51 lines
2.3 KiB
Plaintext
51 lines
2.3 KiB
Plaintext
---
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layout: docs
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page_title: Identity - Secrets Engines
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description: The Identity secrets engine for Vault manages client identities.
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---
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# Identity Secrets Engine
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Name: `identity`
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The Identity secrets engine is the identity management solution for Vault. It
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internally maintains the clients who are recognized by Vault. Each client is
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internally termed as an `Entity`. An entity can have multiple `Aliases`. For
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example, a single user who has accounts in both GitHub and LDAP, can be mapped
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to a single entity in Vault that has 2 aliases, one of type GitHub and one of
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type LDAP. When a client authenticates via any of the credential backend
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(except the Token backend), Vault creates a new entity and attaches a new
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alias to it, if a corresponding entity doesn't already exist. The entity identifier will
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be tied to the authenticated token. When such tokens are put to use, their
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entity identifiers are audit logged, marking a trail of actions performed by
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specific users.
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Identity store allows operators to **manage** the entities in Vault. Entities
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can be created and aliases can be tied to entities, via the ACL'd API. There
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can be policies set on the entities which adds capabilities to the tokens that
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are tied to entity identifiers. The capabilities granted to tokens via the
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entities are **an addition** to the existing capabilities of the token and
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**not** a replacement. The capabilities of the token that get inherited from
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entities are computed dynamically at request time. This provides flexibility in
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controlling the access of tokens that are already issued.
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~> **NOTE:** This secrets engine will be mounted by default. This secrets engine
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cannot be disabled or moved. For more conceptual overview on identity, refer to
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the [Identity](/docs/concepts/identity) documentation.
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The Vault Identity secrets engine supports several different features. Each
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one is individually documented on its own page.
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- [Identity tokens](/docs/secrets/identity/identity-token)
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- [OIDC Identity Provider](/docs/secrets/identity/oidc-provider)
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## API
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The Identity secrets engine has a full HTTP API. Please see the
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[Identity secrets engine API](/api-docs/secret/identity) for more
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details.
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Additionally, Vault can be configured as an OIDC identity provider. Please see
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the [OIDC identity provider API](/api-docs/secret/identity/oidc-provider) for
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more details.
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