In Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) Pro clusters, you can use keys that are created in Key Management Service (KMS) to encrypt Kubernetes Secrets. This topic describes how to use a key that is managed by KMS to encrypt Secrets for an ACK Pro cluster.
Table of contents
Prerequisites
Item | Description |
KMS key | A KMS key is created in the KMS console. The key belongs to the region where your ACK Pro cluster resides. ACK Pro clusters support default keys, software-protected keys, and hardware-protected keys. For more information about the key management feature of KMS, see Getting started with keys. For more information about KMS billing, see Billing. Important After you enable Secret encryption, do not use the KMS API or the KMS console to disable or delete the key that is used to encrypt and decrypt Secrets. Otherwise, the API server becomes unavailable and cannot retrieve Secrets or service account objects. As a result, service interruptions occur. |
Authorization | The following requirements must be met:
|
Overview of Secret encryption
Kubernetes Secrets are used to store and manage sensitive data, such as the passwords of applications, Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates, and credentials to download Docker images. Kubernetes stores Secrets in etcd of a cluster. For more information, see Secrets.
ACK Pro clusters allow you to use a key created in KMS to encrypt Secrets. The KMS provider mechanism of Kubernetes is used during encryption. A KMS provider uses envelope encryption to encrypt and decrypt Secrets that are stored in etcd. Procedures for Secret encryption and decryption:
When you use a Kubernetes Secret to store a password, the API server generates a random data encryption key (DEK) to encrypt the Secret. Then, the API server sends the DEK to KMS. KMS uses the specified key to encrypt the DEK and returns the encrypted DEK to the API server. The API server then stores the encrypted Secret and DEK in etcd.
When you decrypt the Kubernetes Secret, the system calls the Decrypt operation of KMS to decrypt the DEK first. Then, the system uses the plaintext DEK to decrypt the Kubernetes Secret and returns the decrypted Secret.
For more information, see The KMS provider and Use envelope encryption.
Enable Secret encryption for an ACK Pro cluster
Enable Secret encryption when you create an ACK Pro cluster
Log on to the ACK console and click Clusters in the left-side navigation pane.
On the Clusters page, click Cluster Templates in the upper-right corner. On the Select Cluster Template page, find Professional Managed Kubernetes Cluster and click Create.
On the Managed Kubernetes tab, click Show Advanced Options at the bottom of the page. Find Secret Encryption, select Select Key, and then select a key from the drop-down list. Set the other parameters based on your business requirements and click Create Cluster. For more information about other parameters, see Create an ACK Pro cluster.
Log on to the ActionTrail console. In the left-side navigation pane, click Event Detail Query. On the Event Detail Query page, check for encryption and decryption operations that are performed by assuming the aliyuncsmanagedsecurityrole role. If these operations exist, the Secret encryption feature is enabled.
If the Secret encryption feature is no longer required, click the name of the cluster that you want to manage in the cluster list. On the Cluster Information page, click the Basic Information tab. In the Basic Information section, turn off Secret Encryption.
Enable Secret encryption for an existing ACK Pro cluster
Log on to the ACK console and click Clusters in the left-side navigation pane.
On the Clusters page, click the name of the ACK Pro cluster that you want to manage. On the details page of the cluster, click the Basic Information tab. In the Basic Information section, turn on Secret Encryption.
If this is the first time that you enable Secret encryption, follow the instructions and click Go to RAM console to navigate to the Cloud Resource Access Authorization page. Then, click Confirm Authorization Policy.
NoteIf you want to enable Secret encryption, make sure that the RAM user or RAM role that you use is assigned one of the following RBAC roles: the administrator role and the O&M engineer role. For more information, see Grant RBAC permissions to RAM users or RAM roles.
If you want to assign the aliyuncsmanagedsecurityrole role, make sure that you log on to the ACK console with an Alibaba Cloud account or a RAM user or RAM role that has the RAM management permissions.
In the Secret Encryption dialog box, select an existing key and click OK.
If no key is available, click create keys to create a key in the KMS console. For more information, see Create a CMK.
If the status of the cluster changes from Updating to Running, the Secret encryption feature is enabled for the cluster.
If you no longer need the Secret encryption feature, you can turn off Secret Encryption in the Basic Information section.
Use automatic key rotation to encrypt Secrets
You can use the automatic key rotation feature provided by KMS to encrypt Secrets. During a key rotation, the system uses the original key to encrypt existing Secrets and uses the new key to encrypt new Secrets. For more information about automatic key rotation, see Configure key rotation.
To force the system to use the new key to encrypt existing Secrets, run the following command after the key is rotated:
kubectl get secrets --all-namespaces -o json | kubectl annotate --overwrite -f - encryption-key-rotation-time="$(date -u +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z')"FAQ
After Secret encryption is enabled, is ciphertext returned if I use kubectl to query a Secret?
No. After Secret encryption is enabled, plaintext is returned if you use kubectl to query a Secret. The Secret encryption feature encrypts the Secrets that are stored in etcd. After you enable Secret encryption, Secrets are stored in etcd as ciphertext. However, if you use a kubectl client to query a Secret by calling the Secret API provided by the API server of the cluster, plaintext is returned for the Secret.
How do I prohibit RAM users or RAM roles from enabling or disabling the Secret encryption feature for existing ACK Pro clusters?
To prohibit RAM users or RAM roles from enabling or disabling the Secret encryption feature for existing ACK Pro clusters, attach the following policy to the RAM users or RAM roles. For more information, see Create a custom RAM policy.
{
"Action": [
"cs:UpdateKMSEncryption"
],
"Effect": "Deny",
"Resource": [
"*"
]
}