cert-manager

by cert-manager

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Updated 10 months ago

About

cert-manager automates the provisioning, renewal, and management of TLS certificates within Kubernetes clusters.

Automatically provision and manage TLS certificates in Kubernetes

Primary Use Case

cert-manager is primarily used by Kubernetes administrators and DevOps teams to automate the issuance and lifecycle management of TLS certificates for securing cluster workloads and ingress resources. It simplifies integrating certificates from various providers like Let's Encrypt, Vault, and Venafi, ensuring continuous certificate validity without manual intervention.

Key Features

Automated issuance and renewal of TLS certificates in Kubernetes
Supports multiple certificate issuers including Let's Encrypt (ACME), HashiCorp Vault, and Venafi TPP/TLS Protect Cloud
Adds certificates and certificate issuers as native Kubernetes resource types
Ensures certificates are renewed before expiry to prevent outages
Supports local in-cluster certificate issuance
Provides extensive documentation and troubleshooting resources
Integrates with Kubernetes Ingress for automatic TLS provisioning

Installation

Visit https://cert-manager.io/docs/installation/ for detailed installation methods
Choose an installation method supported by your environment (e.g., Helm, kubectl apply)
Follow platform-specific instructions for Linux or macOS as documented
Ensure prerequisites such as Kubernetes cluster access and permissions are met
Deploy cert-manager components into the Kubernetes cluster using the chosen method

Usage

>_ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/vX.Y.Z/cert-manager.yaml

Installs cert-manager into the Kubernetes cluster using the official release manifest

>_ kubectl describe certificate <certificate-name>

Displays detailed information about a specific certificate resource

>_ kubectl get issuers

Lists all certificate issuers configured in the cluster

>_ kubectl logs -l app=cert-manager -n cert-manager

Fetches logs from cert-manager pods for troubleshooting

Security Frameworks

Defense Evasion

Credential Access

Initial Access

Persistence

Discovery

Usage Insights

Integrate cert-manager with Kubernetes admission controllers to enforce TLS usage policies automatically.
Use cert-manager to automate certificate rotation, reducing attack surface from expired or weak certificates.
Combine cert-manager with cloud-native security scanners to continuously validate certificate configurations and compliance.
Leverage cert-manager’s multi-issuer support to diversify certificate sources and improve resilience against issuer compromise.
Incorporate cert-manager metrics and events into SIEM for enhanced monitoring of certificate lifecycle anomalies.