Sealed Secrets are “one-way” encrypted K8s Secrets that can be created by anyone, but can only be decrypted by the controller running in the target cluster recovering the original object.

Overview of Sealed Secrets

TL;DR

helm install my-release oci://REGISTRY_NAME/REPOSITORY_NAME/sealed-secrets

Note: You need to substitute the placeholders REGISTRY_NAME and REPOSITORY_NAME with a reference to your Helm chart registry and repository.

Introduction

Bitnami charts for Helm are carefully engineered, actively maintained and are the quickest and easiest way to deploy containers on a Kubernetes cluster that are ready to handle production workloads.

This chart bootstraps a Sealed Secret controller Deployment in Kubernetes using the Helm package manager.

Bitnami charts can be used with Kubeapps for deployment and management of Helm Charts in clusters.

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes 1.16+
• Helm 3.8.0+

Installing the Chart

To install the chart with the release name my-release:

helm install my-release oci://REGISTRY_NAME/REPOSITORY_NAME/sealed-secrets

Note: You need to substitute the placeholders REGISTRY_NAME and REPOSITORY_NAME with a reference to your Helm chart registry and repository. For example, in the case of Bitnami, you need to use REGISTRY_NAME=registry-1.docker.io and REPOSITORY_NAME=bitnamicharts.

The command deploys the Sealed Secrets controller on the Kubernetes cluster in the default configuration. The Parameters section lists the parameters that can be configured during installation.

Tip: List all releases using helm list

Configuration and installation details

Resource requests and limits

Bitnami charts allow setting resource requests and limits for all containers inside the chart deployment. These are inside the resources value (check parameter table). Setting requests is essential for production workloads and these should be adapted to your specific use case.

To make this process easier, the chart contains the resourcesPreset values, which automatically sets the resources section according to different presets. Check these presets in the bitnami/common chart. However, in production workloads using resourcesPreset is discouraged as it may not fully adapt to your specific needs. Find more information on container resource management in the official Kubernetes documentation.

Prometheus metrics

This chart can be integrated with Prometheus by setting metrics.enabled to true. This will expose the Sealed Secrets native Prometheus port in in the containers. Additionally, it will create a metrics service configurable via metrics.service section. This service will also have the necessary annotations to be automatically scraped by Prometheus.

Prometheus requirements

It is necessary to have a working installation of Prometheus or Prometheus Operator for the integration to work. Install the Bitnami Prometheus helm chart or the Bitnami Kube Prometheus helm chart to easily have a working Prometheus in your cluster.

Integration with Prometheus Operator

The chart can deploy ServiceMonitor objects for integration with Prometheus Operator installations. To do so, set the value metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled=true. Ensure that the Prometheus Operator CustomResourceDefinitions are installed in the cluster or it will fail with the following error:

no matches for kind "ServiceMonitor" in version "monitoring.coreos.com/v1"

Install the Bitnami Kube Prometheus helm chart for having the necessary CRDs and the Prometheus Operator.

Backup and restore

To back up and restore Helm chart deployments on Kubernetes, you need to back up the persistent volumes from the source deployment and attach them to a new deployment using Velero, a Kubernetes backup/restore tool. Find the instructions for using Velero in this guide.

Using kubeseal

The easiest way to interact with the Sealed Secrets controller is using the kubeseal utility. You can install this CLI by downloading the binary from sealed-secrets/releases page.

Once installed, you can start using it to encrypt your secrets or fetching the controller public certificate as shown in the example below:

$ kubeseal --fetch-cert \
--controller-name=my-release \
--controller-namespace=my-release-namespace \
> pub-cert.pem

Refer to Sealed Secrets documentation for more information about kubeseal usage.

Rolling VS Immutable tags

It is strongly recommended to use immutable tags in a production environment. This ensures your deployment does not change automatically if the same tag is updated with a different image.

Bitnami will release a new chart updating its containers if a new version of the main container, significant changes, or critical vulnerabilities exist.

Ingress

This chart provides support for Ingress resources. If you have an ingress controller installed on your cluster, such as nginx-ingress-controller or contour you can utilize the ingress controller to serve your application.To enable Ingress integration, set ingress.enabled to true.

The most common scenario is to have one host name mapped to the deployment. In this case, the ingress.hostname property can be used to set the host name. The ingress.tls parameter can be used to add the TLS configuration for this host.

However, it is also possible to have more than one host. To facilitate this, the ingress.extraHosts parameter (if available) can be set with the host names specified as an array. The ingress.extraTLS parameter (if available) can also be used to add the TLS configuration for extra hosts.

NOTE: For each host specified in the ingress.extraHosts parameter, it is necessary to set a name, path, and any annotations that the Ingress controller should know about. Not all annotations are supported by all Ingress controllers, but this annotation reference document lists the annotations supported by many popular Ingress controllers.

Adding the TLS parameter (where available) will cause the chart to generate HTTPS URLs, and the application will be available on port 443. The actual TLS secrets do not have to be generated by this chart. However, if TLS is enabled, the Ingress record will not work until the TLS secret exists.

Learn more about Ingress controllers.

Securing traffic using TLS

This chart facilitates the creation of TLS secrets for use with the Ingress controller (although this is not mandatory). There are several common use cases:

• Generate certificate secrets based on chart parameters.
• Enable externally generated certificates.
• Manage application certificates via an external service (like cert-manager).
• Create self-signed certificates within the chart (if supported).

In the first two cases, a certificate and a key are needed. Files are expected in .pem format.

Here is an example of a certificate file:

NOTE: There may be more than one certificate if there is a certificate chain.

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIID6TCCAtGgAwIBAgIJAIaCwivkeB5EMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMFYxCzAJBgNV
...
jScrvkiBO65F46KioCL9h5tDvomdU1aqpI/CBzhvZn1c0ZTf87tGQR8NK7v7
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Here is an example of a certificate key:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIEogIBAAKCAQEAvLYcyu8f3skuRyUgeeNpeDvYBCDcgq+LsWap6zbX5f8oLqp4
...
wrj2wDbCDCFmfqnSJ+dKI3vFLlEz44sAV8jX/kd4Y6ZTQhlLbYc=
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

• If using Helm to manage the certificates based on the parameters, copy these values into the certificate and key values for a given *.ingress.secrets entry.
• If managing TLS secrets separately, it is necessary to create a TLS secret with name INGRESS_HOSTNAME-tls (where INGRESS_HOSTNAME is a placeholder to be replaced with the hostname you set using the *.ingress.hostname parameter).
• If your cluster has a cert-manager add-on to automate the management and issuance of TLS certificates, add to *.ingress.annotations the corresponding ones for cert-manager.
• If using self-signed certificates created by Helm, set both *.ingress.tls and *.ingress.selfSigned to true.

Sidecars

If additional containers are needed in the same pod as Sealed Secrets (such as additional metrics or logging exporters), they can be defined using the sidecars parameter.

sidecars:
- name: your-image-name
  image: your-image
  imagePullPolicy: Always
  ports:
  - name: portname
    containerPort: 1234

If these sidecars export extra ports, extra port definitions can be added using the service.extraPorts parameter (where available), as shown in the example below:

service:
  extraPorts:
  - name: extraPort
    port: 11311
    targetPort: 11311

NOTE: This Helm chart already includes sidecar containers for the Prometheus exporters (where applicable). These can be activated by adding the --enable-metrics=true parameter at deployment time. The sidecars parameter should therefore only be used for any extra sidecar containers.

If additional init containers are needed in the same pod, they can be defined using the initContainers parameter. Here is an example:

initContainers:
  - name: your-image-name
    image: your-image
    imagePullPolicy: Always
    ports:
      - name: portname
        containerPort: 1234

Learn more about sidecar containers and init containers.

Pod affinity

This chart allows you to set your custom affinity using the affinity parameter. Find more information about Pod affinity in the kubernetes documentation.

As an alternative, use one of the preset configurations for pod affinity, pod anti-affinity, and node affinity available at the bitnami/common chart. To do so, set the podAffinityPreset, podAntiAffinityPreset, or nodeAffinityPreset parameters.

Parameters

Global parameters

Name	Description	Value
global.imageRegistry	Global Docker image registry	""
global.imagePullSecrets	Global Docker registry secret names as an array	[]
global.security.allowInsecureImages	Allows skipping image verification	false
global.compatibility.openshift.adaptSecurityContext	Adapt the securityContext sections of the deployment to make them compatible with Openshift restricted-v2 SCC: remove runAsUser, runAsGroup and fsGroup and let the platform use their allowed default IDs. Possible values: auto (apply if the detected running cluster is Openshift), force (perform the adaptation always), disabled (do not perform adaptation)	auto

Common parameters

Name	Description	Value
kubeVersion	Override Kubernetes version	""
nameOverride	String to partially override common.names.fullname	""
fullnameOverride	String to fully override common.names.fullname	""
namespaceOverride	String to fully override common.names.namespace	""
commonLabels	Labels to add to all deployed objects	{}
commonAnnotations	Annotations to add to all deployed objects	{}
clusterDomain	Kubernetes cluster domain name	cluster.local
extraDeploy	Array of extra objects to deploy with the release	[]

Sealed Secrets Parameters

Name	Description	Value
image.registry	Sealed Secrets image registry	REGISTRY_NAME
image.repository	Sealed Secrets image repository	REPOSITORY_NAME/sealed-secrets
image.digest	Sealed Secrets image digest in the way sha256:aa…. Please note this parameter, if set, will override the tag	""
image.pullPolicy	Sealed Secrets image pull policy	IfNotPresent
image.pullSecrets	Sealed Secrets image pull secrets	[]
image.debug	Enable Sealed Secrets image debug mode	false
command	Override default container command (useful when using custom images)	[]
commandArgs	Additional args (doesn’t override the default ones)	[]
args	Override default container args (useful when using custom images)	[]
revisionHistoryLimit	Number of old history to retain to allow rollback (If not set, default Kubernetes value is set to 10)	""
createController	Specifies whether the Sealed Secrets controller should be created	true
secretName	The name of an existing TLS secret containing the key used to encrypt secrets	""
updateStatus	Specifies whether the Sealed Secrets controller should update the status subresource	true
skipRecreate	Specifies whether the Sealed Secrets controller should skip recreating removed secrets	false
keyRenewPeriod	Specifies key renewal period. Default 30 days. e.g keyRenewPeriod: “720h30m”	""
rateLimit	Number of allowed sustained request per second for verify endpoint	""
rateLimitBurst	Number of requests allowed to exceed the rate limit per second for verify endpoint	""
additionalNamespaces	List of namespaces used to manage the Sealed Secrets	[]
privateKeyAnnotations	Map of annotations to be set on the sealing keypairs	{}
privateKeyLabels	Map of labels to be set on the sealing keypairs	{}
logInfoStdout	Specifies whether the Sealed Secrets controller will log info to stdout	false
containerPorts.http	Controller HTTP container port to open	8080
containerPorts.metrics	Controller metrics container port	8081
resourcesPreset	Set container resources according to one common preset (allowed values: none, nano, micro, small, medium, large, xlarge, 2xlarge). This is ignored if resources is set (resources is recommended for production).	nano
resources	Set container requests and limits for different resources like CPU or memory (essential for production workloads)	{}
livenessProbe.enabled	Enable livenessProbe on Sealed Secret containers	true
livenessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Initial delay seconds for livenessProbe	5
livenessProbe.periodSeconds	Period seconds for livenessProbe	10
livenessProbe.timeoutSeconds	Timeout seconds for livenessProbe	1
livenessProbe.failureThreshold	Failure threshold for livenessProbe	3
livenessProbe.successThreshold	Success threshold for livenessProbe	1
readinessProbe.enabled	Enable readinessProbe on Sealed Secret containers	true
readinessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Initial delay seconds for readinessProbe	5
readinessProbe.periodSeconds	Period seconds for readinessProbe	10
readinessProbe.timeoutSeconds	Timeout seconds for readinessProbe	1
readinessProbe.failureThreshold	Failure threshold for readinessProbe	3
readinessProbe.successThreshold	Success threshold for readinessProbe	1
startupProbe.enabled	Enable startupProbe on Sealed Secret containers	false
startupProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Initial delay seconds for startupProbe	10
startupProbe.periodSeconds	Period seconds for startupProbe	10
startupProbe.timeoutSeconds	Timeout seconds for startupProbe	1
startupProbe.failureThreshold	Failure threshold for startupProbe	15
startupProbe.successThreshold	Success threshold for startupProbe	1
customLivenessProbe	Custom livenessProbe that overrides the default one	{}
customReadinessProbe	Custom readinessProbe that overrides the default one	{}
customStartupProbe	Custom startupProbe that overrides the default one	{}
podSecurityContext.enabled	Enabled Sealed Secret pods’ Security Context	true
podSecurityContext.fsGroupChangePolicy	Set filesystem group change policy	Always
podSecurityContext.sysctls	Set kernel settings using the sysctl interface	[]
podSecurityContext.supplementalGroups	Set filesystem extra groups	[]
podSecurityContext.fsGroup	Set Sealed Secret pod’s Security Context fsGroup	1001
containerSecurityContext.enabled	Enabled Sealed Secret containers’ Security Context	true
containerSecurityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation	Whether the Sealed Secret container can escalate privileges	false
containerSecurityContext.capabilities.drop	Which privileges to drop in the Sealed Secret container	["ALL"]
containerSecurityContext.readOnlyRootFilesystem	Whether the Sealed Secret container has a read-only root filesystem	true
containerSecurityContext.runAsNonRoot	Indicates that the Sealed Secret container must run as a non-root user	true
containerSecurityContext.seLinuxOptions	Set SELinux options in container	{}
containerSecurityContext.runAsUser	Set Sealed Secret containers’ Security Context runAsUser	1001
containerSecurityContext.runAsGroup	Set Sealed Secret containers’ Security Context runAsGroup	1001
containerSecurityContext.seccompProfile.type	Set Sealed Secret container’s Security Context seccompProfile type	RuntimeDefault
automountServiceAccountToken	Mount Service Account token in pod	true
hostAliases	Sealed Secret pods host aliases	[]
podLabels	Extra labels for Sealed Secret pods	{}
podAnnotations	Annotations for Sealed Secret pods	{}
podAffinityPreset	Pod affinity preset. Ignored if affinity is set. Allowed values: soft or hard	""
podAntiAffinityPreset	Pod anti-affinity preset. Ignored if affinity is set. Allowed values: soft or hard	soft
nodeAffinityPreset.type	Node affinity preset type. Ignored if affinity is set. Allowed values: soft or hard	""
nodeAffinityPreset.key	Node label key to match. Ignored if affinity is set	""
nodeAffinityPreset.values	Node label values to match. Ignored if affinity is set	[]
affinity	Affinity for Sealed Secret pods assignment	{}
nodeSelector	Node labels for Sealed Secret pods assignment	{}
tolerations	Tolerations for Sealed Secret pods assignment	[]
updateStrategy.type	Sealed Secret statefulset strategy type	RollingUpdate
priorityClassName	Sealed Secret pods’ priorityClassName	""
topologySpreadConstraints	Topology Spread Constraints for pod assignment spread across your cluster among failure-domains. Evaluated as a template	[]
schedulerName	Name of the k8s scheduler (other than default) for Sealed Secret pods	""
terminationGracePeriodSeconds	Seconds the pod needs to terminate gracefully	""
lifecycleHooks	for the Sealed Secret container(s) to automate configuration before or after startup	{}
extraEnvVars	Array with extra environment variables to add to Sealed Secret nodes	[]
extraEnvVarsCM	Name of existing ConfigMap containing extra env vars for Sealed Secret nodes	""
extraEnvVarsSecret	Name of existing Secret containing extra env vars for Sealed Secret nodes	""
extraVolumes	Optionally specify extra list of additional volumes for the Sealed Secret pod(s)	[]
extraVolumeMounts	Optionally specify extra list of additional volumeMounts for the Sealed Secret container(s)	[]
sidecars	Add additional sidecar containers to the Sealed Secret pod(s)	{}
initContainers	Add additional init containers to the Sealed Secret pod(s)	{}

Traffic Exposure Parameters

Name	Description	Value
service.type	Sealed Secret service type	ClusterIP
service.ports.http	Sealed Secret service HTTP port number	8080
service.ports.name	Sealed Secret service HTTP port name	http
service.nodePorts.http	Node port for HTTP	""
service.clusterIP	Sealed Secret service Cluster IP	""
service.loadBalancerIP	Sealed Secret service Load Balancer IP	""
service.loadBalancerClass	Sealed Secret service Load Balancer Class	""
service.loadBalancerSourceRanges	Sealed Secret service Load Balancer sources	[]
service.externalTrafficPolicy	Sealed Secret service external traffic policy	Cluster
service.annotations	Additional custom annotations for Sealed Secret service	{}
service.extraPorts	Extra ports to expose in Sealed Secret service (normally used with the sidecars value)	[]
service.sessionAffinity	Control where client requests go, to the same pod or round-robin	None
service.sessionAffinityConfig	Additional settings for the sessionAffinity	{}
ingress.enabled	Enable ingress record generation for Sealed Secret	false
ingress.pathType	Ingress path type	ImplementationSpecific
ingress.apiVersion	Force Ingress API version (automatically detected if not set)	""
ingress.ingressClassName	IngressClass that will be be used to implement the Ingress	""
ingress.hostname	Default host for the ingress record	sealed-secrets.local
ingress.path	Default path for the ingress record	/
ingress.annotations	Additional custom annotations for the ingress record	{}
ingress.tls	Enable TLS configuration for the host defined at ingress.hostname parameter	false
ingress.selfSigned	Create a TLS secret for this ingress record using self-signed certificates generated by Helm	false
ingress.extraHosts	An array with additional hostname(s) to be covered with the ingress record	[]
ingress.extraPaths	An array with additional arbitrary paths that may need to be added to the ingress under the main host	[]
ingress.extraTls	TLS configuration for additional hostname(s) to be covered with this ingress record	[]
ingress.secrets	Custom TLS certificates as secrets	[]
ingress.extraRules	Additional rules to be covered with this ingress record	[]

Other Parameters

Name	Description	Value
rbac.create	Specifies whether RBAC resources should be created	true
rbac.pspEnabled	PodSecurityPolicy	false
rbac.clusterRole	Specifies whether the Cluster Role resource should be created. If both rbac.clusterRole and rbac.namespacedRoles are set to false no RBAC will be created.	true
rbac.clusterRoleName	Specifies the name for the Cluster Role resource	""
rbac.namespacedRoles	Specifies whether the namespaced Roles should be created (in each of the specified additionalNamespaces). If both rbac.clusterRole and rbac.namespacedRoles are set to false no RBAC will be created.	false
rbac.namespacedRolesName	Specifies the name for the namesapced Role resource	""
rbac.unsealer.rules	Custom RBAC rules to set for unsealer ClusterRole	[]
rbac.keyAdmin.rules	Custom RBAC rules to set for key-admin role	[]
rbac.serviceProxier.rules	Custom RBAC rules to set for service-proxier role	[]
rbac.labels	Extra labels to be added to RBAC resources	{}
serviceAccount.create	Specifies whether a ServiceAccount should be created	true
serviceAccount.name	The name of the ServiceAccount to use.	""
serviceAccount.annotations	Additional Service Account annotations (evaluated as a template)	{}
serviceAccount.automountServiceAccountToken	Automount service account token for the server service account	false
networkPolicy.enabled	Specifies whether a NetworkPolicy should be created	false
networkPolicy.allowExternal	Don’t require client label for connections	true
pdb.create	Enable a Pod Disruption Budget creation	true
pdb.minAvailable	Minimum number/percentage of pods that should remain scheduled	""
pdb.maxUnavailable	Maximum number/percentage of pods that may be made unavailable. Defaults to 1 if both pdb.minAvailable and pdb.maxUnavailable are empty.	""

Metrics parameters

Name	Description	Value
metrics.enabled	Sealed Secrets toggle metrics service definition	false
metrics.service.type	Sealed Secrets metrics service type	ClusterIP
metrics.service.ports.metrics	Sealed Secrets metrics service port	8081
metrics.service.externalTrafficPolicy	Sealed Secrets metrics service external traffic policy	Cluster
metrics.service.extraPorts	Extra ports to expose (normally used with the sidecar value)	[]
metrics.service.loadBalancerIP	Sealed Secrets metrics service Load Balancer IP	""
metrics.service.loadBalancerSourceRanges	Sealed Secrets metrics service Load Balancer sources	[]
metrics.service.annotations	Additional custom annotations for Sealed Secrets metrics service	{}
metrics.serviceMonitor.enabled	Specify if a ServiceMonitor will be deployed for Prometheus Operator	false
metrics.serviceMonitor.namespace	Namespace in which Prometheus is running	""
metrics.serviceMonitor.port.number	Port number for the serviceMonitor	8081
metrics.serviceMonitor.port.name	Port name for the serviceMonitor	metrics
metrics.serviceMonitor.labels	Extra labels for the ServiceMonitor	{}
metrics.serviceMonitor.annotations	Additional ServiceMonitor annotations (evaluated as a template)	{}
metrics.serviceMonitor.jobLabel	The name of the label on the target service to use as the job name in Prometheus	""
metrics.serviceMonitor.honorLabels	honorLabels chooses the metric’s labels on collisions with target labels	false
metrics.serviceMonitor.interval	Interval at which metrics should be scraped.	""
metrics.serviceMonitor.scrapeTimeout	Timeout after which the scrape is ended	""
metrics.serviceMonitor.metricRelabelings	Specify additional relabeling of metrics	[]
metrics.serviceMonitor.relabelings	Specify general relabeling	[]
metrics.serviceMonitor.selector	Prometheus instance selector labels	{}

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

helm install my-release \
  --set livenessProbe.successThreshold=5 \
    oci://REGISTRY_NAME/REPOSITORY_NAME/sealed-secrets

Note: You need to substitute the placeholders REGISTRY_NAME and REPOSITORY_NAME with a reference to your Helm chart registry and repository. For example, in the case of Bitnami, you need to use REGISTRY_NAME=registry-1.docker.io and REPOSITORY_NAME=bitnamicharts.

The above command sets the livenessProbe.successThreshold to 5.

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

helm install my-release -f values.yaml oci://REGISTRY_NAME/REPOSITORY_NAME/sealed-secrets

Note: You need to substitute the placeholders REGISTRY_NAME and REPOSITORY_NAME with a reference to your Helm chart registry and repository. For example, in the case of Bitnami, you need to use REGISTRY_NAME=registry-1.docker.io and REPOSITORY_NAME=bitnamicharts. Tip: You can use the default values.yaml

Troubleshooting

Find more information about how to deal with common errors related to Bitnami’s Helm charts in this troubleshooting guide.

Upgrading

To 2.5.0

This version introduces image verification for security purposes. To disable it, set global.security.allowInsecureImages to true. More details at GitHub issue.

To 2.0.0

This major bump changes the following security defaults:

• resourcesPreset is changed from none to the minimum size working in our test suites (NOTE: resourcesPreset is not meant for production usage, but resources adapted to your use case).
• global.compatibility.openshift.adaptSecurityContext is changed from disabled to auto.

This could potentially break any customization or init scripts used in your deployment. If this is the case, change the default values to the previous ones.

To 1.0.0

This major release renames several values in this chart and adds missing features, in order to be aligned with the rest of the assets in the Bitnami charts repository.

• service.port has been renamed as service.ports.http.
• service.nodePorthas been renamed as service.nodePorts.http
• containerPorthas been renamed as containerPorts.http
• certManagerhas been removed. Please use ingress.annotations instead

License

Copyright © 2025 Broadcom. The term “Broadcom” refers to Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.