Skip to content

IBM Secrets Manager

IBM Cloud Secret Manager

External Secrets Operator integrates with IBM Cloud Secret Manager for secret management.

Authentication

We support API key and trusted profile container authentication for this provider.

API key secret

To generate your key (for test purposes we are going to generate from your user), first got to your (Access IAM) page:

iam

On the left, click "API Keys", then click on "Create"

iam-left

Pick a name and description for your key:

iam-create-key

You have created a key. Press the eyeball to show the key. Copy or save it because keys can't be displayed or downloaded twice.

iam-create-success

Create a secret containing your apiKey:

kubectl create secret generic ibm-secret --from-literal=apiKey='API_KEY_VALUE'

Trusted Profile Container Auth

To create the trusted profile, first got to your (Access IAM) page:

iam

On the left, click "Access groups":

iam-left

Pick a name and description for your group:

iam-left

Click on "Access", and then on "Assign":

iam-left

Click on "Assign Access", select "IAM services", and pick "Secrets Manager" from the pick-list:

iam-left

Scope to "All resources" or "Resources based on selected attributes":

iam-left

Select the "SecretsReader" service access policy:

iam-left

Click "Add" and "Assign" to save the access group.

Next, on the left, click "Trusted profiles":

iam-left

Press "Create" and pick a name and description for your profile:

iam-create-key

Scope the profile's access.

The compute service type will be "Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud". Additional restriction can be configured based on cloud or cluster metadata, or if "Specific resources" is selected, restriction to a specific cluster.

iam-create-key

Click "Add" next to the previously created access group and then "Create", to associate the necessary service permissions.

iam-create-key

To use the container-based authentication, it is necessary to map the API server serviceAccountToken auth token to the "external-secrets" and "external-secrets-webhook" deployment descriptors. Example below:

...
spec:
  ...
  template:
    ...
    spec:
      containers:
        ...
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /var/run/secrets/tokens
           name: sa-token
      ...
      volumes:
      - name: sa-token
        projected:
          defaultMode: 420
          sources:
          - serviceAccountToken:
              audience: iam
              expirationSeconds: 3600
              path: sa-token
...

Update secret store

Be sure the ibm provider is listed in the Kind=SecretStore

apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: SecretStore
metadata:
  name: ibm-store
spec:
  provider:
    ibm:
      serviceUrl: "https://<SECRETS_MANAGER_ID>.<REGION>.secrets-manager.appdomain.cloud"
      auth:
        containerAuth:
          profile: "test container auth profile"
          tokenLocation: "/var/run/secrets/tokens/sa-token"
          iamEndpoint: "https://iam.cloud.ibm.com"
        secretRef:
          secretApiKeySecretRef:
            name: ibm-secret
            key: apiKey
NOTE: In case of a ClusterSecretStore, Be sure to provide namespace in secretApiKeySecretRef with the namespace where the secret resides.

NOTE: Only secretApiKeySecretRef or containerAuth should be specified, depending on authentication method being used.

To find your serviceURL, under your Secrets Manager resource, go to "Endpoints" on the left.

See here for a list of publicly available endpoints.

iam-create-success

Secret Types

We support the following secret types of IBM Secrets Manager:

  • arbitrary
  • username_password
  • iam_credentials
  • imported_cert
  • public_cert
  • private_cert
  • kv

To define the type of secret you would like to sync you need to prefix the secret id with the desired type. If the secret type is not specified it is defaulted to arbitrary:

apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: ExternalSecret
metadata:
  name: ibm-sample
spec:
  # [...]
  data:
  - secretKey: test
    remoteRef:
      # defaults to type=arbitrary
      key: xxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
  - secretKey: usr_pass
    remoteRef:
      key: username_password/yyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyyyyy
      property: username
  - secretKey: iam_cred
    remoteRef:
      key: iam_credentials/zzzzzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzz
  - secretKey: imp_cert
    remoteRef:
      key: imported_cert/zzzzzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzz
      property: certificate
  - secretKey: pub_cert
    remoteRef:
      key: public_cert/zzzzzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzz
      property: certificate
  - secretKey: prvt_cert
    remoteRef:
      key: private_cert/zzzzzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzz
      property: certificate
  - secretKey: kv_without_key
    remoteRef:
      key: kv/zzzzzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzz
  - secretKey: kv_key
    remoteRef:
      key: kv/zzzzzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzz
      property: 'keyid'
  - secretKey: kv_key_with_path
    remoteRef:
      key: kv/zzzzzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzz
      property: 'key.path'

The behavior for the different secret types is as following:

arbitrary

  • remoteRef retrieves a string from secrets manager and sets it for specified secretKey
  • dataFrom retrieves a string from secrets manager and tries to parse it as JSON object setting the key:values pairs in resulting Kubernetes secret if successful

username_password

  • remoteRef requires a property to be set for either username or password to retrieve respective fields from the secrets manager secret and set in specified secretKey
  • dataFrom retrieves both username and password fields from the secrets manager secret and sets appropriate key:value pairs in the resulting Kubernetes secret

iam_credentials

  • remoteRef retrieves an apikey from secrets manager and sets it for specified secretKey
  • dataFrom retrieves an apikey from secrets manager and sets it for the apikey Kubernetes secret key

imported_cert, public_cert, and private_cert

  • remoteRef requires a property to be set for either certificate, private_key or intermediate to retrieve respective fields from the secrets manager secret and set in specified secretKey
  • dataFrom retrieves all certificate, private_key and intermediate fields from the secrets manager secret and sets appropriate key:value pairs in the resulting Kubernetes secret

kv

  • An optional property field can be set to remoteRef to select requested key from the KV secret. If not set, the entire secret will be returned
  • dataFrom retrieves a string from secrets manager and tries to parse it as JSON object setting the key:values pairs in resulting Kubernetes secret if successful
{
  "key1": "val1",
  "key2": "val2",
  "key3": {
    "keyA": "valA",
    "keyB": "valB"
  },
  "special.key": "special-content"
}

data:
- secretKey: key3_keyB
  remoteRef:
    key: 'kv/aaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeee'
    property: 'key3.keyB'
- secretKey: special_key
  remoteRef:
    key: 'kv/aaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeee'
    property: 'special.key'
- secretKey: key_all
  remoteRef:
    key: 'kv/aaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeee'

dataFrom:
  - key: 'kv/aaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeee'
    property: 'key3'

results in

data:
  # secrets from data
  key3_keyB: ... #valB
  special_key: ... #special-content
  key_all: ... #{"key1":"val1","key2":"val2", ..."special.key":"special-content"}

  # secrets from dataFrom
  keyA: ... #valA
  keyB: ... #valB

Creating external secret

To create a kubernetes secret from the IBM Secrets Manager, a Kind=ExternalSecret is needed. Below example creates a kubernetes secret based on ID of the secret in Secrets Manager.

apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: ExternalSecret
metadata:
  name: database-credentials
spec:
  refreshInterval: 60m
  secretStoreRef:
    name: ibm-store
    kind: SecretStore
  target:
    name: database-credentials
    creationPolicy: Owner
  data:
  - secretKey: username
    remoteRef:
      key: username_password/<SECRET_ID>
      property: username
  - secretKey: password
    remoteRef:
      key: username_password/<SECRET_ID>
      property: password

Alternatively, secret name can be specified instead of secret ID.

apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: ExternalSecret
metadata:
  name: database-credentials
spec:
  refreshInterval: 60m
  secretStoreRef:
    name: ibm-store
    kind: SecretStore
  target:
    name: database-credentials
    creationPolicy: Owner
  data:
  - secretKey: username
    remoteRef:
      key: username_password/<SECRET_NAME>
      property: username
  - secretKey: password
    remoteRef:
      key: username_password/<SECRET_NAME>
      property: password

Getting the Kubernetes secret

The operator will fetch the IBM Secret Manager secret and inject it as a Kind=Secret 

kubectl get secret secret-to-be-created -n <namespace> | -o jsonpath='{.data.test}' | base64 -d

Populating the Kubernetes secret with metadata from IBM Secrets Manager Provider

ESO can add metadata while creating or updating a Kubernetes secret to be reflected in its labels or annotations. The metadata could be any of the fields that are supported and returned in the response by IBM Secrets Manager.

In order for the user to opt-in to adding metadata to secret, an existing optional field spec.dataFrom.extract.metadataPolicy can be be set to Fetch, its default value being None. In addition to this, templating provided be ESO can be leveraged to specify the key-value pairs of the resultant secrets' labels and annotation.

In order for the required metadata to be populated in the Kubernetes secret, combination of below should be provided in the External Secrets resource: 1. The required metadata should be specified under template.metadata.labels or template.metadata.annotations. 2. The required secret data should be specified under template.data. 3. The spec.dataFrom.extract should be specified with details of the Secrets Manager secret with spec.dataFrom.extract.metadataPolicy set to Fetch. Below is an example, where secret_id and updated_at are the metadata of a secret in IBM Secrets Manager:

apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
kind: ExternalSecret
metadata:
  name: database-credentials
  namespace: external-secrets
spec:
  dataFrom:
  - extract:
      key: username_password/<SECRET_ID>
      metadataPolicy: Fetch           # leveraging optional parameter, defaults to None
    secretKey: username
  secretStoreRef:
    kind: SecretStore
    name: ibm-store
  target:
    name: database-credentials
    template:
      engineVersion: v2
      data:
        secret: "{{ .password }}"
      metadata:
        annotations:
          secret_id: "{{ .id }}"     # adding metadata key whose value would be added to the secret as a label
          updated_at: "{{ .updated_at }}"

While the secret is being reconciled, it will have the secret data along with the required annotations. Below is the example of the secret after reconciliation:

apiVersion: v1
data:
  secret: OHE0MFV5MGhQb2FmRjZTOGVva3dPQjRMeVZXeXpWSDlrSWgyR1BiVDZTMyc=
immutable: false
kind: Secret
metadata:
  annotations:
    reconcile.external-secrets.io/data-hash: 02217008d13ed228e75cf6d26fe74324
  creationTimestamp: "2023-05-04T08:41:24Z"
  annotations:
    secret_id: 1234
    updated_at: 2023-05-04T08:57:19Z
  name: database-credentials
  namespace: external-secrets
  ownerReferences:
  - apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
    blockOwnerDeletion: true
    controller: true
    kind: ExternalSecret
    name: database-credentials
    uid: c2a018e7-1ac3-421b-bd3b-d9497204f843
  resourceVersion: "1803567"
  uid: f5dff604-611b-4d41-9d65-b860c61a0b8d
type: Opaque