Specification for secrets.yaml files#

The top level of secrets.yaml and secrets-environment.yaml files is an object mapping the key of a secret to its specification. The key corresponds to the key under which this secret is stored in the secret entry in Vault for this application.

The specification of the secret has the following keys:

description (string, required)

Human-readable description of the secret. This should include a summary of what the secret is used for, any useful information about the consequences if it should be leaked, and any details on how to rotate it if needed. The description must be formatted with reStructuredText.

The > and | features of YAML may be helpful in keeping this description readable inside the YAML file.

if (string, optional)

If present, specifies the conditions under which this secret is required. The value should be a Helm values key that, if set to a true value (including a non-empty list or object), indicates that this secret is required. The Phalanx tools will look first in values-environment.yaml and then in values.yaml to see if this value is set. If this condition evaluates to false, the secret is not used in that environment.

True and false are evaluated similar to the rules in Python: boolean false values, empty strings, empty dictionaries, and empty lists are considered false, and all other values are considered true.

copy (object, optional)

If present, specifies that this secret is a copy of another secret. It has the following nested settings.

application (string, required): Application from which to copy this secret value.
key (string, required): Secret key in that application from which to copy this secret value.
if (string, optional): If present, specifies a Helm values key that, if set to a true value, indicates this secret should be copied. It is interpreted the same as if at the top level. If the condition is false, the whole copy stanza will be ignored. If true, or if this if key is not present, either generate must be unset or must have an if condition that is false. True and false are determined in the same as the top-level if directive.

generate (object, optional)

Specifies that this is a generated secret rather than a static secret. The nested settings specify how to generate the secret.

type (string, required): One of the values password, gafaelfawr-token, fernet-key, rsa-private-key, bcrypt-password-hash, or mtime. Specifies the type of generated secret.
source (string, required for bcrypt-password-hash and mtime): This setting is present if and only if the type is bcrypt-password-hash. The value is the name of the key, within this application, of the secret that should be hashed to create this secret.
if (string, optional): If present, specifies a Helm values key that, if set to a true value, indicates this secret should be generated. It is interpreted the same as if at the top level. If the condition is false, the whole generate stanza will be ignored (making this a static secret in that environment instead). If true, or if this if key is not present, either copy must be unset or must have an if condition that is false. True and false are determined in the same as the top-level if directive.

value (string, optional)

In some cases, applications may need a value exposed as a secret that is not actually a secret. The preferred way to do this is to add such values directly in the VaultSecret object, but in some cases it’s clearer to store them in secrets.yaml alongside other secrets.

In those cases, value contains the literal value of the secret (without any encoding such as base64). Obviously, do not use this for any secrets that are actually secret, only for public configuration settings that have to be put into a secret due to application requirements.

value must not be set if either copy or generate are set and either do not have an if condition or have a true if condition.

These files will be syntax-checked against a YAML schema in CI tests for the Phalanx repository.