Integrate GitOps Operator with Secrets Store CSI driver for Secrets Management

The introduction of the Secrets Store CSI Driver, particularly in the OCP v4.14 release, marks a significant step in externalizing secrets management. This driver facilitates the secure attachment of secrets into application pods, ensuring that sensitive information is accessed securely and efficiently.

In this documentation, we aim to guide GitOps users through the integration of the SSCSI Driver with the GitOps operator, enhancing the security and efficiency of your GitOps workflows. This integration represents a strategic advancement in our commitment to secure, compliant, and efficient operations within the GitOps framework.

Steps to integrate GitOps with Secrets Store CSI driver

NOTE: The Secrets Store CSI driver Operator will only be available on OCP versions v4.14+.

Install the Secrets Store CSI driver Operator(SSCSID)
Install the GitOps Operator
Store secrets management related resources in the Git repository
Configure SSCSID to mount secrets from an external secrets store to a CSI volume
Configure GitOps managed resources to use the mounted secrets

There are 3 providers supported by the SSCSID Operator, refer the below links for more information:

AWS Secrets Manager
AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store
Azure Key Vault

Integration guidance with an example using AWS Secrets Manager

Prerequisites

Your cluster is installed on AWS and uses AWS Security Token Service (STS).
You have configured AWS Secrets Manager to store the required secrets.
You have extracted and prepared the ccoctl binary.
You have installed the jq CLI tool.
You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.
You have installed GitOps Operator and have a GitOps repository ready to use the secrets.

Install the SSCSID

To install the Secrets Store CSI driver:

Install the Secrets Store CSI Driver Operator:

a. Log in to the web console.

b. Click Operators → OperatorHub.

c. Locate the Secrets Store CSI Driver Operator by typing "Secrets Store CSI" in the filter box.

d. Click the Secrets Store CSI Driver Operator button.

e. On the Secrets Store CSI Driver Operator page, click Install.

f. On the Install Operator page, ensure that:
- All namespaces on the cluster (default) is selected.
- Installed Namespace is set to openshift-cluster-csi-drivers.
g. Click Install.

After the installation finishes, the Secrets Store CSI Driver Operator is listed in the Installed Operators section of the web console.
Create the ClusterCSIDriver instance for the driver (secrets-store.csi.k8s.io):

a. Click Administration → CustomResourceDefinitions → ClusterCSIDriver.

b. On the Instances tab, click Create ClusterCSIDriver. Use the following YAML file:
```
apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: ClusterCSIDriver
metadata:
  name: secrets-store.csi.k8s.io
spec:
  managementState: Managed
```
c. Click Create.

Store resources of AWS Secrets Manager in the GitOps repository

Add resources for AWS Secrets Manager provider

a. In your GitOps repository, create a directory and add aws-provider.yaml file in it to deploy resources for AWS Secrets Manager.

Example aws-provider.yaml file

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: csi-secrets-store-provider-aws
  namespace: openshift-cluster-csi-drivers
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: csi-secrets-store-provider-aws-cluster-role
rules:
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources: ["serviceaccounts/token"]
  verbs: ["create"]
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources: ["serviceaccounts"]
  verbs: ["get"]
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources: ["pods"]
  verbs: ["get"]
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources: ["nodes"]
  verbs: ["get"]
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: csi-secrets-store-provider-aws-cluster-rolebinding
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: csi-secrets-store-provider-aws-cluster-role
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: csi-secrets-store-provider-aws
  namespace: openshift-cluster-csi-drivers
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: DaemonSet
metadata:
  namespace: openshift-cluster-csi-drivers
  name: csi-secrets-store-provider-aws
  labels:
    app: csi-secrets-store-provider-aws
spec:
  updateStrategy:
    type: RollingUpdate
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: csi-secrets-store-provider-aws
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: csi-secrets-store-provider-aws
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: csi-secrets-store-provider-aws
      hostNetwork: false
      containers:
        - name: provider-aws-installer
          image: public.ecr.aws/aws-secrets-manager/secrets-store-csi-driver-provider-aws:1.0.r2-50-g5b4aca1-2023.06.09.21.19
          imagePullPolicy: Always
          args:
            - --provider-volume=/etc/kubernetes/secrets-store-csi-providers
          resources:
            requests:
              cpu: 50m
              memory: 100Mi
            limits:
              cpu: 50m
              memory: 100Mi
          securityContext:
            privileged: true
          volumeMounts:
            - mountPath: "/etc/kubernetes/secrets-store-csi-providers"
              name: providervol
            - name: mountpoint-dir
              mountPath: /var/lib/kubelet/pods
              mountPropagation: HostToContainer
      tolerations:
        - operator: Exists
      volumes:
        - name: providervol
          hostPath:
            path: "/etc/kubernetes/secrets-store-csi-providers"
        - name: mountpoint-dir
          hostPath:
            path: /var/lib/kubelet/pods
            type: DirectoryOrCreate
      nodeSelector:
        kubernetes.io/os: linux

b. Add secret-provider-app.yaml in your GitOps repository to create an application for resources of AWS Secrets Manager.

Example secret-provider-app.yaml file

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: secret-provider-app
  namespace: openshift-gitops
spec:
  destination:
    namespace: openshift-cluster-csi-drivers
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
  project: default
  source:
    path: path/to/aws-provider/resources
    repoURL: https://github.com/<your-domain>/gitops.git
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
    prune: true
    selfHeal: true

Sync up resources with default Argo CD to deploy them in the cluster

Add argocd.argoproj.io/managed-by: openshift-gitops label to openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace. Apply resources managed by GitOps in your cluster. Now you can observe the csi-secrets-store-provider-aws daemonset keeps progressing/syncing. We will resolve this issue in the next step.

Configure SSCSID to mount secrets from AWS Secrets Manager

Grant privileged access to the csi-secrets-store-provider-aws service account by running the following command:

oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged -z csi-secrets-store-provider-aws -n openshift-cluster-csi-drivers

Grant permission to allow the service account to read the AWS secret object:

a. Create a credentialsrequest-dir-aws folder under a namespace specific directory in your GitOps repository as the credentials request is namespaced. In this documentation we assume you want to mount a secret to a deployment under dev namespace which is in the /environments/dev/ directory.

b. Create a YAML file with the following configuration for the credentials request in /environments/dev/credentialsrequest-dir-aws/:

In this documentation, we are going to mount a secret to the deployment pod in dev namespace.

Example credentialsrequest.yaml file

apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
kind: CredentialsRequest
metadata:
  name: aws-provider-test
  namespace: openshift-cloud-credential-operator
spec:
  providerSpec:
    apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
    kind: AWSProviderSpec
    statementEntries:
    - action:
      - "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue"
      - "secretsmanager:DescribeSecret"
      effect: Allow
      resource: "<aws_secret_arn>"
  secretRef:
    name: aws-creds
    namespace: dev
  serviceAccountNames:
  - default

NOTE
The <aws_region> of <aws_secret_arn> has to match the cluster region. If it doesn't match, you could create a replication of your secret in the region where your cluster is on. Run the below command to find your cluster region.

oc get infrastructure cluster -o jsonpath='{.status.platformStatus.aws.region}'

Example output

us-east-2

c. Retrieve the OIDC provider by running the following command:

oc get --raw=/.well-known/openid-configuration | jq -r '.issuer'

Example output

https://<oidc_provider_name>

Copy the OIDC provider name <oidc_provider_name> from the output to use in the next step.

d. Use the ccoctl tool to process the credentials request by running the following command:

ccoctl aws create-iam-roles --name gitops-role --region=<aws_region> --credentials-requests-dir=<path-to-credentialsrequest> --identity-provider-arn arn:aws:iam::<aws_account>:oidc-provider/<oidc_provider_name> --output-dir=credrequests-ccoctl-output

Example output

2023/05/15 18:10:34 Role arn:aws:iam::<aws_account_id>:role/gitops-role-dev-aws-creds created
2023/05/15 18:10:34 Saved credentials configuration to: credrequests-ccoctl-output/manifests/dev-aws-creds-credentials.yaml
2023/05/15 18:10:35 Updated Role policy for Role gitops-role-dev-aws-creds

e. Check the role policy on AWS. The Resource is the Secret ARN you want to mount to your resources, and you must confirm the <aws_region> of Resource in role policy matches the cluster region.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue",
                "secretsmanager:DescribeSecret"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:secretsmanager:<aws_region>:<aws_account_id>:secret:your-secret-xxxxxx"
        }
    ]
}

f. Bind the service account with the role ARN by running the following command:

oc annotate -n dev sa/default eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn="<aws_role_arn>"

Create a secret provider class to define your secrets store provider:

SecretProviderClass resource is namespaced. Create a secret-provider-class-aws.yaml file in the same directory where the target deployment is located in your GitOps repository.

Example secret-provider-class-aws.yaml file

apiVersion: secrets-store.csi.x-k8s.io/v1
kind: SecretProviderClass
metadata:
  name: my-aws-provider
  namespace: dev                          # Has to match the namespace of the resource which is going to use the secret
spec:
  provider: aws                           # Specify the provider as aws
  parameters:                             # Specify provider-specific parameters
    objects: |
      - objectName: "<your-secret-name>"
        objectType: "secretsmanager"

After pushing this YAML file to your GitOps repository, the namespace-scoped SecretProviderClass resource will be populated in the target application page in Argo CD UI. You may need to manually Sync the SecretProviderClass resource if the Sync Policy your application is not set to Auto.

Configure the resource to use this mounted secret

Add volume mounts configuration in the target resource

In this documentation we will add volume mounting to a deployment and configure the container pod to use the mounted secret.

Example deployment file to use the secret provider class

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: taxi
  namespace: dev
spec:
  replicas: 1
  template:
    metadata:
      ...
    spec:
      containers:
        - image: nginxinc/nginx-unprivileged:latest
          imagePullPolicy: Always
          name: taxi
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8080
          volumeMounts:
            - name: secrets-store-inline
              mountPath: "/mnt/secrets-store"
              readOnly: true
          resources: {}
    serviceAccountName: default
    volumes:
      - name: secrets-store-inline
        csi:
          driver: secrets-store.csi.k8s.io
          readOnly: true
          volumeAttributes:
          secretProviderClass: "my-aws-provider"
    ...

Click REFRESH on the target application page to apply the updated deployment manifest. Then you can observe that all resources will be successfully synced up.

Verification List the secrets in the pod mount:

oc exec <deployment-pod-name> -n dev -- ls /mnt/secrets-store/

Example output

<your-secret-name>

View a secret in the pod mount:

oc exec <deployment-pod-name> -n dev -- cat /mnt/secrets-store/<your-secret-name>

Example output

<secret_value>

Additional Information

Determining the Cloud Credential Operator mode

Refer Determining the Cloud Credential Operator mode

Configuring an AWS cluster to use short-term credentials

Refer Configuring an AWS cluster to use short-term credentials

Configure your AWS cluster to use AWS Security Token Service (STS)

Note
Migration of a non-STS cluster to use STS is not supported, this is only for development or test purpose.

Follow Steps to in-place migrate an OpenShift Cluster to STS

Obtain the `ccoctl` tool

It's possible to obtain the ccoctl tool from the mirror of latest OCP versions (it's available for the latest versions of all the newer minor releases).

It's also possible to obtain it from the Cloud Credential Operator:

Find the name of the Cloud Credential Operator pod:

$ oc get pod -n openshift-cloud-credential-operator -l app=cloud-credential-operator
NAME                                        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
cloud-credential-operator-xxxxxxxxxx-yyyyyy   2/2     Running   0          6h33m

Copy the ccoctl binary from the pod to a local directory:

$ oc cp -c cloud-credential-operator openshift-cloud-credential-operator/<cco_pod_name>:/usr/bin/ccoctl ./ccoctl

Change the ccoctl permissions to make the binary executable and check that it is possible to use it:

$ chmod 775 ./ccoctl
$ ./ccoctl --help

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Integrate GitOps with Secrets Management.md

Integrate GitOps with Secrets Management.md

Integrate GitOps Operator with Secrets Store CSI driver for Secrets Management

Steps to integrate GitOps with Secrets Store CSI driver

Integration guidance with an example using AWS Secrets Manager

Prerequisites

Install the SSCSID

Store resources of AWS Secrets Manager in the GitOps repository

Configure SSCSID to mount secrets from AWS Secrets Manager

Configure the resource to use this mounted secret

Additional Information

Determining the Cloud Credential Operator mode

Configuring an AWS cluster to use short-term credentials

Configure your AWS cluster to use AWS Security Token Service (STS)

Obtain the `ccoctl` tool

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Integrate GitOps with Secrets Management.md

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Integrate GitOps with Secrets Management.md

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Integrate GitOps Operator with Secrets Store CSI driver for Secrets Management

Steps to integrate GitOps with Secrets Store CSI driver

Integration guidance with an example using AWS Secrets Manager

Prerequisites

Install the SSCSID

Store resources of AWS Secrets Manager in the GitOps repository

Configure SSCSID to mount secrets from AWS Secrets Manager

Configure the resource to use this mounted secret

Additional Information

Determining the Cloud Credential Operator mode

Configuring an AWS cluster to use short-term credentials

Configure your AWS cluster to use AWS Security Token Service (STS)

Obtain the ccoctl tool

Obtain the `ccoctl` tool