GPG key verification failure during kubectl installation on Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04 in CI environments

[Prabhatkumar59]

What happened:
We're encountering intermittent GPG key verification failures when installing kubectl in our CI builds on Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04 runners. This has been happening consistently for the past two weeks.
The installation only succeeds after multiple retries. This is affecting reliability in scheduled CI and test pipelines.

What you expected to happen:
The kubectl installation should succeed without requiring multiple retries or manual intervention.

Environment:

• OS : Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04 (CI runners)

[k8s-ci-robot]

This issue is currently awaiting triage.

SIG CLI takes a lead on issue triage for this repo, but any Kubernetes member can accept issues by applying the triage/accepted label.

The triage/accepted label can be added by org members by writing /triage accepted in a comment.

Instructions for interacting with me using PR comments are available here. If you have questions or suggestions related to my behavior, please file an issue against the kubernetes-sigs/prow repository.

[Prabhatkumar59]

==> azure-arm.build_image: Downloading package from https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/download/v0.29.0/kind-linux-amd64 to /tmp/kind-linux-amd64...
==> azure-arm.build_image: Package downloaded in 1 seconds
==> azure-arm.build_image: Downloading package from https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/download/v0.29.0/kind-linux-amd64.sha256sum to /tmp/kind-linux-amd64.sha256sum...
==> azure-arm.build_image: Package downloaded in 0 seconds
azure-arm.build_image: Performing checksum verification
azure-arm.build_image: Checksum verification passed
==> azure-arm.build_image: curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 503
==> azure-arm.build_image: curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 403
==> azure-arm.build_image: gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.

Our script is as follow:-
https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/ubuntu/scripts/build/install-kubernetes-tools.sh

[ardaguclu]

/transfer kubernetes
/sig release
/remove-sig cli

[k8s-ci-robot]

@ardaguclu: Those labels are not set on the issue: sig/cli

In response to this:

/transfer kubernetes
/sig release
/remove-sig cli

Instructions for interacting with me using PR comments are available here. If you have questions or suggestions related to my behavior, please file an issue against the kubernetes-sigs/prow repository.

[BenTheElder]

/transfer release

See previously: #3818

[xmudrii]

@Prabhatkumar59 is it possible that you include some more detailed logs? Looking at your logs and the script that you shared, I think you're affected by kubernetes/k8s.io#8289

I think this curl call is returning 503, hence you don't have a valid kubectl version, so key_url is invalid and curl-ing it results in 403 (this is expected when you try to download a non-existing file).

[xmudrii]

/triage needs-information