Server-Side Object Encryption with AWS Secrets Manager Root KMS

MinIO Kubernetes Operator and Plugin

The procedures on this page requires a valid installation of the MinIO Kubernetes Operator and assumes the local host has a matching installation of the MinIO Kubernetes Operator. This procedure assumes the latest stable Operator and Plugin version 5.0.4.

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

Ensure Access to the AWS Secrets Manager and Key Management Service

This procedure assumes access to and familiarity with AWS Secrets Manager and AWS Key Management Service.

This procedure assumes your Kubernetes cluster configuration allows for cluster-internal pods and services to resolve and connect to endpoints outside of the cluster, such as the public internet.

MinIO specifically requires the following AWS settings or configurations:

• A new AWS Programmatic Access user with corresponding access key and secret key.

• A policy that grants the created user access to AWS Secrets Manager and AWS Key Management Service. The following policy grants the minimum necessary permissions:

  {
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
      {
        "Sid": "minioSecretsManagerAccess",
        "Action": [
          "secretsmanager:CreateSecret",
          "secretsmanager:DeleteSecret",
          "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue",
          "secretsmanager:ListSecrets"
        ],
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Resource": "*"
      },
      {
        "Sid": "minioKmsAccess",
        "Action": [
          "kms:Decrypt",
          "kms:DescribeKey",
          "kms:Encrypt"
        ],
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Resource": "*"
      }
    ]
  }
  

  AWS provides the SecretsManagerReadWrite and AWSKeyManagementServicePowerUser canned roles that meet and exceed the minimum required permissions.

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

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

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

Once you have completed the AWS KMS 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