Kubernetes: ASP.NET Core HTTPS and mac verify failure

You are trying to configure HTTPS in ASP.NET Core to run on Kubernetes, successfully mounted secret data volumes and defined ASP.NET environment variables, however, the following error appears in the pod’s log:

The reason is quite simple – a wrong password. Check out the manifest examples below to understand the behavior.

<doesn’t work> Kubernetes deployment manifest:

env:
            - name: "Kestrel__Certificates__Default__Path"
              value: /var/secrets/cert #data volume must be used here
            - name: "ASPNETCORE_Kestrel__Certificates__Default__Password"
              value: /var/secrets/password #wrong!
        

<works> Kubernetes deployment manifest:

env:       
            - name: "Kestrel__Certificates__Default__Path"
              value: /var/secrets/cert #data volume must be used here
            - name: "ASPNETCORE_Kestrel__Certificates__Default__Password"
              valueFrom: #works!
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: backend-tls
                  key: password

Noticed the difference? Instead of using the data volume path to the secret key “password” (cat /var/secret/password outputs the password without any issues, by the way), you need to explicitly define the env value by referring to the secret’s key. In my case, “/var/secret/password” (text, not a secret itself!) was assigned to the variable’s value and it was unexpected.

In short, check if the password is correct and try to define the secret as an environment variable rather than using data volumes.