infisical/docs/integrations/platforms/kubernetes/overview.mdx

---
title: "Kubernetes Operator"
sidebarTitle: "Overview"
description: "How to use Infisical to inject, push, and manage secrets within Kubernetes clusters"
---

The Infisical Operator is a collection of Kubernetes controllers that streamline how secrets are managed between Infisical and your Kubernetes cluster. 
It provides multiple Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) which enable you to:

- **Sync** secrets from Infisical into Kubernetes (`InfisicalSecret`).
- **Push** new secrets from Kubernetes to Infisical (`InfisicalPushSecret`).
- **Manage** dynamic secrets and automatically create time-bound leases (`InfisicalDynamicSecret`).

When these CRDs are configured, the Infisical Operator will continuously monitors for changes and performs necessary updates to keep your Kubernetes secrets up to date. 
It can also automatically reload dependent Deployments resources whenever relevant secrets are updated.

<Note>
  If you are already using the External Secrets operator, you can view the
  integration documentation for it
  [here](https://external-secrets.io/latest/provider/infisical/).
</Note>

## Install 

The operator can be installed via [Helm](https://helm.sh). Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that allows you to define, install, and upgrade Kubernetes applications.

**Install the latest Helm repository**
```bash
helm repo add infisical-helm-charts 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/infisical/helm-charts/helm/charts/' 
```

```bash  
helm repo update
```

The operator can be installed either cluster-wide or restricted to a specific namespace. 
If you require stronger isolation and stricter access controls, a namespace-scoped installation may make more sense.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Cluster Wide Installation">
    ```bash
    helm install --generate-name infisical-helm-charts/secrets-operator
    ```

    <Accordion title="Using your own service account">
      By default a service account is created for the operator based on the operator release name.
      You can bring your own service account by setting `controllerManager.serviceAccount.create` to `false` and setting `controllerManager.serviceAccount.name` to the name of the service account you want to use in your values.yaml file.

      Example values.yaml file:

      ```yaml values.yaml
      controllerManager:
        serviceAccount:
          create: false
          name: my-service-account
      # other values...
      ```

      <Note>
        Please note that if you set `controllerManager.serviceAccount.create` to `false`, the service account needs to already exist in the namespace you are installing the operator in.
      </Note>

      <Tip>
        Custom service accounts are supported in chart version `0.10.11` and above. Please upgrade your helm chart to `0.10.11` or above before attempting to use custom service accounts.
      </Tip>
    </Accordion>
  </Tab>
  <Tab title="Namespace Scoped Installation">
    The operator can be configured to watch and manage secrets in a specific namespace instead of having cluster-wide access. This is useful for:

    - **Enhanced Security**: Limit the operator's permissions to only specific namespaces instead of cluster-wide access
    - **Multi-tenant Clusters**: Run separate operator instances for different teams or applications
    - **Resource Isolation**: Ensure operators in different namespaces don't interfere with each other
    - **Development & Testing**: Run development and production operators side by side in isolated namespaces

    **Note**: For multiple namespace-scoped installations, only the first installation should install CRDs. Subsequent installations should set `installCRDs: false` to avoid conflicts.

    ```bash
    # First namespace installation (with CRDs)
    helm install operator-namespace1 infisical-helm-charts/secrets-operator \
      --namespace first-namespace \
      --set scopedNamespace=first-namespace \
      --set scopedRBAC=true

    # Subsequent namespace installations
    helm install operator-namespace2 infisical-helm-charts/secrets-operator \
      --namespace another-namespace \
      --set scopedNamespace=another-namespace \
      --set scopedRBAC=true \
      --set installCRDs=false
    ```

    <Accordion title="Using your own service account">
      By default a service account is created for the operator based on the operator release name.
      You can bring your own service account by setting `controllerManager.serviceAccount.create` to `false` and setting `controllerManager.serviceAccount.name` to the name of the service account you want to use in your values.yaml file.

      Example values.yaml file:

      ```yaml values.yaml
      controllerManager:
        serviceAccount:
          create: false
          name: my-service-account
      # other values...
      ```

      <Note>
        Please note that if you set `controllerManager.serviceAccount.create` to `false`, the service account needs to already exist in the namespace you are installing the operator in.
      </Note>

      <Tip>
        Custom service accounts are supported in chart version `0.10.11` and above. Please upgrade your helm chart to `0.10.11` or above before attempting to use custom service accounts.
      </Tip>
    </Accordion>

    When scoped to a namespace, the operator will:

    - Only watch InfisicalSecrets in the specified namespace
    - Only create/update Kubernetes secrets in that namespace
    - Only access deployments in that namespace

    The default configuration gives cluster-wide access:

    ```yaml
    installCRDs: true # Install CRDs (set to false for additional namespace installations)
    scopedNamespace: "" # Empty for cluster-wide access
    scopedRBAC: false # Cluster-wide permissions
    ```

    If you want to install operators in multiple namespaces simultaneously:
    - Make sure to set `installCRDs: false` for all but one of the installations to avoid conflicts, as CRDs are cluster-wide resources.
    - Use unique release names for each installation (e.g., operator-namespace1, operator-namespace2).

  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Custom Resource Definitions

Currently the operator supports the following CRD's. We are constantly expanding the functionality of the operator, and this list will be updated as new CRD's are added.

1. [InfisicalSecret](/integrations/platforms/kubernetes/infisical-secret-crd): Sync secrets from Infisical to a Kubernetes secret.
2. [InfisicalPushSecret](/integrations/platforms/kubernetes/infisical-push-secret-crd): Push secrets from a Kubernetes secret to Infisical.
3. [InfisicalDynamicSecret](/integrations/platforms/kubernetes/infisical-dynamic-secret-crd): Sync dynamic secrets and create leases automatically in Kubernetes.

## General Configuration
### Private/self-signed certificate
To connect to Infisical instances behind a private/self-signed certificate, you can configure the TLS settings in the CRD
to point to a CA certificate stored in a Kubernetes secret resource.

```yaml
---
spec:
  hostAPI: https://app.infisical.com/api
  tls:
    caRef:
      secretName: custom-ca-certificate
      secretNamespace: default
      key: ca.crt
---
```


## Advanced Templating

With the Infisical Secrets Operator, you can use templating to dynamically generate secrets in Kubernetes. The templating is built on top of [Go templates](https://pkg.go.dev/text/template), which is a powerful and flexible template engine built into Go.

Please be aware that trying to reference non-existing keys will result in an error. Additionally, each template field is processed individually, which means one template field cannot reference another template field.

<Note>
  Please note that templating is currently only supported for the `InfisicalPushSecret` and `InfisicalSecret` CRDs.
</Note>

### Available helper functions

The Infisical Secrets Operator exposes a wide range of helper functions to make it easier to work with secrets in Kubernetes.

| Function | Description | Signature |
| -------- | ----------- | --------- |
| `decodeBase64ToBytes` | Given a base64 encoded string, this function will decode the base64-encoded string. | `decodeBase64ToBytes(encodedString string) string` |
| `encodeBase64` | Given a string, this function will encode the string to a base64 encoded string. | `encodeBase64(plainString string) string` |
| `pkcs12key`| Extracts all private keys from a PKCS#12 archive and encodes them in PKCS#8 PEM format. | `pkcs12key(input string) string` |
| `pkcs12keyPass`|Same as pkcs12key. Uses the provided password to decrypt the PKCS#12 archive. | `pkcs12keyPass(pass string, input string) string` |
| `pkcs12cert`      | Extracts all certificates from a PKCS#12 archive and orders them if possible. If disjunct or multiple leaf certs are provided they are returned as-is. Sort order: `leaf / intermediate(s) / root`. | `pkcs12cert(input string) string` |
| `pkcs12certPass`  | Same as `pkcs12cert`. Uses the provided password to decrypt the PKCS#12 archive. | `pkcs12certPass(pass string, input string) string` |
| `pemToPkcs12`     | Takes a PEM encoded certificate and key and creates a base64 encoded PKCS#12 archive. | `pemToPkcs12(cert string, key string) string` |
| `pemToPkcs12Pass` | Same as `pemToPkcs12`. Uses the provided password to encrypt the PKCS#12 archive. | `pemToPkcs12Pass(cert string, key string, pass string) string` |
| `fullPemToPkcs12` | Takes a PEM encoded certificates chain and key and creates a base64 encoded PKCS#12 archive. | `fullPemToPkcs12(cert string, key string) string` |
| `fullPemToPkcs12Pass`   | Same as `fullPemToPkcs12`. Uses the provided password to encrypt the PKCS#12 archive. | `fullPemToPkcs12Pass(cert string, key string, pass string) string` |
| `filterPEM`       | Filters PEM blocks with a specific type from a list of PEM blocks.. | `filterPEM(pemType string, input string) string` |
| `filterCertChain`   | Filters PEM block(s) with a specific certificate type (`leaf`, `intermediate` or `root`) from a certificate chain of PEM blocks (PEM blocks with type `CERTIFICATE`). | `filterCertChain(certType string, input string) string` |
| `jwkPublicKeyPem`   | Takes an json-serialized JWK and returns an PEM block of type `PUBLIC KEY` that contains the public key. [See here](https://golang.org/pkg/crypto/x509/#MarshalPKIXPublicKey) for details. | `jwkPublicKeyPem(jwkjson string) string` |
| `jwkPrivateKeyPem`   | Takes an json-serialized JWK and returns an PEM block of type `PRIVATE KEY` that contains the private key. [See here](https://pkg.go.dev/crypto/x509#MarshalPKCS8PrivateKey) for details. | `jwkPrivateKeyPem(jwkjson string) string` |
| `toYaml`   | Takes an interface, marshals it to yaml. It returns a string, even on marshal error (empty string). | `toYaml(v any) string` |
| `fromYaml`   | Function converts a YAML document into a `map[string]any`. | `fromYaml(str string) map[string]any` |

### Sprig functions

The Infisical Secrets Operator integrates with the [Sprig library](https://github.com/Masterminds/sprig) to provide additional helper functions.

<Note>
  We've removed `expandEnv` and `env` from the supported functions for security reasons.
</Note>


## Global configuration

To configure global settings that will apply to all CRD instances (`InfisicalSecret`, `InfisicalPushSecret`, and `InfisicalDynamicSecret`), you can define these configurations in a Kubernetes ConfigMap.
For example, you can configure all CRD instances to fetch secrets from a single backend API without specifying the `hostAPI` parameter for each instance.

### Available global properties

| Property | Description                                                                       | Default value                 |
| -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| hostAPI  | If `hostAPI` in a CRD instance is left empty, this value will be used | https://app.infisical.com/api |
| tls.caRef.secretName | If `tls.caRef.secretName` in a CRD instance is left empty, this value will be used | - |
| tls.caRef.secretNamespace | If `tls.caRef.secretNamespace` in a CRD instance is left empty, this value will be used | - |
| tls.caRef.key | If `tls.caRef.key` in a CRD instance is left empty, this value will be used | - |

### Applying global configurations

All global configurations must reside in a Kubernetes ConfigMap named `infisical-config` in the namespace `infisical-operator-system`.
To apply global configuration to the operator, copy the following yaml into `infisical-config.yaml` file.

```yaml infisical-config.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: infisical-operator-system
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: infisical-config
  namespace: infisical-operator-system
data:
  hostAPI: https://example.com/api # <-- global hostAPI
  tls.caRef.secretName: custom-ca-certificate # <-- global TLS CA secret name
  tls.caRef.secretNamespace: default # <-- global TLS CA secret namespace
  tls.caRef.key: ca.crt # <-- global TLS CA secret key
```

Then apply this change via kubectl by running the following

```bash
kubectl apply -f infisical-config.yaml
```

## Troubleshoot operator

If the operator is unable to fetch secrets from the API, it will not affect the managed Kubernetes secret.
It will continue attempting to reconnect to the API indefinitely.
The InfisicalSecret resource uses the `status.conditions` field to report its current state and any errors encountered.

```yaml
$ kubectl get infisicalSecrets
NAME                     AGE
infisicalsecret-sample   12s

$ kubectl describe infisicalSecret infisicalsecret-sample
...
Spec:
...
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2022-12-18T04:29:09Z
    Message:               Infisical controller has located the Infisical token in provided Kubernetes secret
    Reason:                OK
    Status:                True
    Type:                  secrets.infisical.com/LoadedInfisicalToken
    Last Transition Time:  2022-12-18T04:29:10Z
    Message:               Failed to update secret because: 400 Bad Request
    Reason:                Error
    Status:                False
    Type:                  secrets.infisical.com/ReadyToSyncSecrets
Events:                    <none>
```

## Uninstall Operator

The managed secret created by the operator will not be deleted when the operator is uninstalled.

<Tabs>
	 <Tab title="Helm">
		Uninstall Infisical Helm repository 
    ```bash
    helm uninstall <release name>
    ```
   </Tab>
</Tabs>