---
layout: 'docs'
page_title: 'Vault Agent Injector TLS configuration'
sidebar_current: 'docs-platform-k8s-examples-injector-tls'
description: >-
  Learn how to set up the Vault Agent Injector with manually generated certificates and keys.
---

# Vault Agent Injector TLS configuration

@include 'helm/version.mdx'

The following instructions demonstrate how to manually configure the Vault Agent Injector
with self-signed certificates.

## Create a certificate authority (CA)

First, create a private key to be used by our custom Certificate Authority (CA):

```shell
$ openssl genrsa -out injector-ca.key 2048
```

Next, create a certificate authority certificate:

~> **Important Note:** Values such as days (how long the certificate is valid for) should be configured for your environment.

```shell
$ openssl req \
   -x509 \
   -new \
   -nodes \
   -key injector-ca.key \
   -sha256 \
   -days 1825 \
   -out injector-ca.crt \
   -subj "/C=US/ST=CA/L=San Francisco/O=HashiCorp/CN=vault-agent-injector-svc"
```

## Create Vault agent injector certificate

Next we can create a certificate and key signed by the certificate authority generated above. This
certificate and key will be used by the Vault Agent Injector for TLS communications with the Kubernetes
API.

First, create a private key for the certificate:

```shell
$ openssl genrsa -out tls.key 2048
```

Next, create a certificate signing request (CSR) to be used when signing the certificate:

```shell
$ openssl req \
   -new \
   -key tls.key \
   -out tls.csr \
   -subj "/C=US/ST=CA/L=San Francisco/O=HashiCorp/CN=vault-agent-injector-svc"
```

After creating the CSR, create an extension file to configure additional parameters for signing
the certificate.

~> **Important Note:** The alternative names for the certificate must be configured to use the name
of the Vault Agent Injector Kubernetes service and namespace where its created.

In this example the Vault Agent Injector service name is `vault-agent-injector-svc` in the `vault` namespace.
This uses the pattern `<k8s service name>.<k8s namespace>.svc.cluster.local`.

```shell
$ cat <<EOF >csr.conf
authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid,issuer
basicConstraints=CA:FALSE
keyUsage = digitalSignature, nonRepudiation, keyEncipherment, dataEncipherment
subjectAltName = @alt_names

[alt_names]
DNS.1 = vault-agent-injector-svc
DNS.2 = vault-agent-injector-svc.vault
DNS.3 = vault-agent-injector-svc.vault.svc
DNS.4 = vault-agent-injector-svc.vault.svc.cluster.local
EOF
```

Finally, sign the certificate:

~> **Important Note:** Values such as days (how long the certificate is valid for) should be configured for your environment.

```shell
$ openssl x509 \
  -req \
  -in tls.csr \
  -CA injector-ca.crt \
  -CAkey injector-ca.key \
  -CAcreateserial \
  -out tls.crt \
  -days 1825 \
  -sha256 \
  -extfile csr.conf
```

## Configuration

Now that a certificate authority and a signed certificate have been created, we can now configure
Helm and the Vault Agent Injector to use them.

First, create a Kubernetes secret containing the certificate and key created above:

~> **Important Note:** This example assumes the Vault Agent Injector is running in the `vault` namespace.

```shell
$ kubectl create secret generic injector-tls \
    --from-file tls.crt \
    --from-file tls.key \
    --namespace=vault
```

Next, base64 encode the certificate authority so Kubernetes can verify the authenticity of the certificate:

```shell
$ export CA_BUNDLE=$(cat injector-ca.crt | base64)
```

Finally, install the Vault Agent Injector with the following custom values:

```shell
$ helm install vault hashicorp/vault \
  --namespace=vault \
  --set="injector.certs.secretName=injector-tls" \
  --set="injector.certs.caBundle=${CA_BUNDLE?}"
```
