Vault GitHub Action

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Please note: We take Vault's security and our users' trust very seriously. If you believe you have found a security issue in Vault or this Vault Action, please responsibly disclose by contacting us at [email protected].

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A helper action for easily pulling secrets from HashiCorp Vault™.

Note: The Vault Github Action is a read-only action, and in general is not meant to modify Vault’s state.

• Vault GitHub Action
  • Example Usage
  • Authentication Methods
    • JWT with GitHub OIDC Tokens
    • AppRole
    • Token
    • GitHub
    • JWT with OIDC Provider
    • Kubernetes
    • Userpass
    • Ldap
    • Other Auth Methods
    • Custom Path
  • Key Syntax
    • Simple Key
    • Set Output Variable Name
    • Multiple Secrets
    • KV secrets engine version 2
  • Other Secret Engines
  • Adding Extra Headers
  • HashiCorp Cloud Platform or Vault Enterprise
    • Namespace
  • Reference
  • Masking - Hiding Secrets from Logs
  • Normalization
  • Contributing

Example Usage

jobs:
    build:
        # ...
        steps:
            # ...
            - name: Import Secrets
              id: import-secrets
              uses: hashicorp/vault-action@v2
              with:
                url: https://vault.mycompany.com:8200
                token: ${{ secrets.VAULT_TOKEN }}
                caCertificate: ${{ secrets.VAULT_CA_CERT }}
                secrets: |
                    secret/data/ci/aws accessKey | AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID ;
                    secret/data/ci/aws secretKey | AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY ;
                    secret/data/ci npm_token
            # ...

Retrieved secrets are available as environment variables or outputs for subsequent steps:

#...
            - name: Step following 'Import Secrets'
              run: |
                ACCESS_KEY_ID = "${{ env.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}"
                SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = "${{ steps.import-secrets.outputs.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}"
            # ...

If your project needs a format other than env vars and step outputs, you can use additional steps to transform them into the desired format. For example, a common pattern is to save all the secrets in a JSON file:

#...
            - name: Step following 'Import Secrets'
              run: |
                touch secrets.json
                echo '${{ toJson(steps.import-secrets.outputs) }}' >> secrets.json
            # ...

Which with our example would yield a file containing:

{
  "ACCESS_KEY_ID": "MY_KEY_ID",
  "SECRET_ACCESS_KEY": "MY_SECRET_KEY",
  "NPM_TOKEN": "MY_NPM_TOKEN"
}

Note that all secrets are masked so programs need to read the file themselves otherwise all values will be replaced with a *** placeholder.

Authentication Methods

Consider using a Vault authentication method such as the JWT auth method with GitHub OIDC tokens or the AppRole auth method. You can configure which by using the method parameter.

JWT with GitHub OIDC Tokens

You can configure trust between a GitHub Actions workflow and Vault using the GitHub's OIDC provider. Each GitHub Actions workflow receives an auto-generated OIDC token with claims to establish the identity of the workflow.

Vault Configuration

Click to toggle instructions for configuring Vault.

Set up Vault with the JWT auth method. Pass the following parameters to your auth method configuration:

• oidc_discovery_url: https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com
• bound_issuer: https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com

Configure a Vault role for the auth method.

• role_type: jwt

• bound_audiences: "https://github.com/<org>". Update this parameter if you change the aud claim in the GitHub OIDC token via the jwtGithubAudience parameter in the action config.

• user_claim: Set this to a claim name (e.g., repository) in the GitHub OIDC token.

• bound_claims OR bound_subject: match on GitHub subject claims.

  • For wildcard (non-exact) matches, use bound_claims.

    • bound_claims_type: glob

    • bound_claims: JSON object. Maps one or more claim names to corresponding wildcard values.

      {"sub": "repo:<orgName>/*"}

  • For exact matches, use bound_subject.

    • bound_claims_type: string

    • bound_subject: Must exactly match the sub claim in the OIDC token.

      repo:<orgName/repoName>:ref:refs/heads/branchName
      

GitHub Actions Workflow

In the GitHub Actions workflow, the workflow needs permissions to read contents and write the ID token.

jobs:
    retrieve-secret:
        permissions:
            contents: read
            id-token: write

In the action, provide the name of the Vault role you created to the role parameter. You can optionally set the jwtGithubAudience parameter to change the aud claim from its default.

with:
  url: https://vault.mycompany.com:8200
  caCertificate: ${{ secrets.VAULT_CA_CERT }}
  role: <Vault JWT Auth Role Name>
  method: jwt
  jwtGithubAudience: sigstore # set the GitHub token's aud claim

AppRole

The AppRole auth method allows your GitHub Actions workflow to authenticate to Vault with a pre-defined role. Set the role ID and secret ID as GitHub secrets and pass them to the roleId and secretId parameters.

with:
  url: https://vault.mycompany.com:8200
  caCertificate: ${{ secrets.VAULT_CA_CERT }}
  method: approle
  roleId: ${{ secrets.VAULT_ROLE_ID }}
  secretId: ${{ secrets.VAULT_SECRET_ID }}

Token

For the default method of authenticating to Vault, use a Vault token. Set the Vault token as a GitHub secret and pass it to the token parameter.

with:
  url: https://vault.mycompany.com:8200
  caCertificate: ${{ secrets.VAULT_CA_CERT }}
  token: ${{ secrets.VAULT_TOKEN }}

GitHub

The GitHub auth method requires read:org permissions for authentication. The auto-generated GITHUB_TOKEN created for projects does not have these permissions and GitHub does not allow this token's permissions to be modified. A new GitHub Token secret must be created with read:org permissions to use this authentication method.

Pass the GitHub token as a GitHub secret into the githubToken parameter.

with:
  url: https://vault.mycompany.com:8200
  caCertificate: ${{ secrets.VAULT_CA_CERT }}
  method: github
  githubToken: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

JWT with OIDC Provider

You can configure trust between your own OIDC Provider and Vault with the JWT auth method. Provide a role & jwtPrivateKey parameters, additionally you can pass jwtKeyPassword & jwtTtl parameters

with:
  url: https://vault.mycompany.com:8200
  caCertificate: ${{ secrets.VAULT_CA_CERT }}
  method: jwt
  role: <Vault JWT Auth Role Name>
  jwtPrivateKey: ${{ secrets.JWT_PRIVATE_KEY }}
  jwtKeyPassword: ${{ secrets.JWT_KEY_PASS }}
  jwtTtl: 3600 # 1 hour, default value

Kubernetes

Consider the Kubernetes auth method when using self-hosted runners on Kubernetes. You must provide the role parameter for the Vault role associated with the Kubernetes auth method. You can optionally override the kubernetesTokenPath parameter for custom-mounted serviceAccounts.

with:
  url: https://vault.mycompany.com:8200
  caCertificate: ${{ secrets.VAULT_CA_CERT }}
  method: kubernetes
  role: <Vault Kubernetes Auth Role Name>
  kubernetesTokenPath: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token # default token path

Userpass

The Userpass auth method allows your GitHub Actions workflow to authenticate to Vault with a username and password. Set the username and password as GitHub secrets and pass them to the username and password parameters.

This is not the same as ldap or okta auth methods.

with:
  url: https://vault.mycompany.com:8200
  caCertificate: ${{ secrets.VAULT_CA_CERT }}
  method: userpass
  username: ${{ secrets.VAULT_USERNAME }}
  password: ${{ secrets.VAULT_PASSWORD }}

Ldap

The LDAP auth method allows your GitHub Actions workflow to authenticate to Vault with a username and password inturn verfied with ldap servers. Set the username and password as GitHub secrets and pass them to the username and password parameters.

with:
  url: https://vault.mycompany.com:8200
  caCertificate: ${{ secrets.VAULT_CA_CERT }}
  method: ldap
  username: ${{ secrets.VAULT_USERNAME }}
  password: ${{ secrets.VAULT_PASSWORD }}

Other Auth Methods

If any other method is specified and you provide an authPayload, the action will attempt to POST to auth/${method}/login with the provided payload and parse out the client token.

Custom Path Name

Auth methods at custom path names can be configured using the path parameter

with:
  url: https://vault.mycompany.com:8200
  caCertificate: ${{ secrets.VAULT_CA_CERT }}
  path: my-custom-path
  method: userpass
  username: ${{ secrets.VAULT_USERNAME }}
  password: ${{ secrets.VAULT_PASSWORD }}

Key Syntax

The secrets parameter is a set of multiple secret requests separated by the ; character.

Each secret request consists of the path and the key of the desired secret, and optionally the desired Env Var output name. Note that the selector is using JSONata and certain characters in keys may need to be escaped.

{{ Secret Path }} {{ Secret Key or Selector }} | {{ Env/Output Variable Name }}

Simple Key

To retrieve a key npmToken from path secret/data/ci that has value somelongtoken from vault you could do:

with:
    secrets: secret/data/ci npmToken

vault-action will automatically normalize the given secret selector key, and set the follow as environment variables for the following steps in the current job:

NPMTOKEN=somelongtoken

You can also access the secret via outputs:

steps:
    # ...
    - name: Import Secrets
      id: secrets
      # Import config...
    - name: Sensitive Operation
      run: "my-cli --token '${{ steps.secrets.outputs.npmToken }}'"

Note: If you'd like to only use outputs and disable automatic environment variables, you can set the exportEnv option to false.

Set Output Variable Name

However, if you want to set it to a specific name, say NPM_TOKEN, you could do this instead:

with:
    secrets: secret/data/ci npmToken | NPM_TOKEN

With that, vault-action will now use your requested name and output:

NPM_TOKEN=somelongtoken

steps:
  # ...
  - name: Import Secrets
    id: secrets
    # Import config...
  - name: Sensitive Operation
    run: "my-cli --token '${{ steps.secrets.outputs.NPM_TOKEN }}'"

Multiple Secrets

This action can take multi-line input, so say you had your AWS keys stored in a path and wanted to retrieve both of them. You can do:

with:
    secrets: |
        secret/data/ci/aws accessKey | AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID ;
        secret/data/ci/aws secretKey | AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

You can specify a wildcard * for the key name to get all keys in the path. If you provide an output name with the wildcard, the name will be prepended to the key name:

with:
    secrets: |
        secret/data/ci/aws * | MYAPP_ ;

KV secrets engine version 2

When accessing secrets from the KV secrets engine version 2, Vault Action requires the full path to the secret. This is the same path that would be used in a Vault policy for the secret. You can find the full path to your secret by performing a kv get command like the following:

$ vault kv get secret/test
== Secret Path ==
secret/data/test

...

Note that the full path is not secret/test, but secret/data/test.

Other Secret Engines

Vault Action currently supports retrieving secrets from any engine where secrets are retrieved via GET requests. This means secret engines such as PKI are currently not supported due to their requirement of sending parameters along with the request (such as common_name).

For example, to request a secret from the cubbyhole secret engine:

with:
    secrets: |
        /cubbyhole/foo foo ;
        /cubbyhole/foo zip | MY_KEY ;

Resulting in:

FOO=bar
MY_KEY=zap

steps:
  # ...
  - name: Import Secrets
    id: secrets
    # Import config...
  - name: Sensitive Operation
    run: "my-cli --token '${{ steps.secrets.outputs.foo }}'"
  - name: Another Sensitive Operation
    run: "my-cli --token '${{ steps.secrets.outputs.MY_KEY }}'"

Adding Extra Headers

If you ever need to add extra headers to the vault request, say if you need to authenticate with a firewall, all you need to do is set extraHeaders:

with:
    secrets: |
        secret/data/ci/aws accessKey | AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID ;
        secret/data/ci/aws secretKey | AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
    extraHeaders: |
      X-Secure-Id: ${{ secrets.SECURE_ID }}
      X-Secure-Secret: ${{ secrets.SECURE_SECRET }}

This will automatically add the x-secure-id and x-secure-secret headers to every request to Vault.

HashiCorp Cloud Platform or Vault Enterprise

If you are using HCP Vault or Vault Enterprise, you may need additional parameters in your GitHub Actions workflow.

Namespace

If you need to retrieve secrets from a specific Vault namespace, set the namespace parameter specifying the namespace. In HCP Vault, the namespace defaults to admin.

steps:
    # ...
    - name: Import Secrets
      uses: hashicorp/vault-action
      with:
        url: https://vault-enterprise.mycompany.com:8200
        method: token
        token: ${{ secrets.VAULT_TOKEN }}
        namespace: admin
        secrets: |
            secret/data/ci/aws accessKey | AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID ;
            secret/data/ci/aws secretKey | AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY ;
            secret/data/ci npm_token

Alternatively, you may need to authenticate to the root namespace and retrieve a secret from a different namespace. To do this, do not set the namespace parameter. Instead set the namespace in the secret path. For example, <NAMESPACE>/secret/data/app:

steps:
    # ...
    - name: Import Secrets
      uses: hashicorp/vault-action
      with:
        url: https://vault-enterprise.mycompany.com:8200
        method: token
        token: ${{ secrets.VAULT_TOKEN }}
        secrets: |
            namespace-1/secret/data/ci/aws accessKey | AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID ;
            namespace-1/secret/data/ci/aws secretKey | AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY ;
            namespace-1/secret/data/ci npm_token

Reference

Here are all the inputs available through with:

url

Type: string
Required

The URL for the Vault endpoint.

secrets

Type: string

A semicolon-separated list of secrets to retrieve. These will automatically be converted to environmental variable keys. See Key Syntax for more details.

namespace

Type: string

The Vault namespace from which to query secrets. Vault Enterprise only, unset by default.

method

Type: string
Default: token

The method to use to authenticate with Vault.

role

Type: string

Vault role for the specified auth method.

path

Type: string

The Vault path for the auth method.

token

Type: string

The Vault token to be used to authenticate with Vault.

roleId

Type: string

The role ID for App Role authentication.

secretId

Type: string

The secret ID for App Role authentication.

githubToken

Type: string

The Github Token to be used to authenticate with Vault.

jwtPrivateKey

Type: string

Base64 encoded private key to sign the JWT.

jwtKeyPassword

Type: string

Password for key stored in jwtPrivateKey (if needed).

jwtGithubAudience

Type: string
Default: sigstore

Identifies the recipient ("aud" claim) that the JWT is intended for.

jwtTtl

Type: string
Default: 3600

Time in seconds, after which token expires.

kubernetesTokenPath

Type: string
Default: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token

The path to the service-account secret with the jwt token for kubernetes based authentication.

username

Type: string

The username of the user to log in to Vault as. Available to both Userpass and LDAP auth methods.

password

Type: string

The password of the user to log in to Vault as. Available to both Userpass and LDAP auth methods.

authPayload

Type: string

The JSON payload to be sent to Vault when using a custom authentication method.

extraHeaders

Type: string

A string of newline separated extra headers to include on every request.

exportEnv

Type: string
Default: true

Whether or not to export secrets as environment variables.

exportToken

Type: string
Default: false

Whether or not export Vault token as environment variables (i.e VAULT_TOKEN).

outputToken

Type: string
Default: false

Whether or not to set the vault_token output to contain the Vault token after authentication.

caCertificate

Type: string

Base64 encoded CA certificate the server certificate was signed with. Defaults to CAs provided by Mozilla.

clientCertificate

Type: string

Base64 encoded client certificate the action uses to authenticate with Vault when mTLS is enabled.

clientKey

Type: string

Base64 encoded client key the action uses to authenticate with Vault when mTLS is enabled.

tlsSkipVerify

Type: string
Default: false

When set to true, disables verification of server certificates when testing the action.

ignoreNotFound

Type: string
Default: false

When set to true, prevents the action from failing when a secret does not exist.

Masking - Hiding Secrets from Logs

This action uses GitHub Action's built-in masking, so all variables will automatically be masked (aka hidden) if printed to the console or to logs. This only obscures secrets from output logs. If someone has the ability to edit your workflows, then they are able to read and therefore write secrets to somewhere else just like normal GitHub Secrets.

Normalization

To make it simpler to consume certain secrets as env vars, if no Env/Output Var Name is specified vault-action will replace and . chars with __, remove any other non-letter or number characters. If you're concerned about the result, it's recommended to provide an explicit Output Var Key.

Contributing

If you wish to contribute to this project, the following dependencies are recommended for local development:

• npm to install dependencies, build project and run tests
• docker to run the pre-configured vault containers for acceptance tests
• docker-compose to spin up the pre-configured vault containers for acceptance tests
• act to run the vault-action locally

Build

Use npm to install dependencies and build the project:

$ npm install && npm run build

Vault test instance

The Github Action needs access to a working Vault instance to function. Multiple docker configurations are available via the docker-compose.yml file to run containers compatible with the various acceptance test suites.

$ docker-compose up -d vault # Choose one of: vault, vault-enterprise, vault-tls depending on which tests you would like to run

Instead of using one of the dockerized instance, you can also use your own local or remote Vault instance by exporting these environment variables:

$ export VAULT_HOST=<YOUR VAULT CLUSTER LOCATION> # localhost if undefined
$ export VAULT_PORT=<YOUR VAULT PORT> # 8200 if undefined
$ export VAULT_TOKEN=<YOUR VAULT TOKEN> # testtoken if undefined

Running unit tests

Unit tests can be executed at any time with no dependencies or prior setup.

$ npm test

Running acceptance tests

With a succesful build to take your local changes into account and a working Vault instance configured, you can now run acceptance tests to validate if any regressions were introduced.

$ npm run test:integration:basic # Choose one of: basic, enterprise, e2e, e2e-tls

Running the action locally

You can use the act command to test your changes locally.

Edit the ./.github/workflows/local-test.yaml file and add any steps necessary to test your changes. You may have to additionally edit the Vault url, token and secret path if you are not using one of the provided containerized instances. The local-test job will call the ./integrationTests/e2e/setup.js script to bootstrap your local Vault instance with secrets.

Run your feature branch locally:

act workflow_dispatch -j local-test

Or use the provided make target which will also spin up a Vault container:

make local-test