Secrets Management

Secrets management centralizes control over sensitive credentials, eliminating hardcoded secrets in code and configuration files while providing audit trails and access controls.

Why it matters

• Hardcoded secrets in repositories are a leading cause of breaches and compliance failures.
• Manual secret rotation is error-prone and often neglected, leaving stale credentials exposed.
• Audit requirements demand knowing who accessed what secrets and when.
• Dynamic environments require programmatic secret delivery without human intervention.

Key concepts

• Secret: Any sensitive data that grants access: passwords, API keys, tokens, certificates, encryption keys.
• Vault/Store: Centralized, encrypted repository for secrets with access control.
• Dynamic Secrets: Short-lived credentials generated on-demand that auto-expire.
• Secret Rotation: Automatic or scheduled replacement of credentials to limit exposure windows.
• Seal/Unseal: Process of encrypting vault contents and controlling when decryption is possible.

Best practices

• Never commit secrets: Use pre-commit hooks and secret scanning to prevent repository exposure.
• Principle of least privilege: Grant applications access only to secrets they need.
• Short-lived credentials: Prefer dynamic secrets that expire quickly over long-lived static credentials.
• Audit everything: Log all secret access for compliance and incident investigation.
• Automate rotation: Schedule regular rotation and ensure applications handle credential refresh.
• Encrypt at rest and in transit: Secrets should never be stored or transmitted in plaintext.

Common tools and platforms

• HashiCorp Vault: Industry-standard secrets management with dynamic secrets and PKI.
• AWS Secrets Manager: Managed service with automatic rotation for AWS resources.
• Azure Key Vault: Microsoft's cloud-native secrets and key management service.
• Google Secret Manager: GCP's managed secrets storage with IAM integration.
• CyberArk, Delinea: Enterprise privileged access management platforms.

Integration patterns

• Environment variables: Inject secrets at runtime without modifying application code.
• Sidecar injection: Kubernetes sidecars fetch and refresh secrets automatically.
• Init containers: Retrieve secrets before application starts.
• Direct API calls: Applications fetch secrets programmatically with authentication.