Secrets Encryption

Secrets Encryption Config

Available as of v1.17.4+k3s1

K3s supports enabling secrets encryption at rest by passing the flag --secrets-encryption on a server; this flag will do the following automatically:

Generate an AES-CBC key
Generate an encryption config file with the generated key
Pass the config to the KubeAPI as encryption-provider-config

Example of the encryption config file:

{
  "kind": "EncryptionConfiguration",
  "apiVersion": "apiserver.config.k8s.io/v1",
  "resources": [
    {
      "resources": [
        "secrets"
      ],
      "providers": [
        {
          "aescbc": {
            "keys": [
              {
                "name": "aescbckey",
                "secret": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        {
          "identity": {}
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Secrets Encryption Tool

Available as of v1.21.8+k3s1

K3s contains a utility tool secrets-encrypt, which enables automatic control over the following:

Disabling/Enabling secrets encryption
Adding new encryption keys
Rotating and deleting encryption keys
Reencrypting secrets

Warning: Failure to follow proper procedure for rotating encryption keys can leave your cluster permanently corrupted. Proceed with caution.

Single-Server Encryption Key Rotation

To rotate secrets encryption keys on a single-node cluster:

Start the K3s server with the flag --secrets-encryption

Note: Starting K3s without encryption and enabling it at a later time is currently not supported.

Prepare
```
k3s secrets-encrypt prepare
```
Kill and restart the K3s server with same arguments
Rotate
```
k3s secrets-encrypt rotate
```
Kill and restart the K3s server with same arguments
Reencrypt
```
k3s secrets-encrypt reencrypt
```

High-Availability Encryption Key Rotation

The steps are the same for both embedded DB and external DB clusters.

To rotate secrets encryption keys on HA setups:

Notes:

Starting K3s without encryption and enabling it at a later time is currently not supported.

While not required, it is recommended that you pick one server node from which to run the secrets-encrypt commands.

Start up all three K3s servers with the --secrets-encryption flag. For brevity, the servers will be referred to as S1, S2, S3.

Prepare on S1
```
k3s secrets-encrypt prepare
```
Kill and restart S1 with same arguments
Once S1 is up, kill and restart the S2 and S3
Rotate on S1
```
k3s secrets-encrypt rotate
```
Kill and restart S1 with same arguments
Once S1 is up, kill and restart the S2 and S3
Reencrypt on S1
```
k3s secrets-encrypt reencrypt
```
Kill and restart S1 with same arguments
Once S1 is up, kill and restart the S2 and S3

Single-Server Secrets Encryption Disable/Enable

After launching a server with --secrets-encryption flag, secrets encryption can be disabled.

To disable secrets encryption on a single-node cluster:

Disable
```
k3s secrets-encrypt disable
```
Kill and restart the K3s server with same arguments

Reencrypt with flags

k3s secrets-encrypt reencrypt --force --skip

To re-enable secrets encryption on a single node cluster:

Enable
```
k3s secrets-encrypt enable
```
Kill and restart the K3s server with same arguments

Reencrypt with flags

k3s secrets-encrypt reencrypt --force --skip

High-Availability Secrets Encryption Disable/Enable

After launching a HA cluster with --secrets-encryption flags, secrets encryption can be disabled. >Note: While not required, it is recommended that you pick one server node from which to run the secrets-encrypt commands.

For brevity, the three servers used in this guide will be referred to as S1, S2, S3.

To disable secrets encryption on a HA cluster:

Disable on S1
```
k3s secrets-encrypt disable
```
Kill and restart S1 with same arguments
Once S1 is up, kill and restart the S2 and S3

Reencrypt with flags on S1

k3s secrets-encrypt reencrypt --force --skip

To re-enable secrets encryption on a HA cluster:

Enable on S1
```
k3s secrets-encrypt enable
```
Kill and restart S1 with same arguments
Once S1 is up, kill and restart the S2 and S3

Reencrypt with flags on S1

k3s secrets-encrypt reencrypt --force --skip

Secrets Encryption Status

The secrets-encrypt tool includes a status command that displays information about the current status of secrets encryption on the node.

An example of the command on a single-server node:

$ k3s secrets-encrypt status
Encryption Status: Enabled
Current Rotation Stage: start
Server Encryption Hashes: All hashes match

Active  Key Type  Name
------  --------  ----
 *      AES-CBC   aescbckey

Another example on HA cluster, after rotating the keys, but before restarting the servers:

$ k3s secrets-encrypt status
Encryption Status: Enabled
Current Rotation Stage: rotate
Server Encryption Hashes: hash does not match between node-1 and node-2

Active  Key Type  Name
------  --------  ----
 *      AES-CBC   aescbckey-2021-12-10T22:54:38Z
        AES-CBC   aescbckey

Details on each section are as follows:

Encryption Status: Displayed whether secrets encryption is disabled or enabled on the node
Current Rotation Stage: Indicates the current rotation stage on the node.
Stages are: start, prepare, rotate, reencrypt_request, reencrypt_active, reencrypt_finished
Server Encryption Hashes: Useful for HA clusters, this indicates whether all servers are on the same stage with their local files. This can be used to identify whether a restart of servers is required before proceeding to the next stage. In the HA example above, node-1 and node-2 have different hashes, indicating that they currently do not have the same encryption configuration. Restarting the servers will sync up their configuration.
Key Table: Summarizes information about the secrets encryption keys found on the node.
- Active: The “*” indicates which, if any, of the keys are currently used for secrets encryption. An active key is used by Kubernetes to encrypt any new secrets.
- Key Type: All keys using this tool are AES-CBC type. See more info here.
- Name: Name of the encryption key.