open-vault/website/source/intro/getting-started/dynamic-secrets.html.md

layout	page_title	sidebar_current	description
intro	Dynamic Secrets	gettingstarted-dynamicsecrets	On this page we introduce dynamic secrets by showing you how to create AWS access keys with Vault.

Dynamic Secrets

Now that we've written basic secrets to Vault and we have an understanding of the mount system, we're going to move on to the next core feature of Vault: dynamic secrets.

Dynamic secrets are secrets that are generated when they're accessed, and aren't statically written like we did in Your First Secret. On this page, we'll use the built-in AWS secret backend to dynamically generate AWS access keys.

The power of dynamic secrets is that they simply don't exist before they're read, so there is no risk of someone stealing them or another client using the same secrets. And because Vault has built-in revocation mechanisms (covered later), the dynamic secret can be revoked right after use, minimizing the amount of time the secret existed.

-> Note: Before starting this page, please register for an AWS account. We won't be using any features that cost money, so you shouldn't be charged for anything. However, we're not responsible for any charges that may incur.

Mounting the AWS Backend

Let's generate our first dynamic secret. We'll use the AWS backend to dynamically generate an AWS access key pair. First, mount the AWS backend:

$ vault mount aws
Successfully mounted 'aws' at 'aws'!

The AWS backend is now mounted at aws/. As we covered in a previous section: different secret backends allow for different behavior, and in this case the AWS backend is a dynamic backend for generating AWS access credentials.

Configuring the AWS Backend

With the AWS backend mounted, the first step is to configure it with the AWS credentials that will be used to create the other credentials. For now, use the root keys for your AWS account.

To configure the backend, we use vault write to a special path aws/root:

$ vault write aws/root \
    access_key=AKIAI4SGLQPBX6CSENIQ \
    secret_key=z1Pdn06b3TnpG+9Gwj3ppPSOlAsu08Qw99PUW+eB
Success! Data written to: aws/root

Remember that secret backends can behave anyway they want when reading/writing a path, so this path stores this configuration for later. Notice you can't read it back:

$ vault read aws/root
TODO

To help keep the credentials secure, the AWS backend doesn't let you read them back even if you're using a root credential.

Writing a Policy

The next step is to configure the AWS backend with an IAM policy. IAM is the system AWS uses for creating new credentials with limited API permissions.

The AWS backend requires an IAM policy to associate created credentials with. For this example, we'll write just one policy, but you can associate many policies with the backend. Save a file named "policy.json" with the following contents:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "Stmt1426528957000",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:*"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

This is a basic IAM policy that lets the user perform any action within Amazon EC2. With the policy saved, write it to Vault:

$ vault write aws/policy/deploy policy=@policy.json
Success! Data written to: aws/policy/deploy

Again, we're using a special path here aws/policy/<NAME> to write an IAM policy to Vault. We also used the special syntax @filename with vault write to write the contents of a file.

Generating the Secret

Now that we've configured the AWS backend and wrote a policy, we can now request an access key pair for that policy. To do so, just read the special path aws/<NAME> where NAME is the policy name:

$ vault read aws/deploy
Key       	Value
lease_id    aws/deploy/0d042c53-aa8a-7ce7-9dfd-310351c465e5
access_key	AKIAJFN42DVCQWDHQYHQ
secret_key	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

Success! The access and secret key can now be used to perform any EC2 operations within AWS. You can verify they work, if you want. Also notice that these keys are new, they're not the keys you entered earlier.

The lease_id above is a special ID used for Vault for renewal, revocation, etc. Copy and save your Lease ID now.

Revoking the Secret

Let's complete the loop and revoke this secret now, purging it from existence. Once the secret is revoked, the access keys will no longer work.

To revoke the secret, use vault revoke with the vault ID that was outputted from vault read when you ran it:

$ vault revoke aws/deploy/0d042c53-aa8a-7ce7-9dfd-310351c465e5
Key revoked with ID 'aws/deploy/0d042c53-aa8a-7ce7-9dfd-310351c465e5'.

Done! If you look at your AWS account, you'll notice that no IAM users exist. If you try to use the access keys that were generated, you'll find that they no longer work.

With such easy dynamic creation and revocation, you can hopefully begin to see how easy it is to work with dynamic secrets and ensure they only exist for the duration that they're needed.

Next

On this page we experienced our first dynamic secret, and we also saw the revocation system in action. Dynamic secrets are incredibly powerful. As time goes on, we expect that more systems will support some sort of API to create access credentials, and Vault will be ready to get the most value out of this practice.

Before going further, we're going to take a quick detour to learn about the built-in help system.