open-vault/website/source/docs/secrets/generic/index.html.md

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docs	Secret Backend: Generic	docs-secrets-generic	The generic secret backend can store arbitrary secrets.

Generic Secret Backend

Name: generic

The generic secret backend is used to store arbitrary secrets within the configured physical storage for Vault. If you followed along with the getting started guide, you interacted with a generic secret backend via the secret/ prefix that Vault mounts by default. You can mount as many of these backends at different mount points as you like.

Writing to a key in the generic backend will replace the old value; sub-fields are not merged together.

This backend honors the distinction between the create and update capabilities inside ACL policies.

Note: Path and key names are not obfuscated or encrypted; only the values set on keys are. You should not store sensitive information as part of a secret's path.

Quick Start

The generic backend allows for writing keys with arbitrary values. A ttl value can be provided, which affects the duration of generated leases. Specifically, this can be used as a hint from the writer of a secret to consumers of a secret that the consumer should wait no more than the ttl duration before checking for a new value. If you expect a secret to change frequently, or if you need clients to react quickly to a change in the secret's value, specify a low value of ttl. Keep in mind that a low ttl value may add significant additional load to the Vault server if it results in clients accessing the value very frequently. Also note that setting ttl does not actually expire the data; it is informational only.

As an example, we can write a new key "foo" to the generic backend mounted at "secret/" by default:

$ vault write secret/foo \
    zip=zap \
    ttl=1h
Success! Data written to: secret/foo

This writes the key with the "zip" field set to "zap" and a one hour TTL. We can test this by doing a read:

$ vault read secret/foo
Key             Value
lease_duration  3600
zip             zap

As expected, we get the value previously set back as well as our custom TTL both as specified and translated to seconds. The TTL has been set to 3600 seconds (one hour) as specified.

API

GET

Description

Retrieves the secret at the specified location.

Method

GET

URL

`/secret/`

Parameters

None

Returns

{
  "auth": null,
  "data": {
    "foo": "bar"
  },
  "lease_duration": 2592000,
  "lease_id": "",
  "renewable": false
}

LIST

Description

Returns a list of secret entries at the specified location. Folders are suffixed with `/`. The input must be a folder; list on a file will not return a value. Note that no policy-based filtering is performed on returned keys; it is not recommended to put sensitive or secret values as key names. The values themselves are not accessible via this command.

Method

GET

URL

`/secret/?list=true`

Parameters

None

Returns

The example below shows output for a query path of `secret/` when there are secrets at `secret/foo` and `secret/foo/bar`; note the difference in the two entries.

{
  "auth": null,
  "data": {
    "keys": ["foo", "foo/"]
  },
  "lease_duration": 2592000,
  "lease_id": "",
  "renewable": false
}

POST/PUT

Description

Stores a secret at the specified location. If the value does not yet exist, the calling token must have an ACL policy granting the `create` capability. If the value already exists, the calling token must have an ACL policy granting the `update` capability.

Method

POST/PUT

URL

`/secret/`

Parameters

• (key) optional A key, paired with an associated value, to be held at the given location. Multiple key/value pairs can be specified, and all will be returned on a read operation.
• ttl optional The Time To Live for the entry. This value, converted to seconds, is round-tripped on read operations as the `lease_duration` parameter. Vault takes no action when this value expires; it is only meant as a way for a writer of a value to indicate to readers how often they should check for new entries.

Returns

A `204` response code.

DELETE

Description

Deletes the secret at the specified location.

Method

DELETE

URL

`/secret/`

Parameters

None

Returns

A `204` response code.