Book Image

Kubernetes Secrets Handbook

By : Emmanouil Gkatziouras, Rom Adams, Chen Xi
Book Image

Kubernetes Secrets Handbook

By: Emmanouil Gkatziouras, Rom Adams, Chen Xi

Overview of this book

Securing Secrets in containerized apps poses a significant challenge for Kubernetes IT professionals. This book tackles the critical task of safeguarding sensitive data, addressing the limitations of Kubernetes encryption, and establishing a robust Secrets management system for heightened security for Kubernetes. Starting with the fundamental Kubernetes architecture principles and how they apply to the design of Secrets management, this book delves into advanced Kubernetes concepts such as hands-on security, compliance, risk mitigation, disaster recovery, and backup strategies. With the help of practical, real-world guidance, you’ll learn how to mitigate risks and establish robust Secrets management as you explore different types of external secret stores, configure them in Kubernetes, and integrate them with existing Secrets management solutions. Further, you'll design, implement, and operate a secure method of managing sensitive payload by leveraging real use cases in an iterative process to enhance skills, practices, and analytical thinking, progressively strengthening the security posture with each solution. By the end of this book, you'll have a rock-solid Secrets management solution to run your business-critical applications in a hybrid multi-cloud scenario, addressing operational risks, compliance, and controls.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Part 1:Introduction to Kubernetes Secrets Management
6
Part 2: Advanced Topics – Kubernetes Secrets in a Production Environment
10
Part 3: Kubernetes Secrets Providers

Summary

While security measures depend on the organization’s compliance and regulation requirements, a risk-based assessment will define the appropriate actions to harden your information systems. However, securing Kubernetes Secrets is not optional but a must.

Given the current trend of adopting hybrid multi-cloud patterns, having one cluster’s etcd compromised, whether it is on the cloud or self-managed, could lead to compromising the entire environment. These types of attack leverage in-cluster network connections or a fleet management tool for which the token would be recorded within the compromised etcd. Such a scenario would lead to a viral attack infecting every connected endpoint.

As a remediation, the native Kubernetes encryption – more specifically, the kms provider – is a best practice security pattern supported by all the major cloud and software providers.

Remember, security is not a finite game but a continuous effort. Regular audits...