Scaling Secrets Management Multicluster Secrets With Hashicorp Vault And Kubernetes Csi Driver

The Challenge

One of our clients had an immediate need to uplift their secrets management system. The company was dealing with sensitive data and needed a robust solution to ensure that their secrets were properly managed and protected.

Their existing secrets management solution was outdated, difficult to scale and manage and did not meet their future-state security requirements. The client needed a modern and scalable solution that could provide secure storage and management of their secrets.

The Solution

After evaluation and assessment, we recommended a solution based on Hashicorp Vault, architected for AWS, and a Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver to our client. Hashicorp Vault is a widely-used open source secrets management platform that offers a range of features for secure secrets storage, dynamic secrets generation, and access control.

To integrate Hashicorp Vault with the client's Kubernetes clusters, we utilised a Secrets Store CSI driver. This allowed the client's Kubernetes workload pods to access and inject the secrets stored in Hashicorp Vault as if they were locally mounted files at runtime.

By tightening the security groups offered by AWS, we were able to restrict ingress access to API and UI components of the solution. To further improve access control and to help manage authentication for Hashicorp Vault, we integrated Azure Active Directory. By using Azure AD as an access control mechanism for Vault, the client was able to easily manage granular access to Vault for different users and groups based on their roles and responsibilities.

We also provided consulting services to help the client design and implement their new secrets management system. This included a detailed assessment of their existing systems and workflows, as well as recommendations for best practices around GitOps and Software Development Lifecycle as well as security policies.

The Impact

The implementation of Vault and the Secrets Store CSI driver has greatly improved secrets management capabilities within this enterprise. They now have a centralised and highly available solution that provides a consistent and secure way of managing secrets across multiple clusters and accounts - at scale.

The integration with Kubernetes has made it easier for developers to consume secrets in their applications, reducing the time and effort required to manage secrets manually. In addition, the use of Vault policies has provided granular access control, ensuring that only authorised users can access sensitive information. The implementation also supports auditing and compliance requirements, providing a detailed audit trail of all secrets accessed and modified. Overall, the implementation of Hashicorp Vault and the Secrets Store CSI driver has greatly improved the security and manageability of secrets in a multi-cluster and multi-account environment.

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