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Manage AWS IAM Secrets using the KubeVault operator
The AWS secrets engine generates AWS access credentials dynamically based on IAM policies. The AWS IAM credentials are time-based and are automatically revoked when the Vault lease expires. You can easily manage the AWS secret engine using KubeVault operator.
You need to be familiar with the following CRDs:
Before you begin
- Install KubeVault operator in your cluster from here.
To keep things isolated, we are going to use a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.
$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created
In this tutorial, we are going to create a role using AWSRole and issue credential using SecretAccessRequest.
Vault Server
If you don’t have a Vault Server, you can deploy it by using the KubeVault operator.
The KubeVault operator can manage policies and secret engines of Vault servers which are not provisioned by the KubeVault operator. You need to configure both the Vault server and the cluster so that the KubeVault operator can communicate with your Vault server.
Now, we have the AppBinding that contains connection and authentication information about the Vault server.
$ kubectl get appbinding -n demo
NAME AGE
vault 50m
$ kubectl get appbinding -n demo vault -o yaml
apiVersion: appcatalog.appscode.com/v1alpha1
kind: AppBinding
metadata:
creationTimestamp: "2021-08-16T08:23:38Z"
generation: 1
labels:
app.kubernetes.io/instance: vault
app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: kubevault.com
app.kubernetes.io/name: vaultservers.kubevault.com
name: vault
namespace: demo
ownerReferences:
- apiVersion: kubevault.com/v1alpha1
blockOwnerDeletion: true
controller: true
kind: VaultServer
name: vault
uid: 6b405147-93da-41ff-aad3-29ae9f415d0a
resourceVersion: "602898"
uid: b54873fd-0f34-42f7-bdf3-4e667edb4659
spec:
clientConfig:
service:
name: vault
port: 8200
scheme: http
parameters:
apiVersion: config.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: VaultServerConfiguration
kubernetes:
serviceAccountName: vault
tokenReviewerServiceAccountName: vault-k8s-token-reviewer
usePodServiceAccountForCSIDriver: true
path: kubernetes
vaultRole: vault-policy-controller
Enable and Configure AWS 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 AWS secret engine:
apiVersion: engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: SecretEngine
metadata:
name: aws-secret-engine
namespace: demo
spec:
vaultRef:
name: vault
aws:
credentialSecret: aws-cred
region: us-east-1
leaseConfig:
lease: 1h
leaseMax: 1h
To configure the AWS secret engine, you need to provide aws_access_key_id and aws_secret_access_key through a Kubernetes secret.
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
name: aws-cred
namespace: demo
data:
access_key: eyJtc2ciOiJleGFtcGxlIn0= # base64 encoded aws access key id
secret_key: eyJtc2ciOiJleGFtcGxlIn0= # base64 encoded aws secret access key
Let’s deploy SecretEngine:
$ kubectl apply -f docs/examples/guides/secret-engines/aws/secret.yaml
secret/aws-cred created
$ kubectl apply -f docs/examples/guides/secret-engines/aws/secretengine.yaml
secretengine.engine.kubevault.com/aws-secret-engine created
Wait till the status become Success:
$ kubectl get secretengines -n demo
NAME STATUS
aws-secret-engine Success
Since the status is Success, the AWS secret engine is enabled and successfully configured. You can use kubectl describe secretengine -n <namepsace> <name> to check for error events if any.
Create AWS Role
By using AWSRole, you can create a role on the Vault server in Kubernetes native way.
A sample AWSRole object is given below:
apiVersion: engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: AWSRole
metadata:
name: aws-role
namespace: demo
spec:
secretEngineRef:
name: aws-secret-engine
credentialType: iam_user
policyDocument: |
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": "ec2:*",
"Resource": "*"
}
]
}
Let’s deploy AWSRole:
$ kubectl apply -f docs/examples/guides/secret-engines/aws/secretenginerole.yaml
awsrole.engine.kubevault.com/aws-role created
$ kubectl get awsrole -n demo
NAME STATUS
aws-role Success
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 here
$ vault list your-aws-path/roles
Keys
----
k8s.-.demo.aws-role
$ vault read your-aws-path/roles/k8s.-.demo.aws-role
Key Value
--- -----
credential_type iam_user
default_sts_ttl 0s
iam_groups <nil>
iam_tags <nil>
max_sts_ttl 0s
permissions_boundary_arn n/a
policy_arns <nil>
policy_document {"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[{"Effect":"Allow","Action":"ec2:*","Resource":"*"}]}
role_arns <nil>
user_path n/a
If we delete the AWSRole, then the respective role will be deleted from the Vault.
$ kubectl delete awsrole -n demo aws-role
awsrole.engine.kubevault.com "aws-role" deleted
Check from Vault whether the role exists:
$ vault read your-aws-path/roles/k8s.-.demo.aws-role
No value found at your-aws-path/roles/k8s.-.demo.aws-role
$ vault list aws/roles
No value found at aws/roles/
Generate AWS credentials
Here, we are going to make a request to Vault for AWS credential by creating aws-cred-rqst SecretAccessRequest in demo namespace.
apiVersion: engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: SecretAccessRequest
metadata:
name: aws-cred-rqst
namespace: demo
spec:
roleRef:
kind: AWSRole
name: aws-role
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: demo-sa
namespace: demo
Here, spec.roleRef is the reference of AWSRole against which credentials will be issued. spec.subjects is the reference to the object or user identities a role binding applies to and it will have read access of the credential secret.
Now, we are going to create an SecretAccessRequest.
$ kubectl apply -f docs/examples/guides/secret-engines/aws/secretaccessrequest.yaml
secretaccessrequest.engine.kubevault.com/aws-cred-rqst created
$ kubectl get secretaccessrequest -n demo
NAME AGE
aws-cred-rqst 35s
AWS 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 aws-cred-rqst -n demo
approved
$ kubectl get secretaccessrequest -n demo aws-cred-rqst -o yaml
apiVersion: engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: SecretAccessRequest
metadata:
name: aws-cred-rqst
namespace: demo
spec:
roleRef:
name: aws-role
namespace: demo
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: demo-sa
namespace: demo
status:
conditions:
- lastUpdateTime: "2019-11-13T12:18:07Z"
message: This was approved by kubectl vault approve secretaccessrequest
reason: KubectlApprove
type: Approved
lease:
duration: 1h0m0s
id: your-aws-path/creds/k8s.-.demo.aws-role/X9dCjtiQCykbuJ7UmzM64xfh
renewable: true
secret:
name: aws-cred-rqst-ryym7w
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 aws-cred-rqst -n demo -o json | jq '.status'
{
"conditions": [
{
"lastUpdateTime": "2019-11-13T12:18:07Z",
"message": "This was approved by kubectl vault approve secretaccessrequest",
"reason": "KubectlApprove",
"type": "Approved"
}
],
"lease": {
"duration": "1h0m0s",
"id": "your-aws-path/creds/k8s.-.demo.aws-role/X9dCjtiQCykbuJ7UmzM64xfh",
"renewable": true
},
"secret": {
"name": "aws-cred-rqst-ryym7w"
}
}
$ kubectl get secret -n demo aws-cred-rqst-ryym7w -o yaml
apiVersion: v1
data:
access_key: QUtJQVdTWV....=
secret_key: RVA1dXdXWnVlTX....==
security_token: ""
kind: Secret
metadata:
name: aws-cred-rqst-ryym7w
namespace: demo
ownerReferences:
- apiVersion: engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
controller: true
kind: SecretAccessRequest
name: aws-cred-rqst
type: Opaque
If SecretAccessRequest is deleted, then credential lease (if any) will be revoked.
$ kubectl delete secretaccessrequest -n demo aws-cred-rqst
secretaccessrequest.engine.kubevault.com "aws-cred-rqst" deleted
If SecretAccessRequest is Denied, then the KubeVault operator will not issue any credential.
$ kubectl vault deny secretaccessrequest aws-cred-rqst -n demo
Denied
Note: Once SecretAccessRequest is
Approved, you can not changespec.roleRefandspec.subjectsfield.