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Secrets Encryption Config

K3s supports enabling secrets encryption at rest. When first starting the server, passing the flag --secrets-encryption 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
tip

Secrets-encryption cannot be enabled on an existing server without restarting it.
Use curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -s - server --secrets-encryption if installing from script, or other methods described in Configuration Options.

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​

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

For more information, see the k3s secrets-encrypt command documentation.