Unni P

Posted on Aug 17, 2023 • Edited on Aug 18, 2023 • Originally published at iamunnip.hashnode.dev

Infisical - Open Source SecretOps - Kubernetes Setup

#infisical #kubernetes #opensource #secretops

In this article, we will talk about Infisical, an open-source secret management tool and how we can setup on a local Kubernetes cluster

Introduction

An open-source, end-to-end secret management platform
Enables teams to easily manage and sync their environment variables, API keys, secrets and other configurations

Features

Intuitive dashboard
Client SDK's
Infisical CLI
Native platform integrations
Automatic Kubernetes deployment secret reloads
Complete control of data when hosted by ourself
Secret versioning
Point-in-Time recovery
Role-based access control
Secret scanning and leak prevention
Effortless on-premise deployment

Prerequisites

kubectl

Check my article to install kubectl

$ kubectl version --client --short
Client Version: v1.27.4
Kustomize Version: v5.0.1

Helm

Check my article to install Helm

$ helm version
version.BuildInfo{Version:"v3.12.1", GitCommit:"f32a527a060157990e2aa86bf45010dfb3cc8b8d", GitTreeState:"clean", GoVersion:"go1.20.4"}

Kubernetes cluster

For this demo, I'm using Rancher Desktop on Windows

$ kubectl get nodes

NAME              STATUS   ROLES                  AGE   VERSION
rancher-desktop   Ready    control-plane,master   27s   v1.27.4+k3s1

Installation

Add the Infisical Helm repository

$ helm repo add infisical-helm-charts 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/infisical/helm-charts/helm/charts/' 

$ helm repo update

Install Infisical using the below command.

It will install all the necessary components in the infisical namespace and also install Nginx ingress controller

$ helm install -n infisical infisical infisical-helm-charts/infisical --set ingress.nginx.enabled=true --create-namespace

NAME: infisical
LAST DEPLOYED: Thu Aug 17 19:43:06 2023
NAMESPACE: infisical
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None

Check the status of the components and the load balancer service created by Nginx ingress controller

Copy the Load Balancer IP, we will need it in the next step

$ kubectl -n infisical get pods

NAME                                                  READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
infisical-frontend-8588c9f65-sxz8d                    1/1     Running   0          3m19s
infisical-frontend-8588c9f65-nsnjr                    1/1     Running   0          3m19s
mongodb-0                                             1/1     Running   0          3m19s
infisical-backend-6777b66f58-79d84                    1/1     Running   0          3m19s
infisical-backend-6777b66f58-g2fwb                    1/1     Running   0          3m19s
infisical-ingress-nginx-controller-7785998dc6-lqxgk   1/1     Running   0          3m19s

```bash
$ kubectl -n infisical get svc

NAME                                           TYPE           CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP      PORT(S)                      AGE
infisical-backend                              ClusterIP      10.43.203.3     <none>           4000/TCP                     9m47s
infisical-frontend                             ClusterIP      10.43.41.186    <none>           3000/TCP                     9m47s
infisical-ingress-nginx-controller-admission   ClusterIP      10.43.42.222    <none>           443/TCP                      9m47s
mongodb                                        ClusterIP      10.43.112.139   <none>           27017/TCP                    9m47s
infisical-ingress-nginx-controller             LoadBalancer   10.43.63.38     172.31.134.241   80:30035/TCP,443:31538/TCP   9m47s
```

Initial Setup

In our local setup, we are skipping SMTP configuration and accessing the dashboard via the LoadBalancer IP address http://172.31.134.241/signup
You can also set up the hostname using ingress.hostName=<your-hostname> option during the installation
Create an account for the administrator by clicking the "Continue with Email" option

Enter your email id and click the "Get Started" option

Enter the details accordingly and click "Sign Up" option

Once you sign up, you will need to download "Emergency Kit" and save it somewhere safe. If you get locked out of your account, we can use this emergency kit to unlock it

Now we are redirected to the homepage of Infisical

Configuration

Create a new project by clicking the "Add New Project" button from the dashboard and name your project "MyApp"

Once our project is created, we will get an interface like below. Here we can see different environments like Development, Staging and Production. We are going to add the secrets in the Development environment by clicking the "Go to Development" option

We can copy secrets from other environments, upload env files etc. We can create a new secret by clicking the "Add a new secret" option

Add the required secrets and save the changes

Secrets Operator Setup

First, we need to generate a Service Token from our project settings

Select the "Create token" option and enter a name for the service token. Select the environment, secrets path, expiration and permissions according to your use case and click on "Create" option

Once the service token is created, copy and save it somewhere safe. We need this token to configure the secrets operator

Back in our Kubernetes cluster, we need to install and configure the Infisical secrets operator to sync our secrets to the cluster

$ helm install -n infisical infisical-secrets-operator infisical-helm-charts/secrets-operator

NAME: infisical-secrets-operator
LAST DEPLOYED: Thu Aug 17 21:05:56 2023
NAMESPACE: infisical
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None

Check the infisical namespace, we can see a secret controller manager pod is created and it's up and running

$ kubectl -n infisical get pods

NAME                                                  READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
infisical-frontend-8588c9f65-sxz8d                    1/1     Running   0          84m
infisical-frontend-8588c9f65-nsnjr                    1/1     Running   0          84m
mongodb-0                                             1/1     Running   0          84m
infisical-backend-6777b66f58-79d84                    1/1     Running   0          84m
infisical-backend-6777b66f58-g2fwb                    1/1     Running   0          84m
infisical-ingress-nginx-controller-7785998dc6-lqxgk   1/1     Running   0          84m
infisical-secre-controller-manager-56c6f9b6d-lqk2v    2/2     Running   0          100s

Create a new namespace for our application

$ kubectl create ns myapp

namespace/myapp created

Create a Kubernetes secret containing the Service Token

$ kubectl -n myapp create secret generic myapp-service-token --from-literal=infisicalToken=st.64de3f83a96c27c805827382.a7acb98a535125353af9135009f9b974.3d41003562f52a730823347dd4a01f96

secret/myapp-service-token created

```bash
$ kubectl -n myapp get secrets

NAME                  TYPE     DATA   AGE
myapp-service-token   Opaque   1      25s
```

Now we can sync our secrets to our cluster by creating an InfisicalSecret CRD

apiVersion: secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
kind: InfisicalSecret
metadata:
  name: myapp-infisical-secret
  namespace: myapp
spec:
  hostAPI: http://infisical-backend.infisical.svc.cluster.local:4000/api
  resyncInterval: 10
  authentication:
    serviceToken:
      serviceTokenSecretReference:
        secretName: myapp-service-token
        secretNamespace: myapp
      secretsScope:
        envSlug: dev
        secretsPath: "/"
  managedSecretReference:
    secretName: myapp-managed-secret
    secretNamespace: myapp

```bash
$ kubectl apply -f myapp-infisical-secret.yml
infisicalsecret.secrets.infisical.com/myapp-infisical-secret created
```

Once it's created, check the status of the CRD

From the status, we can see our secrets are synced to our cluster
```
$ kubectl -n myapp get infisicalsecrets

NAME                     AGE
myapp-infisical-secret   42s
```

```bash
$ kubectl -n myapp describe infisicalsecrets myapp-infisical-secret

Name:         myapp-infisical-secret
Namespace:    myapp
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  secrets.infisical.com/v1alpha1
Kind:         InfisicalSecret
Metadata:
  Creation Timestamp:  2023-08-17T16:07:04Z
  Generation:          1
  Resource Version:    4927
  UID:                 bb156757-1528-4827-afe9-09916fcd4372
Spec:
  Authentication:
    Service Token:
      Secrets Scope:
        Env Slug:      dev
        Secrets Path:  /
      Service Token Secret Reference:
        Secret Name:       myapp-service-token
        Secret Namespace:  myapp
  Host API:                http://infisical-backend.infisical.svc.cluster.local:4000/api
  Managed Secret Reference:
    Secret Name:       myapp-managed-secret
    Secret Namespace:  myapp
  Resync Interval:     10
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2023-08-17T16:07:04Z
    Message:               Infisical controller has located the Infisical token in provided Kubernetes secret
    Reason:                OK
    Status:                True
    Type:                  secrets.infisical.com/LoadedInfisicalToken
    Last Transition Time:  2023-08-17T16:07:05Z
    Message:               Infisical controller has started syncing your secrets
    Reason:                OK
    Status:                True
    Type:                  secrets.infisical.com/ReadyToSyncSecrets
    Last Transition Time:  2023-08-17T16:07:05Z
    Message:               Infisical has found 0 deployments which are ready to be auto redeployed when secrets change
    Reason:                OK
    Status:                True
    Type:                  secrets.infisical.com/AutoRedeployReady
Events:                    <none>
```

We can verify the secrets have been synced to our cluster by checking the myapp-managed-secret

$ kubectl -n myapp get secrets myapp-managed-secret

NAME                   TYPE     DATA   AGE
myapp-managed-secret   Opaque   4      5m16s

```bash
$ kubectl -n myapp describe secrets myapp-managed-secret

Name:         myapp-managed-secret
Namespace:    myapp
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  secrets.infisical.com/version: W/"a5a-hBx83Z5L+nuphYXlN17htm8jAjo"

Type:  Opaque

Data
====
MYSQL_HOST:      9 bytes
MYSQL_PASSWORD:  13 bytes
MYSQL_PORT:      4 bytes
MYSQL_DATABASE:  13 bytes
```

Application Deployment

Deploy a sample Nginx application using the below manifest file

The annotation secrets.infisical.com/auto-reload: "true" ensures that it automatically redeploys when managed secrets are changed

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: myapp
  namespace: myapp
  labels:
    app: myapp
  annotations: 
    secrets.infisical.com/auto-reload: "true"
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: maypp
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: myapp
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: myapp
        image: nginx:1.25.2
        envFrom:
        - secretRef:
            name: myapp-managed-secret
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80

```bash
$ kubectl apply -f .\myapp-deployment.yml
deployment.apps/myapp created
```

Once our application is up and running, exec into the pod and list the environment variables to view our secrets

$ kubectl -n myapp get pods

NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-77c586c9ff-5xsxv   1/1     Running   0          48s

```bash
$ kubectl -n myapp exec -it myapp-77c586c9ff-5xsxv -- bash

root@myapp-77c586c9ff-5xsxv:/# env | grep -i MYSQL
MYSQL_PORT=3306
MYSQL_PASSWORD=mysqlPassword
MYSQL_HOST=mysqlHost
MYSQL_DATABASE=mysqlDatabase
```

That's all for now

Reference

https://infisical.com/docs/integrations/platforms/kubernetes

https://docs.rancherdesktop.io/getting-started/installation/

Top comments (4)

Goutham Pratapa • Aug 28 '23 • Edited

Hey @iamunnip ,

I read this article

dev.to/iamunnip/infisical-open-sou...

I really liked the article and I have a couple of questions around it .

Say, if i install infiscal and add a secrets like MYSQl_PASSWORD. will the secrets be shared across namespaces ?
How are the secrets stored in DB, will they be masked ? I am sure they are masked but just curious.
Can i have two versions of a secrets. more like a tagging

eg:

on 25-08-2023 I enter a secret MYSQL_PASSWORD=goutham which is used on a namespace goutham

on 30-08-2023 I have another namespace infisical which needs a different MYSQL_PASSWORD=infisical.

for this to happen should i create another infisical secret?

Maidul Islam • Aug 28 '23 • Edited

Hi @pratapaprasanna! To answer your questions:

Currently, the managed Kubernetes secret that is auto created for you by the InfisicalSecret CRD cannot be shared across different namespaces (due to built in restrictions of Kubernetes Secrets). What is your use case for wanting the same secrets in different namespaces?
Yes, the secrets will be fully encrypted in the DB. You can read more about the architecture here: infisical.com/docs/security/overview
We currently don't support multiple versions of a single key to be fetched. However, if you want to have two keys that are the same name but different value, I'd take a look into folders for better secret organization infisical.com/docs/documentation/p...

Goutham Pratapa • Aug 29 '23

Hey thank you for a quick response,
I understand the limitations with sharing secrets across namespaces wanted to know if there is any work-around in infisical.

Context:
We have 10-20 apps running with some set of basic configurations,secrets.I wanted to know if there is a way in infisical where we can define a infisical secret and that can be shared across different namespaces and users can add new configurations/secrets possibly with same name and ending with a tag on top it based on the necessity.

Maidul Islam • Sep 1 '23

Currently the only way to get the same secrets into different name space is to define a new InfisicalSecret CRD in each name space. I understand that you have many namespaces so this is very tedious.

As a feature request, what we can do is allow you to list namespaces where you'd like the same managed secret to be created in. Would this be helpful for you? If so, can you please put a request for it here github.com/Infisical/infisical/issues

DEV Community

Infisical - Open Source SecretOps - Kubernetes Setup

Introduction

Features

Prerequisites

Installation

Initial Setup

Configuration

Secrets Operator Setup

Application Deployment

Reference

Top comments (4)

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