Service Account and RBAC

2 minutes read
rbac:
  # -- Enable RBAC creation
  enabled: true

serviceAccount:
  # -- Specifies whether a service account should be created
  create: true
  # -- Annotations to add to the service account
  annotations: {}
  # -- Labels to add to the service account
  labels: {}
  # -- The name of the service account to use.
  # If not set and create is true, a name is generated using the fullname template
  name: ""

  • ServiceAccount provides the necessary identity for ArgoCD Image Updater to authenticate and interact with the Kubernetes API to perform updates on deployment manifests or Helm charts (e.g., changing container image tags).

  • RBAC ensures that ArgoCD Image Updater is granted only the permissions it needs, helping to secure your cluster by restricting its access and reducing the attack surface.


Without enabling both, the ArgoCD Image Updater would either lack the permissions to modify Kubernetes resources (failing to update your applications) or could have overly broad permissions, which could be a security risk.

In the default installation scenario, i.e., Argo CD Image Updater installed to the argocd namespace, no further configuration is needed for Argo CD Image Updater to access the Kubernetes API. If your Argo CD installation is in a different namespace than argocd, you must adapt the RoleBinding to bind to the ServiceAccount in the correct namespace.