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Successfully Securing License Keys in Kubernetes with Secrets
I have successfully implemented a secure method for handling licensed tooling within their Kubernetes cluster by leveraging Kubernetes Secrets. This task focused on creating a generic secret from an existing file and configuring a new Pod to securely consume that secret data by mounting it as a file inside the container.
The execution followed a two-step process, which was verified through terminal outputs confirming the secure deployment.
Step 1: Creating the Kubernetes Secret
The first requirement was to secure the license key contained within the /opt/news.txt file on the jump host. This was accomplished using a kubectl create secret generic command, which directly converts the file's contents into a Kubernetes Secret object.
kubectl create secret generic news --from-file=/opt/news.txt
# Output: secret/news created
This command created a Secret named news, holding the license key data, thus fulfilling the requirement for secure storage within the cluster.
Step 2: Deploying the Pod and Consuming the Secret
The next phase involved deploying a Pod named secret-nautilus and configuring it to access the newly created secret. The Pod specification included a container named secret-container-nautilus using the debian:latest image and a persistent sleep command to keep it running.
Crucially, the Pod was configured to consume the news secret by mounting it as a volume at the required path, /opt/demo, inside the container.
Pod YAML (secret-nautilus.yaml)
The following YAML manifest was used to define and deploy the Pod:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: secret-nautilus
spec:
containers:
- name: secret-container-nautilus
image: debian:latest
# Use sleep command to keep the container running
command: ["/bin/bash", "-c", "sleep 3600"]
volumeMounts:
- name: news-volume
mountPath: /opt/demo
readOnly: true
volumes:
- name: news-volume
secret:
secretName: news
This configuration ensures the container runs the required image, stays in a running state, and mounts the Secret data precisely at /opt/demo. The manifest was applied using kubectl apply -f secret-nautilus.yaml.
Verification of Secure Access
To confirm the successful implementation, the team performed a direct verification by executing commands inside the running container.
First, the successful running status was confirmed:
kubectl get pods secret-nautilus
# Output: secret-nautilus 1/1 Running 0 38s
Next, listing the contents of the mounted directory showed the secret data was accessible as a file:
kubectl exec -it secret-nautilus -c secret-container-nautilus -- ls -l /opt/demo
# Output: lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Oct 5 00:33 news.txt -> ..data/news.txt
Finally, reading the contents of the file proved the license key was correctly consumed:
kubectl exec -it secret-nautilus -c secret-container-nautilus -- cat /opt/demo/news.txt
# Output: 5ecur3
The retrieval of the placeholder license key (5ecur3) confirmed that the sensitive data is correctly isolated in a Kubernetes Secret and securely presented to the required container, successfully meeting all project requirements and establishing a reliable pattern for managing licensed tools in future deployments.