website/content/en/docs/reference/glossary/secret.md

title	id	date	full_link	short_description	aka	tags
Secret	secret	2018-04-12	/docs/concepts/configuration/secret/	Stores sensitive information, such as passwords, OAuth tokens, and ssh keys.		core-object security

Stores sensitive information, such as passwords, OAuth tokens, and SSH keys.

Secrets give you more control over how sensitive information is used and reduces the risk of accidental exposure. Secret values are encoded as base64 strings and are stored unencrypted by default, but can be configured to be encrypted at rest.

A {{< glossary_tooltip text="Pod" term_id="pod" >}} can reference the Secret in a variety of ways, such as in a volume mount or as an environment variable. Secrets are designed for confidential data and ConfigMaps are designed for non-confidential data.