Choosing a Secret Management Strategy#

Secrets – database credentials, API keys, TLS certificates, encryption keys – must be available to pods at runtime. At the same time, they must not be stored in plain text in git, should be rotatable without downtime, and should produce an audit trail showing who accessed what and when. No single tool satisfies every requirement, and the right choice depends on your security maturity, operational capacity, and compliance obligations.

EKS IAM and Security#

EKS bridges two identity systems: AWS IAM and Kubernetes RBAC. Understanding how they connect is essential for both granting pods access to AWS services and controlling who can access the cluster.

IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA)#

IRSA lets Kubernetes pods assume IAM roles without using node-level credentials. Each pod gets exactly the AWS permissions it needs, not the broad permissions attached to the node role.