Authentication

This document defines how authentication is provided during execution of a
TaskRun or a PipelineRun (referred to as Runs in this document).

The build system supports two types of authentication, using Kubernetes’
first-class Secret types:

• kubernetes.io/basic-auth
• kubernetes.io/ssh-auth

Secrets of these types can be made available to the Run by attaching them to
the ServiceAccount as which it runs.

Exposing credentials

In their native form, these secrets are unsuitable for consumption by Git and
Docker. For Git, they need to be turned into (some form of) .gitconfig. For
Docker, they need to be turned into a ~/.docker/config.json file. Also, while
each of these supports has multiple credentials for multiple domains, those
credentials typically need to be blended into a single canonical keyring.

To solve this, before any PipelineResources are retrieved, all pods execute
a credential initialization process that accesses each of its secrets and
aggregates them into their respective files in $HOME.

SSH authentication (Git)

1. Define a Secret containing your SSH private key (in secret.yaml):

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Secret
   metadata:
     name: ssh-key
     annotations:
       tekton.dev/git-0: https://github.com # Described below
   type: kubernetes.io/ssh-auth
   data:
     ssh-privatekey: <base64 encoded>
     # This is non-standard, but its use is encouraged to make this more secure.
     known_hosts: <base64 encoded>

   tekton.dev/git-0 in the example above specifies which web address these
   credentials belong to. See
   Guiding Credential Selection below for more
   information.

2. Generate the value of ssh-privatekey by copying the value of (for example)
   cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa | base64.

3. Copy the value of cat ~/.ssh/known_hosts | base64 to the known_hosts
   field.

4. Next, direct a ServiceAccount to use this Secret (in
   serviceaccount.yaml):

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: ServiceAccount
   metadata:
     name: build-bot
   secrets:
     - name: ssh-key

5. Then use that ServiceAccount in your TaskRun (in run.yaml):

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1alpha1
kind: TaskRun
metadata:
  name: build-push-task-run-2
spec:
  serviceAccount: buid-bot
  taskRef:
    name: build-push

1. Or use that ServiceAccount in your PipelineRun (in run.yaml):

   apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1alpha1
   kind: PipelineRun
   metadata:
     name: demo-pipeline
     namespace: default
   spec:
     serviceAccount: build-bot
     pipelineRef:
       name: demo-pipeline

2. Execute the Run:

   kubectl apply --filename secret.yaml serviceaccount.yaml run.yaml

When the Run executes, before steps execute, a ~/.ssh/config will be
generated containing the key configured in the Secret. This key is then used
to authenticate when retrieving any PipelineResources.

Basic authentication (Git)

1. Define a Secret containing the username and password that the Run should
   use to authenticate to a Git repository (in secret.yaml):

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Secret
   metadata:
     name: basic-user-pass
     annotations:
       tekton.dev/git-0: https://github.com # Described below
   type: kubernetes.io/basic-auth
   stringData:
     username: <username>
     password: <password>

   tekton.dev/git-0 in the example above specifies which web address these
   credentials belong to. See
   Guiding Credential Selection below for more
   information.

2. Next, direct a ServiceAccount to use this Secret (in
   serviceaccount.yaml):

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: ServiceAccount
   metadata:
     name: build-bot
   secrets:
     - name: basic-user-pass

3. Then use that ServiceAccount in your TaskRun (in run.yaml):

   apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1alpha1
   kind: TaskRun
   metadata:
     name: build-push-task-run-2
   spec:
     serviceAccount: buid-bot
     taskRef:
       name: build-push

4. Or use that ServiceAccount in your PipelineRun (in run.yaml):

   apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1alpha1
   kind: PipelineRun
   metadata:
     name: demo-pipeline
     namespace: default
   spec:
     serviceAccount: build-bot
     pipelineRef:
       name: demo-pipeline

5. Execute the Run:

   kubectl apply --filename secret.yaml serviceaccount.yaml run.yaml

When this Run executes, before steps execute, a ~/.gitconfig will be
generated containing the credentials configured in the Secret, and these
credentials are then used to authenticate when retrieving any
PipelineResources.

Basic authentication (Docker)

1. Define a Secret containing the username and password that the build should
   use to authenticate to a Docker registry (in secret.yaml):

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Secret
   metadata:
     name: basic-user-pass
     annotations:
       tekton.dev/docker-0: https://gcr.io # Described below
   type: kubernetes.io/basic-auth
   stringData:
     username: <username>
     password: <password>

   tekton.dev/docker-0 in the example above specifies which web address these
   credentials belong to. See
   Guiding Credential Selection below for more
   information.

2. Next, direct a ServiceAccount to use this Secret (in
   serviceaccount.yaml):

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: ServiceAccount
   metadata:
     name: build-bot
   secrets:
     - name: basic-user-pass

3. Then use that ServiceAccount in your TaskRun (in run.yaml):

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1alpha1
kind: TaskRun
metadata:
  name: build-push-task-run-2
spec:
  serviceAccount: buid-bot
  taskRef:
    name: build-push

1. Or use that ServiceAccount in your PipelineRun (in run.yaml):

   apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1alpha1
   kind: PipelineRun
   metadata:
     name: demo-pipeline
     namespace: default
   spec:
     serviceAccount: build-bot
     pipelineRef:
       name: demo-pipeline

2. Execute the Run:

   kubectl apply --filename secret.yaml serviceaccount.yaml run.yaml

When the Run executes, before steps execute, a ~/.docker/config.json will be
generated containing the credentials configured in the Secret, and these
credentials are then used to authenticate when retrieving any
PipelineResources.

Guiding credential selection

A Run might require many different types of authentication. For instance, a
Run might require access to multiple private Git repositories, and access to
many private Docker repositories. You can use annotations to guide which secret
to use to authenticate to different resources, for example:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  annotations:
    tekton.dev/git-0: https://github.com
    tekton.dev/git-1: https://gitlab.com
    tekton.dev/docker-0: https://gcr.io
type: kubernetes.io/basic-auth
stringData:
  username: <cleartext non-encoded>
  password: <cleartext non-encoded>

This describes a “Basic Auth” (username and password) secret that should be used
to access Git repos at github.com and gitlab.com, as well as Docker repositories
at gcr.io.

Similarly, for SSH:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  annotations:
    tekton.dev/git-0: github.com
type: kubernetes.io/ssh-auth
data:
  ssh-privatekey: <base64 encoded>
  # This is non-standard, but its use is encouraged to make this more secure.
  # Omitting this results in the use of ssh-keyscan (see below).
  known_hosts: <base64 encoded>

This describes an SSH key secret that should be used to access Git repos at
github.com only.

Credential annotation keys must begin with tekton.dev/docker- or
tekton.dev/git-, and the value describes the URL of the host with which to use
the credential.

Implementation details

Docker basic-auth

Given URLs, usernames, and passwords of the form: https://url{n}.com,
user{n}, and pass{n}, generate the following for Docker:

=== ~/.docker/config.json ===
{
  "auths": {
    "https://url1.com": {
      "auth": "$(echo -n user1:pass1 | base64)",
      "email": "not@val.id",
    },
    "https://url2.com": {
      "auth": "$(echo -n user2:pass2 | base64)",
      "email": "not@val.id",
    },
    ...
  }
}

Docker doesn’t support kubernetes.io/ssh-auth, so annotations on these types
are ignored.

Git basic-auth

Given URLs, usernames, and passwords of the form: https://url{n}.com,
user{n}, and pass{n}, generate the following for Git:

=== ~/.gitconfig ===
[credential]
    helper = store
[credential "https://url1.com"]
    username = "user1"
[credential "https://url2.com"]
    username = "user2"
...
=== ~/.git-credentials ===
https://user1:pass1@url1.com
https://user2:pass2@url2.com
...

Git ssh-auth

Given hostnames, private keys, and known_hosts of the form: url{n}.com,
key{n}, and known_hosts{n}, generate the following for Git:

=== ~/.ssh/id_key1 ===
{contents of key1}
=== ~/.ssh/id_key2 ===
{contents of key2}
...
=== ~/.ssh/config ===
Host url1.com
    HostName url1.com
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_key1
Host url2.com
    HostName url2.com
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_key2
...
=== ~/.ssh/known_hosts ===
{contents of known_hosts1}
{contents of known_hosts2}
...

Note: Because known_hosts is a non-standard extension of
kubernetes.io/ssh-auth, when it is not present this will be generated through
ssh-keygen url{n}.com instead.

Least privilege

The secrets as outlined here will be stored into $HOME (by convention the
volume: /builder/home), and will be available to Source and all Steps.

For sensitive credentials that should not be made available to some steps, do
not use the mechanisms outlined here. Instead, the user should declare an
explicit Volume from the Secret and manually VolumeMount it into the
Step.

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License,
and code samples are licensed under the
Apache 2.0 License.