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Manage External Vault using KubeVault operator
The KubeVault operator can manage policies and secret engines of Vault servers which are not provisioned by the KubeVault operator. These Vault servers can be running outside a Kubernetes cluster or running inside a Kubernetes cluster but provisioned using a Helm chart.
The KubeVault operator can perform the following operations for externally provisioned Vault servers:
Manage Vault policy using VaultPolicy and VaultPolicyBinding. Guides can be found here.
Manage AWS secret engine using AWSRole and SecretAccessRequest. Guides can be found here.
Manage PostgreSQL Database secret engine using PostgresRole and SecretAccessRequest. Guides can be found here.
Manage MongoDB Database secret engine using MongoDBRole and SecretAccessRequest. Guides can be found here.
In this tutorial, we are going to show how we can use KubeVault operator for Vault which is not provisioned by KubeVault operator.
Connecting with Vault
We have a Vault running which can be accessible by the address http://vault.default.svc:8200 from Kubernetes cluster. KubeVault operator use AppBinding to communicate with Vault. AppBinding provides a way of specifying Vault connection information and credential. Following authentication methods are currently supported by KubeVault operator using AppBinding:
- Token Auth Method
- Kubernetes Auth Method
- AWS IAM Auth Method
- Userpass Auth Method
- TLS Certificates Auth Method
Vault authentication using AppBinding can be found in here.
In this tutorial, we are going to use Kubernetes Auth Method.
Now, we are going to enable and configure Kubenetes auth in Vault.
Create a service account and cluster role bindings that allow that service account to authenticate with the review token API.
$ cat docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/token-reviewer-sa.yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: ServiceAccount metadata: name: token-reviewer namespace: demo $ cat docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/token-review-binding.yaml apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1beta1 kind: ClusterRoleBinding metadata: name: role-tokenreview-binding roleRef: apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io kind: ClusterRole name: system:auth-delegator subjects: - kind: ServiceAccount name: token-reviewer namespace: demo $ kubectl apply -f docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/token-reviewer-sa.yaml serviceaccount/token-reviewer created $ kubectl apply -f docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/token-review-binding.yaml clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/role-tokenreview-binding createdEnable Kubernetes auth in Vault.
$ vault auth enable kubernetes Success! Enabled Kubernetes auth method at: kubernetes/Configure Kubernetes auth in Vault.
$ kubectl get sa token-reviewer -n demo -o jsonpath="{.secrets[*]['name']}" token-reviewer-token-fvqsv $ export SA_JWT_TOKEN=$(kubectl get secret token-reviewer-token-fvqsv -n demo -o jsonpath="{.data.token}" | base64 --decode; echo) $ export SA_CA_CRT=$(kubectl get secret token-reviewer-token-fvqsv -n demo -o jsonpath="{.data['ca\.crt']}" | base64 --decode; echo) $ vault write auth/kubernetes/config \ token_reviewer_jwt="$SA_JWT_TOKEN" \ kubernetes_host="https://192.168.99.100:8443" \ kubernetes_ca_cert="$SA_CA_CRT" Success! Data written to: auth/kubernetes/config
We are going to create a Vault policy. It has permission to manage policy and Kubernetes role in Vault.
$ cat docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/policy-admin.hcl
path "sys/policy/*" {
capabilities = ["create", "update", "read", "delete", "list"]
}
path "sys/policy" {
capabilities = ["read", "list"]
}
path "auth/kubernetes/role" {
capabilities = ["read", "list"]
}
path "auth/kubernetes/role/*" {
capabilities = ["create", "update", "read", "delete", "list"]
}
$ vault policy write policy-admin docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/policy-admin.hcl
Success! Uploaded policy: policy-admin
We are going to assign the above policy to a service account policy-admin so that we can use that service account to manage policy and Kubernetes role.
$ cat docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/policy-admin-sa.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
name: policy-admin
namespace: demo
$ kubectl apply -f docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/policy-admin-sa.yaml
serviceaccount/policy-admin created
$ vault write auth/kubernetes/role/policy-admin-role \
bound_service_account_names=policy-admin \
bound_service_account_namespaces=demo \
policies=policy-admin \
ttl=24h
Success! Data written to: auth/kubernetes/role/policy-admin-role
Now, we are going create AppBinding that will contain Vault information. For authentication, service account policy-admin and Kubernetes role policy-admin-role will be used.
$ cat docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/vault-app.yaml
apiVersion: appcatalog.appscode.com/v1alpha1
kind: AppBinding
metadata:
name: vault-app
namespace: demo
spec:
clientConfig:
url: http://vault.default.svc:8200
caBundle: 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
parameters:
apiVersion: config.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: VaultServerConfiguration
path: kubernetes
vaultRole: policy-admin-role
kubernetes:
serviceAccountName: policy-admin
$ kubectl apply -f docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/vault-app.yaml
appbinding.appcatalog.appscode.com/vault-app created
If KubeVault operator uses the above AppBinding vault-app, then it will have the permission that is given to service account policy-admin by policy-admin-role role. Now, we are going to create VaultPolicy using vault-app AppBinding.
$ cat docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/demo-policy.yaml
apiVersion: policy.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: VaultPolicy
metadata:
name: demo-policy
namespace: demo
spec:
ref:
name: vault-app
namespace: demo
policyDocument: |
path "secret/*" {
capabilities = ["create", "read", "update", "delete", "list"]
}
$ kubectl apply -f docs/examples/guides/provider/external-vault/demo-policy.yaml
vaultpolicy.policy.kubevault.com/demo-policy created
$ kubectl get vaultpolicies -n demo
NAME STATUS AGE
demo-policy Success 3s
# To resolve the naming conflict, name of policy in Vault will follow this format: 'k8s.{clusterName}.{metadata.namespace}.{metadata.name}'. For this case, it is 'k8s.-.demo.demo-policy'.
$ vault policy list
default
k8s.-.demo.demo-policy
policy-admin
root
$ vault policy read k8s.-.demo.demo-policy
path "secret/*" {
capabilities = ["create", "read", "update", "delete", "list"]
}