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Step Certificates

An online certificate authority and related tools for secure automated certificate management, so you can use TLS everywhere.

To learn more, visit https://github.com/smallstep/certificates.

TL;DR

helm repo add smallstep https://smallstep.github.io/helm-charts/
step ca init --helm > values.yaml
echo "password" | base64 > password.txt
helm install -f values.yaml \
     --set inject.secrets.ca_password=$(cat password.txt) \
     --set inject.secrets.provisioner_password=$(cat password.txt) \
     --set service.targetPort=9000 \
     step-certificates smallstep/step-certificates

Prerequisites

  • Kubernetes 1.10+

Installing the Chart

Before installing the chart, we need to generate the configuration that we will use. To do this, we will use step:

step ca init --helm > values.yaml
echo "password" | base64 > password.txt

Now we can install the chart with release name step-certificates using the generated configuration and password:

helm install -f values.yaml \
     --set inject.secrets.ca_password=$(cat password.txt) \
     --set inject.secrets.provisioner_password=$(cat password.txt) \
     step-certificates smallstep/step-certificates

The command deploys Step certificates on the Kubernetes cluster in the default configuration. The configuration section lists the parameters that can be configured during installation.

The chart also has an option to generate the configuration automatically. This option is deprecated, and it will be removed in a future release. To install the chart using this option, we can run:

helm install my-release smallstep/step-certificates

Tip: List all releases using helm list

Uninstalling the Chart

To uninstall the step-certificates release:

helm uninstall step-certificates

The command removes all the Kubernetes components associated with the chart and deletes the release.

Linked CA

Linked CA is an instance of step-ca that you run that connects to your Certificate Manager) account for reporting, alerting, revocation, and other managed services.

When you create a Linked CA authority, you will get a token that you will use to connect your instance to it.

There're two ways to configure the token. You can define the value for linkedca.token:

helm install --set linkedca.token=xxx \
  step-certificates smallstep/step-certificates

Or set the reference to another secret managed with your preferred infrastructure automation tool.

helm install \
  --set linkedca.secretKeyRef.name=my-secret-name \
  --set linkedca.secretKeyRef.key=my-key-name \
  step-certificates smallstep/step-certificates

Configuration

The easiest way to configure step-certificates is to use step.

Starting with step v0.17+ and step-certificates Chart v1.17+, you can use step ca init to create a values.yaml that you can use to configure your CA:

$ step ca init --helm > values.yaml
✔ Deployment Type: Standalone
What would you like to name your new PKI?
✔ (e.g. Smallstep): Smallstep
What DNS names or IP addresses would you like to add to your new CA?
✔ (e.g. ca.smallstep.com[,1.1.1.1,etc.]): step-certificates.default.svc.cluster.local
What IP and port will your new CA bind to (it should match service.targetPort)?
✔ (e.g. :443 or 127.0.0.1:443): :9000
What would you like to name the CA's first provisioner?
✔ (e.g. you@smallstep.com): me@example.org
Choose a password for your CA keys and first provisioner.
✔ [leave empty and we'll generate one]:

Generating root certificate... done!
Generating intermediate certificate... done!

By default, the values.yaml won't contain the password used to encrypt the keys, nor the password of the default provisioner, so we have to pass it as values using the base64 encoding. And the port where the CA binds to, in the example, :9000 must be set as service.targetPort=9000.

echo "password" | base64 > password.txt
helm install -f values.yaml \
     --set inject.secrets.ca_password=$(cat password.txt) \
     --set inject.secrets.provisioner_password=$(cat password.txt) \
     --set service.targetPort=9000 \
     step-certificates smallstep/step-certificates

With this method, the automatic bootstrap of the PKI is deprecated and it will be removed in future releases.

Advanced configuration

In some circumstainces it is not an option to use Helm install or to inject secrets at the command line. For example when using GitOps / ArgoCD. Secrets and configurations can be provided before the helm chart is deployed by defining existingSecrets in the values file:

existingSecrets:
  enabled: true
  ca: true
  issuer: true
  certsAsSecret: true
  configAsSecret: true
  sshHostCa: true
  sshUserCa: true

bootstrap:
  secrets: false
  enabled: false
  configmaps: false

inject:
  enabled: false

Enabling existingSecrets can't be combined with enabling bootstrap nor inject elements from helm chart. Therefore the bootstrap and inject are disabled in the example above.

Note, the MutatingWebhookConfiguration created by autocert is not patched with CA bundle as the bootstrap init-container is not started when existingSecrets are enabled.

The following naming conventions are used for secret names:

secret name: {{ include "step-certificates.fullname" . }}-secrets which contains the following data:

  • intermediate_ca_key
    • The encrypted X.509 intermediate certificate private key.
  • root_ca_key (optional)
    • The encrypted X.509 root certificate private key.
  • ssh_host_ca_key (optional)
    • The encrypted private key used to sign SSH host certificates.
  • ssh_user_ca_key (optional)
    • The encrypted private key used to sign SSH user certificates.
  • certificate_issuer_key (optional)
    • The encrypted private key used to sign tokens used on RA mode. This is required if an X5C provisioner is used to talk with the CA, but it can also be used with JWK if the encrypted key is not distributed by the CA.

When existingSecrets.certsAsSecret is true secret name: {{ include "step-certificates.fullname" . }}-certs which contains the following data:

  • root_ca.crt
    • The root CA certificate.
  • intermediate_ca.crt
    • The intermediate CA certificate (optional).
  • ssh_host_ca_key.pub:
    • The SSH host CA public key (optional).
  • ssh_user_ca_key.pub:
    • The SSH user CA public key (optional).

When existingSecrets.configAsSecret is true secret name: {{ include "step-certificates.fullname" . }}-config which contains the following data:

  • ca.json
    • The configuration file used by step-ca.
  • default.json
    • The configuration file used by step with the default flags.

When existingSecrets.ca is true secret name: {{ include "step-certificates.fullname" . }}-ca-password secret type: smallstep.com/ca-password which contains the following data:

  • password
    • The password used to decrypt the X.509 intermediate certificate private key.

When existingSecrets.sshHostCa is true secret name: {{ include "step-certificates.fullname" . }}-ssh-host-ca-password secret type: smallstep.com/ssh-host-ca-password which contains the following data:

  • password
    • The password used to decrypt the private key used to sign SSH host certificates.

When existingSecrets.sshUserCa is true secret name: {{ include "step-certificates.fullname" . }}-ssh-user-ca-password secret type: smallstep.com/ssh-user-ca-password which contains the following data:

  • password
    • The password used to decrypt the private key used to sign SSH user certificates.

When existingSecrets.issuer is true secret name: {{ include "step-certificates.fullname" . }}--certificate-issuer-password secret type: smallstep.com/certificate-issuer-password which contains the following data:

  • password
    • The password used to decrypt the private key used to sign RA tokens.

Further more the secret name {{ include "step-certificates.fullname" . }}-provisioner-password is used for the password used to encrypt JWK provisioner.

Configuration parameters

The following table lists the configurable parameters of the Step certificates chart and their default values.

Parameter Description Default
command The command entrypoint array []
args Arguments to the entrypoint []
workingDir The container working directory "/home/step"
ca.name Name for you CA Step Certificates
ca.address TCP address where Step CA runs :9000
ca.dns DNS of Step CA, if empty it will be inferred ""
ca.url URL of Step CA, if empty it will be inferred ""
ca.password Password for the CA keys, if empty it will be automatically generated ""
ca.provisioner.name Name for the default provisioner admin
ca.provisioner.password Password for the default provisioner, if empty it will be automatically generated ""
ca.db.enabled If true, step certificates will be configured with a database true
ca.db.persistent If true a persistent volume will be used to store the db true
ca.db.accessModes Persistent volume access mode ["ReadWriteOnce"]
ca.db.size Persistent volume size 10Gi
ca.db.existingClaim Persistent volume existing claim name. If defined, PVC must be created manually before volume will be bound ""
ca.kms.type Key management system to use. ""
ca.env Environment variables to set in step-certificates container. []
ca.bootstrap.postInitHook Extra script snippet to run after step ca init has completed. ""
ca.init.containerSecurityContext Set SecurityContext for the STEP CA init container See values.yaml
ca.containerSecurityContext Set SecurityContext for the STEP CA container See values.yaml
ca.ssh.enabled If true, step certificates will be configured with ssh support enabled false
linkedca.token The token used to configure step-ca using the linkedca mode. ""
linkedca.secretKeyRef.name The secret name where the linkedca token can be found. ""
linkedca.secretKeyRef.key The secret key where the linkedca token can be found. ""
service.type Service type ClusterIP
service.port Incoming port to access Step CA 443
service.nodePort Incoming port to access Step CA ""
service.targetPort Internal port where Step CA runs 9000
service.annotations Service annotations (YAML) {}
service.externalIPs Service externalIPs []
replicaCount Number of Step CA replicas. Only one replica is currently supported. 1
image.repository Repository of the Step CA image cr.step.sm/smallstep/step-ca
image.initContainerRepository Repository of the Step CA Init Container image. busybox:latest
image.tag Tag of the Step CA image latest
image.pullPolicy Step CA image pull policy IfNotPresent
image.imagePullSecrets Name of image pull secrets to be used by kubernetes []
bootstrap.image.repository Repository of the Step CA bootstrap image cr.step.sm/smallstep/step-ca-bootstrap
bootstrap.image.tag Tag of the Step CA bootstrap image latest
bootstrap.image.pullPolicy Step CA bootstrap image pull policy IfNotPresent
bootstrap.image.imagePullSecrets Name of image pull secrets to be used by kubernetes. []
bootstrap.enabled If false, it does not create the bootstrap job. true
bootstrap.configmaps If false, it does not create the configmaps. true
bootstrap.secrets If false, it does not create the secrets. true
bootstrap.containerSecurityContext Set SecurityContext for the STEP CA bootstrap container. See values.yaml
extraVolumes Array to add extra volumes []
extraVolumeMounts Array to add extra mount []
extraInitContainers Array to add extra init containers. []
extraContainers Array to add extra containers. []
nameOverride Overrides the name of the chart ""
fullnameOverride Overrides the full name of the chart ""
ingress.enabled If true Step CA ingress will be created false
ingress.annotations Step CA ingress annotations (YAML) {}
ingress.hosts Step CA ingress hostNAMES (YAML) []
ingress.tls Step CA ingress TLS configuration (YAML) []
resources CPU/memory resource requests/limits (YAML) {}
nodeSelector Node labels for pod assignment (YAML) {}
tolerations Toleration labels for pod assignment (YAML) []
affinity Affinity settings for pod assignment (YAML) {}
inject.enabled When true, configuration files and templates are injected into a Kubernetes objects and bootstrap capability is disabled. false
inject.config.files.ca.json Yaml representation of the step-ca ca.json file. This map object is converted to its equivalent json representation before being injected into a configMap. See the step-ca documentation. See values.yaml
inject.config.files.default.json Yaml representation of the step-cli defaults.json file. This map object is converted to its equivalent json representation before being injected into a configMap. See the step-cli documentation. See values.yaml
inject.config.templates.x509_leaf.tpl Example X509 Leaf Certifixate Template to inject into the configMap. See values.yaml
inject.config.templates.ssh.tpl Example SSH Certificate Template to inject into the configMap. See values.yaml
inject.certificates.intermediate_ca Plain text PEM representation of the intermediate CA certificate. ""
inject.certificates.root_ca Plain text PEM representation of the root CA certificate. ""
inject.certificates.ssh_host_ca Plain text representation of the ssh host CA public key. ""
inject.certificates.ssh_user_ca Plain text representation of the ssh user CA public key. ""
inject.secrets.ca_password Base64 encoded string. Password used to encrypt intermediate and ssh keys. Cg==
inject.secrets.provisioner_password Base64 encoded string. Password used to encrypt JWK provisioner. Cg==
inject.secrets.x509.intermediate_ca_key Plain text PEM representation of the intermediate CA private key. ""
inject.secrets.x509.root_ca_key Plain text PEM representation of the root CA private key. ""
inject.secrets.ssh.host_ca_key Plain text representation of the ssh host CA private key. ""
inject.secrets.ssh.user_ca_key Plain text representation of the ssh user CA private key. ""
existingSecrets.enabled Use secrets and configurations from existing secrets created outside of this chart. false
existingSecrets.ca When trueuse existing secret for the ca-password. false
existingSecrets.issuer When trueuse existing secret for the issuer. false
existingSecrets.sshHostCa When trueuse existing secret for the ssh host CA public key. false
existingSecrets.sshUserCa When trueuse existing secret for the ssh user CA public key. false
existingSecrets.certsAsSecret When trueuse existing secret for certs instead of ConfigMap. false
existingSecrets.configAsSecret When trueuse existing secret for configuration instead of ConfigMap. false
podSecurityContext Set SecurityContext on POD level for STEP CA and STEP CA bootstrap job. See values.yaml
shareProcessNamespace Share a single process namespace between all of the containers in a pod. false
hostAliases Additional entries for /etc/hosts. []

Specify each parameter using the --set key=value[,key=value] argument to helm install. For example,

helm install --set provisioner.password=secretpassword,provisioner.name=Foo \
  my-release smallstep/step-certificates

The above command sets the Step Certificates main provisioner Foo with the key password secretpassword.

If you provide a custom value for ca.dns, be sure to append ,{{fullname}}.{{namespace}}.svc.cluster.local,127.0.0.1 to the end, otherwise accessing the CA by those DNS/IPs will fail (services internal to the cluster):

helm install --set ca.dns="ca.example.com\,my-release-step-certificates.default.svc.cluster.local\,127.0.0.1" \
  my-release smallstep/step-certificates

Alternatively, a YAML file that specifies the values for the parameters can be provided while installing the chart. For example,

helm install -f values.yaml my-release smallstep/step-certificates

Tip: You can use the default values.yaml

Notes

At this moment only one replica is supported, step certificates supports multiple ones using MariaDB or MySQL.

Development

Testing chart by using an example yaml file:

helm template . -f examples/existing_secrets/value.yaml | kubectl apply -f - --dry-run=client