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

Introduction to Secrets disaster recovery and backups

The Kubernetes ecosystem offers various possibilities for managing sensitive data and credential info, commonly known as Secrets. In this dynamic and complex environment, the concept of disaster recovery and backups has become extremely critical. When speaking of backups, it could mean multiple things, depending on the architecture of the Secrets management.

One approach to Secrets management in Kubernetes is using Kubernetes’ built-in key-value store. All the cluster data, including Secrets, are stored in etcd. If a disaster occurs, a backup of etcd can help restore the entire cluster state, including the Secrets. However, the restoration process in this case could be complex and might have limitations, especially when considering the sensitive nature of Secrets.

Another approach is to use a centralized Secrets management system, such as Hashicorp Vault, which can interface with Kubernetes. In such systems, Secrets...