Server-Side Object Encryption with Hashicorp Vault Root KMS

MinIO Kubernetes Operator and Plugin

Ensure your target Kubernetes cluster has a valid and working installation of the MinIO Kubernetes Operator. The host machine from which you perform the procedure should have a matching installation of the MinIO Kubernetes Plugin

This documentation assumes the latest stable Operator and Plugin version 5.0.5.

See Deploy the MinIO Operator for complete documentation on deploying the MinIO Operator.

Deploy or Ensure Access to a Hashicorp Vault Service

This procedure assumes an existing Hashicorp Vault installation accessible from the Kubernetes cluster.

• For Vault deployments within the same Kubernetes cluster as the MinIO Tenant, you can use Kubernetes service names to allow the MinIO Tenant to establish connectivity to the Vault service.

• For Vault deployments external to the Kubernetes cluster, you must ensure the cluster supports routing communications between Kubernetes services and pods and the external network. This may require configuration or deployment of additional Kubernetes network components and/or enabling access to the public internet.

Defer to the Vault Documentation for guidance on deployment and configuration.

MinIO KES supports either the V1 or V2 Vault K/V engines.

MinIO KES requires using AppRole authentication to the Vault server. You must create an AppRole, assign it a policy that the necessary permissions, and retrieve the AppRole ID and Secret for use in configuring KES.

You can use the following steps to enable AppRole authentication and create the necessary policies to support core KES functionality against Vault:

1. Enable AppRole Authentication

   vault auth enable approle
   

2. Create a Policy for KES

   Create a policy with necessary capabilities for KES to use when accessing Vault. Select the tab corresponding to the KV engine used for storing KES secrets:

   Vault Engine V1

   Create an access policy kes-policy.hcl with a configuration similar to the following:

   path "kv/*" {
         capabilities = [ "create", "read", "delete" ]
   }
   

   Write the policy to Vault using vault policy write kes-policy kes-policy.hcl.

   Vault Engine V2

   Create an access policy kes-policy.hcl with a configuration similar to the following:

   path "kv/data/*" {
         capabilities = [ "create", "read"]
   }
   
   path "kv/metadata/*" {
         capabilities = [ "list", "delete"]
   }
   

   Write the policy to Vault using vault policy write kes-policy kes-policy.hcl

3. Create an AppRole for KES and assign it the created policy

   vault write    auth/approle/role/kes-role token_num_uses=0 secret_id_num_uses=0 period=5m
   vault write    auth/approle/role/kes-role policies=kes-policy
   

4. Retrieve the AppRole ID and Secret

   vault read     auth/approle/role/kes-role/role-id
   vault write -f auth/approle/role/kes-role/secret-id
   

1) Access the Operator Console

Use the kubectl minio proxy command to temporarily forward traffic between the local host machine and the MinIO Operator Console:

kubectl minio proxy

The command returns output similar to the following:

Starting port forward of the Console UI.

To connect open a browser and go to http://localhost:9090

Current JWT to login: TOKEN

Open your browser to the specified URL and enter the JWT Token into the login page. You should see the Tenants page:

Click the + Create Tenant to start creating a MinIO Tenant.

2) Complete the Encryption Section

Reference the Deploy a MinIO Tenant procedure for complete documentation of other Tenant settings.

To enable SSE with Hashicorp Vault during Tenant deployment, select the Encryption section and toggle the switch to Enabled. You can then select the Vault Radio button to Vault to display the Vault configuration settings.

An asterisk * marks required fields. The following table provides general guidance for those fields:

Once you have completed the Vault configuration, you can finish any remaining sections of Tenant Deployment.

3) Generate a New Encryption Key

MinIO requires that the EK for a given bucket or object exist on the root KMS before performing SSE operations using that key. You can use the mc admin kms key create command against the MinIO Tenant.

You must ensure your local host can access the MinIO Tenant pods and services before using mc to manage the Tenant. For hosts internal to the Kubernetes cluster, you can use the service DNS name. For hosts external to the Kubernetes cluster, specify the hostname of the service exposed by Ingress, Load Balancer, or similar Kubernetes network control component.

Run this command in a separate Terminal or Shell:

# Replace '-n minio' with the namespace of the MinIO deployment
# If you deployed the Tenant without TLS you may need to change the port range

# You can validate the ports in use by running
#  kubectl get svc/minio -n minio

kubectl port forward svc/minio 443:443 -n minio

The following commands in a new Terminal or Shell window:

• Connect a local mc client to the Tenant.

• Create the encryption key.

See Quickstart for instructions on installing mc on your local host.

# Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD with a user on the tenant with administrative permissions
# such as the root user

mc alias add k8s https://localhost:443 ROOTUSER ROOTPASSWORD

# Replace my-new-key with the name of the key you want to use for SSE-KMS
mc admin kms key create k8s encrypted-bucket-key

4) Enable SSE-KMS for a Bucket

You can use either the MinIO Tenant Console or the MinIO mc CLI to enable bucket-default SSE-KMS with the generated key:

mc alias set k8s https://minio.minio-tenant-1.svc.cluster-domain.example:443 ROOTUSER ROOTPASSWORD

mc mb k8s/encryptedbucket
mc encrypt set SSE-KMS encrypted-bucket-key k8s/encryptedbucket