HashiCorp Vault

Vault is a tool for securely accessing secrets. A secret is anything that you want to tightly control access to, such as API keys, passwords, or certificates. Vault provides a unified interface to any secret while providing tight access control and recording a detailed audit log.

When to Use

• Dynamic Secrets: Generating temporary AWS credentials (TTL 15m) for a specific task.
• Encryption as a Service: Encrypting application data (Credit Cards) without the app managing the keys (Transit Engine).
• Kubernetes Secrets: Injecting secrets into pods securely without Etcd.

Quick Start (Dev Mode)

vault server -dev
export VAULT_ADDR='http://127.0.0.1:8200'

# Write a secret
vault kv put secret/hello foo=world