Container Secret Bootstrapping via One-Time Token Exchange
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Solution Overview
Problem
Container-orchestrated environments face challenges in efficiently providing one-time-use secrets (OTUS) to replicas of containers, leading to increased overhead and delays in deployment due to the lack of integrated support for continuous generation of new OTUSs, which jeopardizes life-cycle management.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising an OTUS deployer engine, a non-OTUS provider engine, and a peer-to-peer network among container engines to facilitate the exchange of OTUS for non-OTUS, ensuring efficient distribution and invalidation of OTUSs, allowing replicas to obtain non-OTUS from existing containers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the COE provides integrated support for continuous generation of new OTUSs, then the life-cycle management of containers is improved, but the overhead of processing resources and cost increases dramatically
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a peer-to-peer network as an intermediary mechanism between container replicas. Instead of the COE centrally managing OTUS generation for all replicas (which increases overhead), the first replica acts as an intermediary to directly provide OTUS to subsequent replicas. This distributed approach maintains reliable life-cycle management while avoiding the dramatic increase in COE processing overhead.
2Device complexity
If the COE does not provide integrated support for continuous generation of new OTUSs, then the overhead of processing resources is reduced, but delays in getting replicas up and running occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by enabling container replicas to autonomously obtain OTUS from peer replicas through direct peer-to-peer communication. The first replica automatically provides OTUS to subsequent replicas without requiring COE intervention for each OTUS generation event. This eliminates deployment delays while keeping COE overhead low, as the system serves itself rather than relying on centralized resource-intensive management.
3Ease of operation
If OTUS are provided by the CD pipeline during deployment, then the initial bootstrap is enabled, but the overhead in deploying replicas increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the OTUS provision responsibility from the CD pipeline to individual container replicas. The CD pipeline's role is limited to providing OTUS for initial bootstrap (maintaining ease of operation), while subsequent replica deployment is segmented into peer-to-peer OTUS exchange between containers. This segmentation improves deployment efficiency by eliminating the bottleneck of centralized OTUS generation for each replica while preserving the bootstrap capability established by the CD pipeline.
Data Source
AI summary
An example system includes a one-time-use secret (OTUS) deployer engine to: provide an OTUS within a container-orchestrated environment (COE). The example system further includes: a non-OTUS provider engine to: provide a non-OTUS in exchange for the OTUS; and, invalidate the OTUS when the non-OTUS is provided. The example system further includes: a first container engine to: in response to bootstrapping, receive the OTUS from the OTUS deployer engine; and receive the non-OTUS from the non-OTUS provider engine in exchange for the OTUS. The example system further includes: a replica of the first container engine, to: in response to bootstrapping, after the first container engine, receive the OTUS from the OTUS deployer engine; attempt to receive the non-OTUS from the non-OTUS provider engine in exchange for the OTUS; receive an indication from the non-OTUS provider engine that the OTUS is invalid; and receive the non-OTUS from the first container engine.