vault-secrets-operator VS sealed-secrets

For home use, I wouldn't bother with Vault unless that's really what you want to learn. Then it's worth looking into setting something up where you could use vault secrets, using one of the available options (I haven't seen the vault-secrets-operator being mentioned).

It is but it affects vault-secrets-operator too, see https://github.com/ricoberger/vault-secrets-operator/issues/104 (and no, I’ve only use vault-secrets-operator)

What you’re looking for is https://github.com/ricoberger/vault-secrets-operator

If you are using an external KMS in any case, then there are other options, such as the kubernetes-external-secrets operator that was originally started by GoDaddy and the externalsecret-operator from Container Solutions. If you use HashiCorp Vault, you also have the option of using the Vault Secrets operator. This works similarly to the Sealed Secrets Operator, but instead of managing its own key material, it retrieves the secrets from Vault. The CNCF Technology Radar from January 2021 provides an overview of the types of tools that are available for secrets management.

If you have noticed, you are setting secrets in plain text on the application-configmap.yml file, which is not ideal and is not a best practice for security. The best way to do this securely would be to use AWS Secrets Manager, an external service like HashiCorp Vault, or Sealed Secrets. To learn more about these methods see the blog post Shhhh... Kubernetes Secrets Are Not Really Secret!.

The addition of Consul and Vault gives me a few things. For one, right now I'm handling secrets with a mixture of SOPS and Sealed Secrets. I use Vault in my professional life, and have used both Vault and Consul at my last job. Vault is a beast, so I may as well get better at it; plus its options for secret injection are better.

Use Sealed Secrets Operator.

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.

sealed-secrets (sealed)

We use sealed secrets controller - https://github.com/bitnami-labs/sealed-secrets

An option that easily works with GitOps is the Operator Sealed Secrets from Bitnami. Secrets encrypted with it can only be decrypted by operators running inside the cluster, not even by the original author. For encryption, there is a CLI (and a third-party web UI) that requires a connection to the cluster. The disadvantage of this is that the key material is stored in the cluster, the secrets are bound to the cluster and one has to take care of backups and operation.