kubernetes-external-secrets VS secrets-store-csi-driver

$ helm repo add external-secrets https://external-secrets.github.io/kubernetes-external-secrets/ "external-secrets" has been added to your repositories $ helm install k8s-external-secrets external-secrets/kubernetes-external-secrets -f values.yaml NAME: k8s-external-secrets LAST DEPLOYED: Wed Mar 23 22:50:35 2022 NAMESPACE: default STATUS: deployed REVISION: 1 TEST SUITE: None NOTES: The kubernetes external secrets has been installed. Check its status by running: $ kubectl --namespace default get pods -l "app.kubernetes.io/name=kubernetes-external-secrets,app.kubernetes.io/instance=k8s-external-secrets" Visit https://github.com/external-secrets/kubernetes-external-secrets for instructions on how to use kubernetes external secrets

I’m reading above that you weren’t aware of sealed-secrets. So I guess that you are not familiar with ExternalSecrets secrets neither. Very solid project

They probably should merge with https://github.com/external-secrets/kubernetes-external-secr...

I do not recommend vault if you are not experienced. It is a heavy infra to manage. I suggest looking into https://github.com/external-secrets/kubernetes-external-secrets and selecting the tool offered by your cloud providers.

This is where things like the vault agent sidecar or projects like external secrets come in and allow you to inject / sync your secrets backend and your Kubernetes workloads :)

Depending on what platform you are on, you could use the AWS SDK or a tool like external-secrets (for Kubernetes).

We don't keep anything sensitive inside of Helm charts. We use AWS Secrets Manager and external-secrets

We have the MYSQL StatefulSet deployed and now we are going to save the password for the MYSQL database in AWS Secrets Manager and sync the secrets manager secret to a Native Kubernertes secret using the Secrets Store CSI driver.

I'm not a fan of this approach. I think the Secrets Store CSI Driver (https://secrets-store-csi-driver.sigs.k8s.io/) has a better approach.

Secret Store CSI Driver is what we're playing with now. Pretty excellent.

If you deploy on k8s, keep your eye on https://secrets-store-csi-driver.sigs.k8s.io/

Considering the major limitations of using Kubernetes Secrets, there are many new approaches being developed by the Kubernetes community. Kubernetes SIGs like the Secrets Store CSI Driver and solutions like the external secrets operator that works with third-party secret managers, and options to seal secrets through tools like bitnami’s sealed-secrets. To skip the tools and move directly to best practices, click here.

Just to clarify, CSI secret driver is from cncf not Microsoft. Only msft piece is the portion that integrates with key vault. https://secrets-store-csi-driver.sigs.k8s.io/

https://secrets-store-csi-driver.sigs.k8s.io/ and https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/tutorials/kubernetes/kubernetes-secret-store-driver

The Secrets Store CSI Driver is a native upstream Kubernetes driver that can be used to abstract where the secret is stored from the workload. If you want to use a cloud provider's secret manager without exposing the secrets as Kubernetes Secret objects, you can use the CSI Driver to mount secrets as volumes in your pods. This is a great option if you use a cloud provider to host your Kubernetes cluster. The driver supports many cloud providers and can be used with different secret managers.

If you want security they are both bad, use something like the secret manager of your choice API directly in your app or https://secrets-store-csi-driver.sigs.k8s.io/ this will keep the actual secrets out of etcd and env vars and give you more security