What Is a Secret?

A ConfigMap provides a way to decouple application configuration data from the application itself. However, the problem with a ConfigMap is that it stores the data in plain text as a Kubernetes object. What if we want to store some sensitive data such as a database password? Kubernetes Secret provides a way to store sensitive data that can then be made available to the applications that require it.

Secret versus ConfigMap

You can think of a Secret as the same as a ConfigMap with the following differences:

1. Unlike a ConfigMap, a Secret is intended to store a small amount (1 MB for a Secret) of sensitive data. A Secret is base64-encoded, so we cannot treat it as secure. It can also store binary data such as a public or private key.
2. Kubernetes ensures that Secrets are passed only to the nodes that are running the Pods that need the respective Secrets.

   Note

   Another way to store sensitive data is a vault solution, such as HashiCorp Vault. We have left such...