---
title: "Secrets Management and Automated Rotation"
description: "A comprehensive guide to managing secrets and automating their rotation across cloud environments"
keywords: ["secrets management", "vault", "aws secrets manager", "encryption", "audit logging"]
category: "security"
---

Secrets management is a critical component of any modern cloud infrastructure, ensuring sensitive data like API keys, database credentials, and SSL/TLS certificates are stored and accessed securely. One popular open-source solution is HashiCorp Vault, which provides a unified interface to any secret, while providing tight access control and recording a detailed audit log.

Vault's "dynamic secrets" feature allows it to generate secrets on-demand from a supported cloud provider's API, like AWS, GCP, or Azure. This eliminates the need to manually create and rotate secrets, as Vault will automatically provision new credentials with the cloud provider as needed, typically with a short lease duration of 1 hour. The `aws/sts` and `aws/iam` Vault engines, for example, can generate temporary AWS credentials with fine-grained IAM permissions.

For cloud-native environments, AWS Secrets Manager provides a fully-managed secrets management service, with the ability to automatically rotate secrets on a configurable schedule. This is achieved through Lambda functions that retrieve the current secret value, generate a new one, and then update the secret in Secrets Manager. Developers can choose from pre-built rotation functions for common secret types, or create custom rotation logic.

Vault also offers an "transit secrets engine" that allows encrypting and decrypting data using Vault as a trusted encryption service. This "envelope encryption" approach separates the encryption keys from the data itself, adding an extra layer of protection. Vault's transit engine can be used to encrypt any sensitive data, not just Vault-managed secrets.

To ensure secrets are properly rotated, Vault allows tuning the lease duration for each secret backend. Shorter leases, like 1 hour for AWS credentials, force more frequent rotation, while longer leases like 30 days for SSL certificates may be appropriate. Vault's audit logging feature captures all requests to read, write, and manage secrets, providing visibility and accountability.

For automated secret management, the Vault agent can be configured to authenticate to Vault using various auth methods like AWS, Azure, or Kubernetes, and then automatically renew tokens and retrieve secrets on behalf of the application. This "auto-auth" functionality helps solve the "secret zero" problem of how to securely provide the initial Vault credentials to an application.

Overall, robust secrets management with automated rotation is a critical security practice to protect sensitive data in modern cloud environments. Solutions like HashiCorp Vault and AWS Secrets Manager provide the necessary capabilities to generate, encrypt, and rotate secrets across heterogeneous infrastructure.Vault's transit secrets engine can also be leveraged to implement a "bring your own key" (BYOK) model, where applications encrypt data using keys managed by Vault rather than relying on cloud provider-managed encryption. This gives organizations more control over their encryption keys and aligns with compliance requirements that mandate customer-managed keys. The `transit/encrypt` and `transit/decrypt` commands in the Vault CLI allow integrating the transit engine into application code.

Another important Vault feature for secrets management is the concept of "lease duration" which determines how long a secret remains valid before it must be renewed. Vault administrators can configure different lease lengths for different secrets backends - for example, AWS credentials may have a 1 hour lease, while TLS certificates could have a 30 day lease. Shorter leases force more frequent rotation, enhancing security, while longer leases reduce the operational overhead of renewing secrets. The `vault lease renew` command can be used to manually extend a secret's lease.

Comprehensive audit logging is critical for maintaining visibility and compliance around secrets management. Vault's audit devices, such as the file or syslog audit backends, record all requests to read, write, and manage secrets, including the identity of the user or application making the request. This audit log can be integrated with security information and event management (SIEM) tools for centralized monitoring and alerting. The `vault audit enable` and `vault audit disable` commands control the enabled audit backends.

To address the "secret zero" problem of how to securely provide the initial Vault credentials to an application, Vault offers an "agent auto-auth" feature. This allows the Vault agent running alongside the application to automatically authenticate to Vault using supported auth methods like AWS, Azure, or Kubernetes, and then transparently renew tokens and retrieve secrets on behalf of the application. This removes the need to manually configure Vault credentials, simplifying the secrets management workflow.

Taken together, the capabilities of HashiCorp Vault, including dynamic secrets, transit encryption, lease management, audit logging, and agent auto-auth, provide a comprehensive secrets management solution for modern cloud environments. By automating the generation, encryption, rotation, and access control of sensitive data, organizations can enhance their overall security posture and ensure compliance with data protection regulations.For organizations with stringent compliance requirements, Vault's support for FIPS 140-2 validated cryptography can be critical. This federal standard specifies the security requirements for cryptographic modules used within security systems. Vault can be configured to use only FIPS-compliant algorithms and cipher suites, ensuring the encryption of secrets meets the necessary regulatory standards. The `seal` configuration in Vault's `config.hcl` file allows specifying the desired FIPS-compliant seal implementation.

In addition to encrypting data at rest, Vault also provides the ability to encrypt data in transit using TLS. Vault can be configured to require client applications to authenticate using mutual TLS (mTLS), where both the client and the Vault server present valid certificates. This ensures secure communication and prevents unauthorized access to sensitive data flowing between the application and Vault. The `tls_disable` and `tls_require_and_verify_client_cert` parameters in the Vault configuration control these TLS settings.

For organizations with complex, distributed infrastructure, Vault's high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) capabilities are essential. Vault can be configured in an HA cluster, with multiple Vault server nodes replicating data and providing failover in the event of a node failure. The `ha_storage` and `ha_storage_config` stanzas in the Vault configuration define the HA backend, such as Consul or etcd. Additionally, Vault's DR replication feature allows asynchronously replicating data to a secondary Vault cluster in a different region or cloud provider, safeguarding against regional outages or disasters.

Beyond just managing secrets, Vault can also be used as a centralized key management service (KMS) for encrypting data across the entire infrastructure. The `transit` secrets engine allows Vault to generate, encrypt, and decrypt data encryption keys (DEKs) that can then be used by applications to protect their sensitive data. This "bring your own key" (BYOK) model gives organizations more control over their encryption keys and aligns with compliance requirements that mandate customer-managed keys.

Vault's flexible plugin architecture allows extending its capabilities beyond the built-in secrets engines and authentication methods. Custom secrets engines can be developed to integrate Vault with proprietary or legacy systems, while custom authentication methods enable Vault to authenticate users or applications against existing identity providers. This extensibility ensures Vault can be seamlessly integrated into complex, heterogeneous environments.For organizations that need to meet strict compliance requirements around data access and usage, Vault's granular access control policies are essential. Using Vault's policy language, administrators can define fine-grained rules that restrict which users or applications can read, write, or manage specific secrets. These policies can be based on factors like the requesting entity's identity, the type of secret being accessed, or contextual information like the source IP address. The `vault policy write` command is used to define and apply these access control policies.

Another critical Vault feature for compliance is its support for external audit logging. In addition to Vault's built-in audit backends, organizations can integrate Vault with their existing security information and event management (SIEM) tools, such as Splunk or Elasticsearch. This allows centralized monitoring and analysis of all Vault activity, including API calls, token renewals, and secret access, across the entire infrastructure. The `vault audit enable` command configures the external audit logging integration.

Vault's "leases" and "renewals" functionality is a key component of its secrets management capabilities. Each secret provisioned by Vault has an associated lease duration, which determines how long the secret remains valid before it must be renewed. Vault administrators can configure different lease lengths for different secrets backends - for example, AWS credentials may have a 1-hour lease, while TLS certificates could have a 30-day lease. Shorter leases force more frequent rotation, enhancing security, while longer leases reduce the operational overhead of renewing secrets. The `vault lease renew` command can be used to manually extend a secret's lease.

To address the "secret zero" problem of how to securely provide the initial Vault credentials to an application, Vault offers an "agent auto-auth" feature. This allows the Vault agent running alongside the application to automatically authenticate to Vault using supported auth methods like AWS, Azure, or Kubernetes, and then transparently renew tokens and retrieve secrets on behalf of the application. This removes the need to manually configure Vault credentials, simplifying the secrets management workflow and improving overall security.

Vault's flexibility and extensibility make it a powerful platform for managing secrets and encryption keys across complex, heterogeneous environments. Whether you need to integrate with cloud provider APIs, implement bring-your-own-key encryption, or meet strict compliance requirements, Vault provides the necessary capabilities to secure your sensitive data and automate the management of critical credentials.