Using External Certificates with CTE for Kubernetes

You can use External Certificates for communication between CTE for Kubernetes and CipherTrust Manager.

Overview

CipherTrust Transparent Encryption can now use an external certificate, available at a user-defined path, to communicate with CipherTrust Manager.

Prerequisites

The external certificate must be:

• On the file system

• In PEM format

A key pair must already exist for the client:

• Must have Encryption type of either:

  • sha256WithRSAEncryption

  • ecdsa-with-SHA384

• Must be Encrypted with a pass phrase

Initial setup

1. Obtain your external CA certificate.

2. Create a certificate using the external CA certificate and key.

CipherTrust Manager Setup

To setup CipherTrust Manager to communicate through an external certificate:

1. Import the CA certificate into the CipherTrust Manager, click CA > External > Add External CA.

2. In the Add External CA dialog, copy and paste the <ca_certificate_name>.pem file content from the UI page and provide a user-friendly name.

   For more information, see Using an Externally Generated Server Certificate for an Interface

3. Add the CA certificate to the list of trusted sources for the web interface, click Admin Settings > Interfaces > web > Edit > External Trusted CAs.

4. Restart the web server, click Admin Settings > Services > web > Restart.

5. Create a registration token for the CTE agent. See Creating a Registration Token for more information.

CTE for Kubernetes Setup for Client Registration

1. Add the Registration token to the configuration file cte-csi-regtoken.yaml with the registration_token parameter.

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Secret
   metadata:
   name: cm-reg-token
   type: Opaque
   data:
   # This is a base64 encoded registration token.  To generate:
   # echo -n <CM REGISTRATION TOKEN STRING> | base64 -w 0
       cm-reg-token: <registration token in base64 format>
   

2. Create a Kubernetes secret(s) with client certificate details:

   kubectl create secret generic <client-secret-name> --from-file=<clientName>.crt=client_cert.pem --from-file=<clientName>.key=client_key.pem --from-file=<clientName>.passphrase=<passphrase>
   

   where:
   * <client-secret-name> = unique name for secret
   * <clientName> = unique name for client
   * <passphrase> = passphrase for client
   

   Example

   kubectl create secret generic <client-secret-name> --from-file=client1.crt=client_cert.pem --from-file=client1.key=client_key.pem --from-file=client1.passphrase=passphrase
   

   You can also use files from a specific path as a Partial or Absolute path:

   kubectl create secret generic <client-secret-name> --from-file=<clientName>.crt=./client1/client_cert.pem --from-file=client1.key=./client1/client_key.pem --from-file=client1.passphrase=./client1/passphrase
   

   To create multiple client certificate details (certificate, key and passphrase) with the secret:

   kubectl create secret generic <client-secret-name> --from-file=<client1Name>.crt=<client1_cert.pem> --from-file=<client1Name>.key=<client1_key.pem> --from-file=<client1Name>.passphrase=<client1-passphrase>  --from-file=<client2Name>.crt=<client2_cert.pem> --from-file=<client2Name>.key=<client2_key.pem> --from-file=<client2Name>.passphrase=<client2-passphrase>
   

   where:
   * <client-secret-name> = unique name for secret
   * <clientName> = unique name for client
   * <passphrase> = passphrase for client
   

   Example

   kubectl create secret generic client1-client2-secret --from-file=client1.crt=client1_cert.pem --from-file=client1.key=client1_key.pem --from-file=client1.passphrase=client1-passphrase  --from-file=client2.crt=client2_cert.pem --from-file=client2.key=client2_key.pem --from-file=client2.passphrase=client2-passphrase
   

   If certificates are on different paths, provide the filename with the path (Partial or Absolute path)

   kubectl create secret generic client1-client2-secret --from-file=client1.crt=./client1/client_cert.pem --from-file=client1.key=./client1/client_key.pem --from-file=client1.passphrase=./client1/passphrase --from-file=client2.crt=./client2/client_cert.pem --from-file=client2.key=./client2/client_key.pem --from-file=client2.passphrase=./client2/passphrase
   

   Note

   There must be an additional client certificate detail added to the secret parameter external_ca_client_secret: <client-secret-name>. This additional detail is required for each storage class deployment. This is because there is an additional requirement for Signer Registration for each storage class. This Signer Registration is an additional default registration).

3. Create the storage-class yaml file with a client secret name:

   While creating the storage-class configuration file cte-storageclass.yaml add the following parameter:

   external_ca_client_secret: <client-secret-name>
   

   Also make sure that the registration token secret name from the cte-csi-regtoken.yaml is correct and contains the following parameter:

   registration_token_secret: cm-reg-token
   

   cte-storageclass.yaml

   apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
   kind: StorageClass
   metadata:
       name: csi-test-sc
   provisioner: csi.cte.cpl.thalesgroup.com
   reclaimPolicy: Delete
   volumeBindingMode: Immediate
   allowVolumeExpansion: true
   parameters:
   
   # Domain name or IP address of the CipherTrust Manager (Required)
   
       key_manager_addr: 192.168.70.1
   
   # Name of the CipherTrust Manager K8s Storage Group. (Required)
   
       k8_storage_group: test-group
   
   # Kubernetes Secret with CipherTrust Manager registration token (Required)
   
       registration_token_secret: cm-reg-Token
   
   # Kubernetes secret with External CA signed client certificate (Optional)
   
       external_ca_client_secret: <client-secret-name>
   
   # Description will be displayed in CipherTrust Manager (Optional)
   
       client_description: "K8s client"
   
   # Time in minutes to wait before unregistering from the CipherTrust Manager. Default is 10 minutes. 
   # Once all volumes have been unguarded. Parameter must be added as a string integer value. (Optional)
   
       registration_period: "10"