etcd encryption

You can encrypt sensitive resource data in etcd to provide an additional layer of protection if an etcd backup or storage data is exposed.

By default, etcd data is not encrypted in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. You can enable etcd encryption for your cluster to provide an additional layer of data security. For example, it can help protect the loss of sensitive data if an etcd backup is exposed to the incorrect parties.

When you enable etcd encryption, the following OpenShift API server and Kubernetes API server resources are encrypted:

  • Secrets

  • Config maps

  • Routes

  • OAuth access tokens

  • OAuth authorize tokens

When you enable etcd encryption, encryption keys are created. You must have these keys to restore from an etcd backup.

Note

etcd encryption only encrypts values, not keys. Resource types, namespaces, and object names are unencrypted.

If etcd encryption is enabled during a backup, the static_kuberesources_<datetimestamp>.tar.gz file contains the encryption keys for the etcd snapshot. For security reasons, store this file separately from the etcd snapshot. However, this file is required to restore a previous state of etcd from the respective etcd snapshot.