
vault   3          1.12.1    Ready    5m48s

From the output above, we can see that the VaultServer is ready to use.

Install KubeDB on Kubernetes

To set up KubeDB in our Kubernetes cluster, we need a license. Through the Appscode License Server, we can get a free enterprise license. We must provide our Kubernetes cluster ID to obtain a license. Run the following command below to get the cluster ID.

$ kubectl get ns kube-system -o jsonpath='{.metadata.uid}'
e5b4a1a0-5a67-4657-b370-db7200108cae

The license server will email us with a “license.txt” file attached after we provide the necessary data. Run the following commands listed below to install KubeDB.

$ helm install kubedb oci://ghcr.io/appscode-charts/kubedb \
  --version v2025.4.30 \
  --namespace kubedb --create-namespace \
  --set-file global.license=/path/to/the/license.txt \
  --wait --burst-limit=10000 --debug

Verify the installation by the following command,

kubectl get pods --all-namespaces -l "app.kubernetes.io/instance=kubedb"
NAMESPACE   NAME                                           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
kubedb      kubedb-kubedb-autoscaler-0                     1/1     Running   0          6m3s
kubedb      kubedb-kubedb-ops-manager-0                    1/1     Running   0          6m3s
kubedb      kubedb-kubedb-provisioner-0                    1/1     Running   0          6m3s
kubedb      kubedb-kubedb-webhook-server-fb76b7889-qf4ng   1/1     Running   0          6m3s
kubedb      kubedb-petset-5dbd674f4b-hnmwj                 1/1     Running   0          6m3s
kubedb      kubedb-sidekick-6756758dd6-zl5w5               1/1     Running   0          6m3s

Create a MySQL database

We need to create a yaml manifest to install MySQL on Kubernetes. And we will apply this yaml below,

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: MySQL
metadata:
  name: mysql-quickstart
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: "9.1.0"
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
  deletionPolicy: Delete

We will save this yaml configuration to mysql.yaml. Then create the above MySQL object.

$ kubectl apply -f mysql.yaml
mysql.kubedb.com/mysql-quickstart created

If all the above steps are handled correctly and the MySQL is deployed, you will see that the following objects are created:

$ kubectl get pod,mysql -n demo
NAME                        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/mysql-quickstart-0      1/1     Running   0          2m59s


NAME                                    VERSION   STATUS   AGE
mysql.kubedb.com/mysql-quickstart       6.2.14    Ready    3m2s

Manage MySQL credentials using KubeVault

Enable and Configure MySQL Secret Engine

When a SecretEngine crd object is created, the KubeVault operator will enable a secret engine on specified path and configure the secret engine with given configurations.

A sample SecretEngine object for the MySQL secret engine:

apiVersion: engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: SecretEngine
metadata:
  name: mysql-secret-engine
  namespace: demo
spec:
  vaultRef:
    name: vault
    namespace: demo
  mysql:
    databaseRef:
      name: mysql-quickstart
      namespace: demo
    pluginName: "mysql-database-plugin"

Let’s deploy SecretEngine:

$ kubectl apply -f mysql-secretengine.yaml
secretengine.engine.kubevault.com/mysql-secret-engine created

Wait till the status become Success:

$ kubectl get secretengine -n demo
NAME                    STATUS    AGE
mysql-secret-engine     Success   10s

Since the status is Success, the MySQL secret engine is enabled and successfully configured. You can use kubectl describe secretengine -n <namepsace> <name> to check for error events, if any.

Create MySQL Role

By using MySQLRole, you can create a role on the Vault server in Kubernetes native way.

A sample MySQLRole object is given below:

apiVersion: engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: MySQLRole
metadata:
  name: mysql-role
  namespace: demo
spec:
  secretEngineRef:
    name: mysql-secret-engine
  creationStatements:
    - "CREATE USER '{{name}}'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY '{{password}}';"
    - "GRANT SELECT ON *.* TO '{{name}}'@'%';"
  defaultTTL: 1h
  maxTTL: 24h

Let’s deploy MySQLRole:

$ kubectl apply -f mysqlrole.yaml
mysqlrole.engine.kubevault.com/mysql-role created

$ kubectl get mysqlrole -n demo
NAME           STATUS    AGE
mysql-role     Success   34m

You can also check from Vault that the role is created. To resolve the naming conflict, name of the role in Vault will follow this format: k8s.{clusterName}.{metadata.namespace}.{metadata.name}.

Don’t have Vault CLI? Download and configure it as described.

$ vault secrets list
Path                 Type         Accessor              Description
you-database-path    database     database_cac6c5ee     n/a


$ vault list your-database-path/roles
Keys
----
k8s.-.demo.mysql-role

$ vault read your-database-path/roles/k8s.-.demo.mysql-role
Key                      Value
---                      -----
creation_statements      [CREATE USER '{{name}}'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY '{{password}}'; GRANT SELECT ON *.* TO '{{name}}'@'%';]
credential_type          password
db_name                  k8s.aff2b01f-2e23-426d-bd47-dfbae5a82163.demo.mysql-quickstart
default_ttl              1h
max_ttl                  24h
renew_statements         []
revocation_statements    []
rollback_statements      []

If we delete the MySQL, then the respective role will be deleted from the Vault.

$ kubectl delete mysqlrole -n demo mysql-role
mysqlrole.engine.kubevault.com "mysql-role" deleted

Check from Vault whether the role exists:

$ vault read your-database-path/roles/k8s.-.demo.mysql-role
No value found at your-database-path/roles/k8s.-.demo.mysql-role

$ vault list your-database-path/roles
No value found at your-database-path/roles/

Generate MySQL credentials

Here, we are going to make a request to Vault for MySQL credentials by creating mysql-access-req SecretAccessRequest in demo namespace.

apiVersion: engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: SecretAccessRequest
metadata:
  name: mysql-access-req
  namespace: demo
spec:
  roleRef:
    kind: MySQLRole
    name: mysql-role
    namespace: demo
  subjects:
    - kind: ServiceAccount
      name: demo-sa
      namespace: demo

Here, spec.roleRef is the reference of MySQL against which credentials will be issued. spec.subjects is the reference to the object or user identities a role binding applies to it will have read access of the credential secret.

Now, we are going to create SecretAccessRequest.

$ kubectl apply -f mysqlSecretAccessRequest.yaml
secretaccessrequest.engine.kubevault.com/mysql-access-req created

$ kubectl get secretaccessrequest -n demo
NAME                 AGE
mysql-access-req     72m

Database credentials will not be issued until it is approved. The KubeVault operator will watch for the approval in the status.conditions[].type field of the request object. You can use KubeVault CLI, a kubectl plugin, to approve or deny SecretAccessRequest.

# using KubeVault CLI as kubectl plugin to approve request
$ kubectl vault approve secretaccessrequest mysql-access-req -n demo
secretaccessrequests mysql-access-req approved


$ kubectl get secretaccessrequest -n demo mysql-access-req -o yaml
apiVersion: engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: SecretAccessRequest
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration: |
      {"apiVersion":"engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1","kind":"SecretAccessRequest","metadata":{"annotations":{},"name":"mysql-access-req","namespace":"demo"},"spec":{"roleRef":{"kind":"MySQLRole","name":"mysql-role","namespace":"demo"},"subjects":[{"kind":"ServiceAccount","name":"demo-sa","namespace":"demo"}]}}
    vaultservers.kubevault.com/name: vault
    vaultservers.kubevault.com/namespace: demo
  creationTimestamp: "2025-07-29T13:10:53Z"
  finalizers:
  - kubevault.com
  generation: 1
  name: mysql-access-req
  namespace: demo
  resourceVersion: "482082"
  uid: 0f0f60b6-895c-49b0-9456-d5dafe798345
spec:
  roleRef:
    kind: MySQLRole
    name: mysql-role
    namespace: demo
  subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: demo-sa
    namespace: demo
status:
  conditions:
  - lastTransitionTime: "2025-07-29T13:11:16Z"
    message: 'This was approved by: kubectl vault approve secretaccessrequest'
    observedGeneration: 1
    reason: KubectlApprove
    status: "True"
    type: Approved
  - lastTransitionTime: "2025-07-29T13:11:17Z"
    message: The requested credentials successfully issued.
    observedGeneration: 1
    reason: SuccessfullyIssuedCredential
    status: "True"
    type: Available
  lease:
    duration: 1h0m0s
    id: k8s.aff2b01f-2e23-426d-bd47-dfbae5a82163.mysql.demo.mysql-secret-engine/creds/k8s.aff2b01f-2e23-426d-bd47-dfbae5a82163.demo.mysql-role/Q6KRwHWvwpDFGPDOksZyFmZU
    renewable: true
  observedGeneration: 1
  phase: Approved
  secret:
    name: mysql-access-req-hf6e63
    namespace: demo

Once SecretAccessRequest is approved, the KubeVault operator will issue credentials from Vault and create a secret containing the credential. It will also create a role and rolebinding so that spec.subjects can access secret. You can view the information in the status field.

$ kubectl get secretaccessrequest mysql-access-req -n demo -o json | jq '.status'
{
  "conditions": [
    {
      "lastTransitionTime": "2025-07-29T13:11:16Z",
      "message": "This was approved by: kubectl vault approve secretaccessrequest",
      "observedGeneration": 1,
      "reason": "KubectlApprove",
      "status": "True",
      "type": "Approved"
    },
    {
      "lastTransitionTime": "2025-07-29T13:11:17Z",
      "message": "The requested credentials successfully issued.",
      "observedGeneration": 1,
      "reason": "SuccessfullyIssuedCredential",
      "status": "True",
      "type": "Available"
    }
  ],
  "lease": {
    "duration": "1h0m0s",
    "id": "k8s.aff2b01f-2e23-426d-bd47-dfbae5a82163.mysql.demo.mysql-secret-engine/creds/k8s.aff2b01f-2e23-426d-bd47-dfbae5a82163.demo.mysql-role/Q6KRwHWvwpDFGPDOksZyFmZU",
    "renewable": true
  },
  "observedGeneration": 1,
  "phase": "Approved",
  "secret": {
    "name": "mysql-access-req-hf6e63",
    "namespace": "demo"
  }
}

$ kubectl get secret -n demo mysql-access-req-hf6e63 -o yaml
apiVersion: v1
data:
  password: d3BHQkdyVXhPSkQtd09nYnE5a3M=
  username: di1rdWJlcm5ldGVzLWs4cy5hZmYyYjAtMFdNS2Y4VDQ=
kind: Secret
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: "2025-07-29T13:11:17Z"
  name: mysql-access-req-hf6e63
  namespace: demo
  ownerReferences:
  - apiVersion: engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
    blockOwnerDeletion: true
    controller: true
    kind: SecretAccessRequest
    name: mysql-access-req
    uid: 0f0f60b6-895c-49b0-9456-d5dafe798345
  resourceVersion: "482078"
  uid: 84ed4f9b-f84d-4a60-8a65-d35e4be2a45f
type: Opaque

If SecretAccessRequest is deleted, then credential lease (if any) will be revoked.

$ kubectl delete secretaccessrequest -n demo mysql-access-req-hf6e63
secretaccessrequest.engine.kubevault.com "mysql-access-req-hf6e63" deleted

If SecretAccessRequest is Denied, then the KubeVault operator will not issue any credential.

$ kubectl vault deny secretaccessrequest mysql-access-req-hf6e63 -n demo
  Denied

Conclusion

Teams can handle database secrets in a secure, automated, and centralized manner by opting to manage MySQL credentials using KubeVault. This lowers risk and conforms to contemporary DevOps and compliance procedures. MySQL’s built-in security features, when used appropriately, provide a strong enterprise-grade basis for safeguarding vital data infrastructure. This talk has shown how MySQL’s security system, which includes auditing, encryption, authorization, and authentication, builds a multi-layered protection for the database environment. Teams may improve this foundation with dynamic secrets management, automated credential rotation, and policy-driven access by integrating KubeVault for MySQL credential management. This will drastically lower the risks related to static secrets.

We have looked at how HashiCorp Vault’s secrets engine integrates with MySQL’s built-in security features, ranging from simple authentication to more sophisticated choices like field-level encryption and safe network isolation. KubeVault offers a centralized, automated method of credential lifecycle management by extending Vault’s functionality straight into Kubernetes. A strong, defense-in-depth security model that complies with contemporary compliance standards is produced by combining MySQL’s TLS/SSL and access controls with Vault’s RBAC and secret rotation.

Administrators may preserve MySQL’s performance and dependability while managing secrets in a uniform manner by integrating KubeVault into MySQL operations. This combination allows for the agility needed for today’s cloud-native apps while guaranteeing the security of sensitive data.

KubeDB

KubeStash New

Stash

KubeVault

Voyager

ConfigSyncer

Guard

RESOURCES

Vault Kubernetes Deployment

Auto Initialization & Unsealing

Vault Backup & Restore

Consume KubeVault Secrets with CSI

Manage DB Users Privileges

Storage Backend

Authentication Method

Database Secret Engine

Azure Secret Engine

AWS Secret Engine

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Kubectl Plugin