What is the purpose of k8s secret?

Secret in K8s (Kubernetes) is a resource object used for storing sensitive information, such as passwords, keys, and other sensitive data, within a Kubernetes cluster. Secrets can store application configuration, API keys, database credentials, TLS certificates, and more.

The main purposes of K8s Secret include:

1. Configuration management: Store the configuration information of the application as Secret objects, which can be used in the container as environment variables.
2. Sensitive data storage: Storing sensitive data, such as API keys and database credentials, as Secret objects to ensure data security.
3. Manage TLS certificates by storing them as Secret objects for secure HTTPS connections within containers.
4. Retrieve credentials for container image: Store the credentials of the private container image repository as Secret object to authenticate when pulling images in the cluster.

The Secret object can be used to encrypt and decrypt data, as well as securely pass sensitive information to containers. It is important to note that the Secret object stores data in base64 encoding by default, not encryption, so additional measures must still be taken to protect the security of sensitive information.