website/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/distribute-credentials-secure.md

title	redirect_from
Distributing Credentials Securely	/docs/user-guide/secrets/walkthrough/ /docs/user-guide/secrets/walkthrough.html

{% capture overview %} This page shows how to securely inject sensitive data, such as passwords and encryption keys, into Pods. {% endcapture %}

{% capture prerequisites %}

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Converting your secret data to a base-64 representation

Suppose you want to have two pieces of secret data: a username my-app and a password 39528$vdg7Jb. First, use Base64 encoding to convert your username and password to a base-64 representation. Here's a Linux example:

echo -n 'my-app' | base64
echo -n '39528$vdg7Jb' | base64

The output shows that the base-64 representation of your username is bXktYXBw, and the base-64 representation of your password is Mzk1MjgkdmRnN0pi.

Creating a Secret

Here is a configuration file you can use to create a Secret that holds your username and password:

{% include code.html language="yaml" file="secret.yaml" ghlink="/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/secret.yaml" %}

1. Create the Secret

    kubectl create -f secret.yaml
   

   Note: If you want to skip the Base64 encoding step, you can create a Secret by using the kubectl create secret command:

    kubectl create secret generic test-secret --from-literal=username='my-app',password='39528$vdg7Jb'
   

2. View information about the Secret:

    kubectl get secret test-secret
   

   Output:

    NAME          TYPE      DATA      AGE
    test-secret   Opaque    2         1m
   

3. View more detailed information about the Secret:

    kubectl describe secret test-secret
   

   Output:

    Name:       test-secret
    Namespace:  default
    Labels:     <none>
    Annotations:    <none>
   
    Type:   Opaque
   
    Data
    ====
    password:   12 bytes
    username:   6 bytes
   

Creating a Pod that has access to the secret data through a Volume

Here is a configuration file you can use to create a Pod:

{% include code.html language="yaml" file="secret-pod.yaml" ghlink="/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/secret-pod.yaml" %}

1. Create the Pod:

    kubectl create -f secret-pod.yaml
   

2. Verify that your Pod is running:

    kubectl get pod secret-test-pod
   

   Output:

    NAME              READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    secret-test-pod   1/1       Running   0          42m
   

3. Get a shell into the Container that is running in your Pod:

    kubectl exec -it secret-test-pod -- /bin/bash
   

4. The secret data is exposed to the Container through a Volume mounted under /etc/secret-volume. In your shell, go to the directory where the secret data is exposed:

    root@secret-test-pod:/# cd /etc/secret-volume
   

5. In your shell, list the files in the /etc/secret-volume directory:

    root@secret-test-pod:/etc/secret-volume# ls
   

   The output shows two files, one for each piece of secret data:

    password username
   

6. In your shell, display the contents of the username and password files:

    root@secret-test-pod:/etc/secret-volume# cat username; echo; cat password; echo
   

   The output is your username and password:

    my-app
    39528$vdg7Jb
   

Creating a Pod that has access to the secret data through environment variables

Here is a configuration file you can use to create a Pod:

{% include code.html language="yaml" file="secret-envars-pod.yaml" ghlink="/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/secret-envars-pod.yaml" %}

1. Create the Pod:

    kubectl create -f secret-envars-pod.yaml
   

2. Verify that your Pod is running:

    kubectl get pod secret-envars-test-pod
   

   Output:

    NAME                     READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    secret-envars-test-pod   1/1       Running   0          4m
   

3. Get a shell into the Container that is running in your Pod:

    kubectl exec -it secret-envars-test-pod -- /bin/bash
   

4. In your shell, display the environment variables:

    root@secret-envars-test-pod:/# printenv
   

   The output includes your username and password:

    ...
    SECRET_USERNAME=my-app
    ...
    SECRET_PASSWORD=39528$vdg7Jb
   

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{% capture whatsnext %}

• Learn more about Secrets.
• Learn about Volumes.

Reference

• Secret
• Volume
• Pod

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