headlamp-sealed-secrets-plugin/headlamp-sealed-secrets

Headlamp Sealed Secrets Plugin

A comprehensive Headlamp plugin for managing Bitnami Sealed Secrets in Kubernetes clusters.

Features

🔐 Client-Side Encryption

• Encrypt secrets entirely in your browser using the controller's public key
• Never send plaintext values over the network
• Support for all three scoping modes: strict, namespace-wide, and cluster-wide

📋 Resource Management

• List View: Browse all SealedSecrets across namespaces with filtering
• Detail View: Inspect encrypted data, templates, and resulting Secrets
• Create: Easy-to-use dialog for creating new SealedSecrets
• Decrypt: View decrypted values (requires RBAC permissions to read Secrets)
• Re-encrypt: Rotate SealedSecrets with the current active key

🔑 Key Management

• View all sealing key pairs (active and compromised)
• Download the public certificate for use with kubeseal CLI
• Monitor certificate validity periods

🔗 Integration

• Seamlessly integrates with Headlamp's Secret detail view
• Shows parent SealedSecret info on Secret pages
• Follows Headlamp's design patterns and UI components

Installation

Prerequisites

1. Headlamp installed and running (v0.13.0 or later)
2. Sealed Secrets controller installed on your Kubernetes cluster:

   kubectl apply -f https://github.com/bitnami-labs/sealed-secrets/releases/download/v0.24.0/controller.yaml
   

Install the Plugin

Option 1: From NPM (when published)

npm install -g headlamp-sealed-secrets

Option 2: Build from Source

git clone <repository-url>
cd headlamp-sealed-secrets
npm install
npm run build

Then copy the dist folder to Headlamp's plugins directory:

• Linux: ~/.config/Headlamp/plugins/headlamp-sealed-secrets/
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Headlamp/plugins/headlamp-sealed-secrets/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Headlamp\plugins\headlamp-sealed-secrets\

Option 3: Development Mode

npm start

This starts a development server with hot reload. Point Headlamp to the plugin directory.

Usage

Creating a SealedSecret

1. Navigate to Sealed Secrets > All Sealed Secrets in the sidebar
2. Click Create Sealed Secret
3. Fill in:
   • Secret name
   • Namespace
   • Scope (strict/namespace-wide/cluster-wide)
   • Key-value pairs (values are masked by default)
4. Click Create

The plugin will:

• Fetch the controller's public certificate
• Encrypt all values client-side in your browser
• Apply the SealedSecret to the cluster
• The controller will create the corresponding Kubernetes Secret

Viewing SealedSecrets

The list view shows:

• Name and namespace
• Number of encrypted keys
• Encryption scope
• Sync status (whether the Secret was successfully created)
• Age

Click on any SealedSecret to view details including:

• Encrypted data
• Template metadata
• Resulting Secret (with link to Secret detail view)
• Status conditions

Decrypting Values

On the detail view, click Decrypt next to any encrypted key to view its plaintext value.

Requirements:

• The SealedSecret must be synced (controller has created the Secret)
• You must have RBAC permissions to read Secrets in that namespace

Security: The decrypted value auto-hides after 30 seconds.

Managing Sealing Keys

Navigate to Sealed Secrets > Sealing Keys to:

• View all sealing key pairs
• See which key is active
• Check certificate validity periods
• Download the public certificate

Settings

Navigate to Sealed Secrets > Settings to configure:

• Controller name (default: sealed-secrets-controller)
• Controller namespace (default: kube-system)
• Controller port (default: 8080)

Settings are stored in your browser's local storage.

Architecture

Client-Side Encryption

The plugin implements the same encryption algorithm as kubeseal:

1. Fetch the controller's public certificate via Kubernetes API proxy
2. Parse the RSA public key from the PEM certificate
3. For each secret value:
   • Generate a random AES-256-GCM session key
   • Encrypt the value with the session key
   • Encrypt the session key with RSA-OAEP (SHA-256)
   • Construct the sealed-secrets payload format
   • Base64-encode the result

Security note: All encryption happens in the browser. Plaintext values never leave your machine.

Components

src/
├── index.tsx                    # Plugin registration
├── types.ts                     # TypeScript interfaces
├── components/
│   ├── SealedSecretList.tsx     # List view
│   ├── SealedSecretDetail.tsx   # Detail view
│   ├── EncryptDialog.tsx        # Create dialog
│   ├── DecryptDialog.tsx        # Decrypt modal
│   ├── SealingKeysView.tsx      # Key management
│   ├── SettingsPage.tsx         # Configuration
│   └── SecretDetailsSection.tsx # Secret integration
└── lib/
    ├── SealedSecretCRD.ts       # CRD class
    ├── crypto.ts                # Encryption logic
    └── controller.ts            # Controller API

Dependencies

• node-forge: RSA and AES cryptography
• @kinvolk/headlamp-plugin: Headlamp plugin SDK
• React, Material-UI: Provided by Headlamp at runtime

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Type check
npm run tsc

# Lint
npm run lint

# Format code
npm run format

# Start development server
npm start

# Build for production
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

Troubleshooting

"SealedSecrets CRD not found"

The Sealed Secrets controller is not installed on your cluster. Install it:

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/bitnami-labs/sealed-secrets/releases/download/v0.24.0/controller.yaml

"Failed to fetch certificate"

Check:

• Controller is running: kubectl get pods -n kube-system -l name=sealed-secrets-controller
• Settings match your controller deployment (name, namespace, port)
• You have network connectivity to the cluster

"Secret not found" when decrypting

The SealedSecret hasn't been processed yet, or you don't have RBAC permissions to read Secrets. Check:

• SealedSecret status shows "Synced"
• Controller logs: kubectl logs -n kube-system -l name=sealed-secrets-controller
• Your RBAC permissions: kubectl auth can-i get secrets -n <namespace>

Re-encrypt fails

The controller's /v1/rotate endpoint may not be exposed. This is typically only needed when rotating keys.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes with tests
4. Run npm run lint and npm run tsc
5. Submit a pull request

License

Apache License 2.0 - See LICENSE file for details.

Related Projects

• Headlamp - The Kubernetes UI
• Sealed Secrets - The Sealed Secrets controller
• kubeseal - The CLI tool for Sealed Secrets

Credits

Built with ❤️ for the Kubernetes community.

• Uses the Headlamp Plugin SDK
• Follows patterns from official Headlamp plugins (Flux, cert-manager)
• Encryption algorithm compatible with kubeseal