158 lines
7.3 KiB
Markdown
158 lines
7.3 KiB
Markdown
# Vault [](https://circleci.com/gh/hashicorp/vault) [](https://www.hashicorp.com/products/vault/?utm_source=github&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=github-vault-enterprise)
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----
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**Please note**: We take Vault's security and our users' trust very seriously. If you believe you have found a security issue in Vault, _please responsibly disclose_ by contacting us at [security@hashicorp.com](mailto:security@hashicorp.com).
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----
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- Website: https://www.vaultproject.io
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- Announcement list: [Google Groups](https://groups.google.com/group/hashicorp-announce)
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- Discussion forum: [Discuss](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/c/vault)
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- Documentation: [https://www.vaultproject.io/docs/](https://www.vaultproject.io/docs/)
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- Tutorials: [HashiCorp's Learn Platform](https://learn.hashicorp.com/vault)
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- Certification Exam: [Vault Associate](https://www.hashicorp.com/certification/#hashicorp-certified-vault-associate)
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<img width="300" alt="Vault Logo" src="https://github.com/hashicorp/vault/blob/f22d202cde2018f9455dec755118a9b84586e082/Vault_PrimaryLogo_Black.png">
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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, certificates, and more. Vault provides a unified interface to any secret, while providing tight access control and recording a detailed audit log.
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A modern system requires access to a multitude of secrets: database credentials, API keys for external services, credentials for service-oriented architecture communication, etc. Understanding who is accessing what secrets is already very difficult and platform-specific. Adding on key rolling, secure storage, and detailed audit logs is almost impossible without a custom solution. This is where Vault steps in.
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The key features of Vault are:
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* **Secure Secret Storage**: Arbitrary key/value secrets can be stored
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in Vault. Vault encrypts these secrets prior to writing them to persistent
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storage, so gaining access to the raw storage isn't enough to access
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your secrets. Vault can write to disk, [Consul](https://www.consul.io),
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and more.
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* **Dynamic Secrets**: Vault can generate secrets on-demand for some
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systems, such as AWS or SQL databases. For example, when an application
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needs to access an S3 bucket, it asks Vault for credentials, and Vault
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will generate an AWS keypair with valid permissions on demand. After
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creating these dynamic secrets, Vault will also automatically revoke them
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after the lease is up.
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* **Data Encryption**: Vault can encrypt and decrypt data without storing
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it. This allows security teams to define encryption parameters and
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developers to store encrypted data in a location such as SQL without
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having to design their own encryption methods.
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* **Leasing and Renewal**: All secrets in Vault have a _lease_ associated
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with it. At the end of the lease, Vault will automatically revoke that
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secret. Clients are able to renew leases via built-in renew APIs.
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* **Revocation**: Vault has built-in support for secret revocation. Vault
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can revoke not only single secrets, but a tree of secrets, for example
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all secrets read by a specific user, or all secrets of a particular type.
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Revocation assists in key rolling as well as locking down systems in the
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case of an intrusion.
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Documentation, Getting Started, and Certification Exams
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-------------------------------
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Documentation is available on the [Vault website](https://www.vaultproject.io/docs/).
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If you're new to Vault and want to get started with security automation, please
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check out our [Getting Started guides](https://learn.hashicorp.com/collections/vault/getting-started)
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on HashiCorp's learning platform. There are also [additional guides](https://learn.hashicorp.com/vault)
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to continue your learning.
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For examples of how to interact with Vault from inside your application in different programming languages, see the [vault-examples](https://github.com/hashicorp/vault-examples) repo.
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Show off your Vault knowledge by passing a certification exam. Visit the
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[certification page](https://www.hashicorp.com/certification/#hashicorp-certified-vault-associate)
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for information about exams and find [study materials](https://learn.hashicorp.com/collections/vault/certification)
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on HashiCorp's learning platform.
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Developing Vault
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--------------------
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If you wish to work on Vault itself or any of its built-in systems, you'll
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first need [Go](https://www.golang.org) installed on your machine. Go version
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1.17.5+ is *required*.
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For local dev first make sure Go is properly installed, including setting up a
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[GOPATH](https://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH). Ensure that `$GOPATH/bin` is in
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your path as some distributions bundle old version of build tools. Next, clone this
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repository. Vault uses [Go Modules](https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Modules),
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so it is recommended that you clone the repository ***outside*** of the GOPATH.
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You can then download any required build tools by bootstrapping your environment:
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```sh
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$ make bootstrap
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...
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```
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To compile a development version of Vault, run `make` or `make dev`. This will
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put the Vault binary in the `bin` and `$GOPATH/bin` folders:
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```sh
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$ make dev
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...
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$ bin/vault
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...
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```
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To compile a development version of Vault with the UI, run `make static-dist dev-ui`. This will
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put the Vault binary in the `bin` and `$GOPATH/bin` folders:
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```sh
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$ make static-dist dev-ui
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...
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$ bin/vault
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...
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```
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To run tests, type `make test`. Note: this requires Docker to be installed. If
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this exits with exit status 0, then everything is working!
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```sh
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$ make test
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...
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```
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If you're developing a specific package, you can run tests for just that
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package by specifying the `TEST` variable. For example below, only
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`vault` package tests will be run.
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```sh
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$ make test TEST=./vault
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...
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```
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### Acceptance Tests
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Vault has comprehensive [acceptance tests](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_testing)
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covering most of the features of the secret and auth methods.
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If you're working on a feature of a secret or auth method and want to
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verify it is functioning (and also hasn't broken anything else), we recommend
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running the acceptance tests.
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**Warning:** The acceptance tests create/destroy/modify *real resources*, which
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may incur real costs in some cases. In the presence of a bug, it is technically
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possible that broken backends could leave dangling data behind. Therefore,
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please run the acceptance tests at your own risk. At the very least,
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we recommend running them in their own private account for whatever backend
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you're testing.
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To run the acceptance tests, invoke `make testacc`:
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```sh
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$ make testacc TEST=./builtin/logical/consul
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...
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```
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The `TEST` variable is required, and you should specify the folder where the
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backend is. The `TESTARGS` variable is recommended to filter down to a specific
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resource to test, since testing all of them at once can sometimes take a very
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long time.
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Acceptance tests typically require other environment variables to be set for
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things such as access keys. The test itself should error early and tell
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you what to set, so it is not documented here.
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For more information on Vault Enterprise features, visit the [Vault Enterprise site](https://www.hashicorp.com/products/vault/?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=github-vault-enterprise).
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