---
layout: docs
page_title: Vault CSI Provider
description: >-
  The Vault CSI Provider allows pods to consume Vault secrets using CSI volumes.
---

# Vault CSI Provider

The Vault CSI Provider allows pods to consume Vault secrets using
[CSI Secrets Store](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/secrets-store-csi-driver) volumes.

~> The Vault CSI Provider requires the [CSI Secret Store](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/secrets-store-csi-driver)
Driver to be installed.

## Overview

At a high level, the CSI Secrets Store driver allows users to create `SecretProviderClass` objects.
This object defines which secret provider to use and what secrets to retrieve. When pods requesting CSI volumes
are created, the CSI Secrets Store driver will send the request to the Vault CSI Provider if the provider
is `vault`. The Vault CSI Provider will then use Secret Provider Class specified and the pod's service account to retrieve
the secrets from Vault, and <span class="x x-first x-last">mount</span> them <span class="x x-first x-last">into</span> the pod<span class="x x-first x-last">'s CSI</span> volume.

The secret is retrieved from Vault and populated to the CSI secrets store volume during the `ContainerCreation` phase.
This means that pods will be blocked from starting until the secrets have been read from Vault and written to the volume.

### Features

The following features are supported by the Vault CSI Provider:

- All Vault secret engines supported.
- Authentication using the requesting pod's service account.
- TLS/mTLS communications with Vault.
- Rendering Vault secrets to files.
- Syncing secrets to Kubernetes secrets to be used as environment variables.
- Installation via [Vault Helm](/vault/docs/platform/k8s/helm)

## Authenticating with Vault

The primary method of authentication with Vault when using the Vault CSI Provider
is the service account attached to the pod. At this time no other authentication methods
are supported.

For [Kubernetes authentication](/vault/docs/auth/kubernetes), the service account must be bound to a Vault role and a
policy granting access to the secrets desired.

A service account must be present to use the Vault CSI Provider with the Kubernetes
authentication method. It is _not_ recommended to bind Vault roles to the default service
account provided to pods if no service account is defined.

### Setting `issuer` for Kubernetes authentication

-> **Deprecated:** The `issuer` parameter has been deprecated as of Vault 1.9 and will be removed in a future release.

If running Vault prior to version 1.9, you will likely need to set [`issuer`](/vault/api-docs/auth/kubernetes#issuer) when
configuring Kubernetes authentication for the Vault CSI Provider.
Vault CSI Provider does not use the default token associated with service accounts.
Instead, it creates a token with a short TTL whose lifetime is also bound to the
lifetime of the requesting pod. A key difference between default tokens and
ephemeral tokens is the JWT issuer. Default tokens use `kubernetes/serviceaccount`,
which is the default value that Kubernetes auth will try to validate. However,
ephemeral tokens use the value of `kube-apiserver`'s `--service-account-issuer`
flag as the issuer, which is normally a URL instead. See the [Kubernetes auth
docs](/vault/docs/auth/kubernetes#discovering-the-service-account-issuer) for
ways to check the issuer using the Kubernetes API.

Importantly, this means most common configurations of Vault Agent Injector and
Vault CSI Provider **cannot share the same Kubernetes auth mount**. Vault
Agent sidecars will most commonly be configured to authenticate using a
long-lived default service account token, with an issuer different to the tokens
Vault CSI Provider will create. But one Kubernetes auth mount can only be
configured to validate a single issuer value.

## Secret Provider Class Example

The following is an example of a Secret Provider Class using the `vault` provider:

```yaml
---
apiVersion: secrets-store.csi.x-k8s.io/v1alpha1
kind: SecretProviderClass
metadata:
  name: vault-db-creds
spec:
  # Vault CSI Provider
  provider: vault
  parameters:
    # Vault role name to use during login
    roleName: 'app'
    # Vault's hostname
    vaultAddress: 'https://vault:8200'
    # TLS CA certification for validation
    vaultCACertPath: '/vault/tls/ca.crt'
    objects: |
      - objectName: "dbUsername"
        secretPath: "database/creds/db-app"
        secretKey: "username"
      - objectName: "dbPassword"
        secretPath: "database/creds/db-app"
        secretKey: "password"
    # "objectName" is an alias used within the SecretProviderClass to reference
    # that specific secret. This will also be the filename containing the secret.
    # "secretPath" is the path in Vault where the secret should be retrieved.
    # "secretKey" is the key within the Vault secret response to extract a value from.
```

~> Secret Provider Class is a namespaced object in Kubernetes.

## Using Secret Provider Classes

An application pod uses the example Secret Provider Class above by mounting it as a CSI volume:

```yaml
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: app
  labels:
    app: demo
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: demo
  replicas: 1
  template:
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: app
      containers:
        - name: app
          image: my-app:1.0.0
          volumeMounts:
            - name: 'vault-db-creds'
              mountPath: '/mnt/secrets-store'
              readOnly: true
      volumes:
        - name: vault-db-creds
          csi:
            driver: 'secrets-store.csi.k8s.io'
            readOnly: true
            volumeAttributes:
              secretProviderClass: 'vault-db-creds'
```

In this example `volumes.csi` is created on the application deployment and references
the Secret Provider Class named `vault-db-creds`.

## Tutorial

Refer to the [Vault CSI Provider](/vault/tutorials/kubernetes/kubernetes-secret-store-driver)
tutorial to learn how to set up Vault and its depedencies with a Helm chart.