HashiCorp Vault - What is it & How to Use it?

Picture this: You're trying to juggle multiple secrets, API keys, and other sensitive data across various applications, and suddenly you find yourself in a precarious situation.

You're drowning in a sea of passwords and struggling to secure them.

That's where HashiCorp Vault comes in to save the day. This powerful tool offers a robust and secure way to manage secrets, making keeping your sensitive data safe and organized easier than ever.

In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at what HashiCorp Vault is, how to use it, and how it works.

What is HashiCorp Vault?

HashiCorp Vault is a secret management tool that enables secure storage, management, and control of sensitive data. It includes passwords, API keys, and certificates.

Vault provides a centralized location for storing and accessing secrets, which reduces the risk of leaks and unauthorized access.

Additionally, Vault generates dynamic secrets that expire after a certain period, providing an extra security layer.

Vault can be accessed and managed through various interfaces, including a command-line interface (CLI), RESTful API, and web UI.

HashiCorp Vault also offers integrations with various cloud providers, such as AWS and Google Cloud. That makes it easy to store and access secrets in those environments.

Why Do We Need Products like HashiCorp Vault?

Well, let's face it - managing secrets and sensitive data in today's digital world is tough. That's where products like HashiCorp Vault come in - they help keep our secrets safe and sound.

We must proactively secure our secrets with the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks.

Vault provides a centralized location for storing and accessing secrets, making managing and controlling access easier.

Vault's fine-grained access control ensures that only authorized users and services can access sensitive data. So you can rest easy knowing that your secrets are in good hands.

In addition to security, Vault also helps with compliance.

By providing a detailed audit trail of all secret access and changes, Vault makes it easier to meet compliance requirements. It also ensures that sensitive data is being handled appropriately.

So, whether you're a small business or a large enterprise, if you want to keep your secrets safe and secure, a product like HashiCorp Vault is a must-have.

Also Read: How to Migrate from AWS to Azure?

HashiCorp Vault Pricing

If you're interested in using HashiCorp Vault, you're probably wondering - how much will this cost me? Well, the good news is that Vault offers a variety of pricing options to fit your needs and budget.

• For non-production use cases, you can get started with Vault for as little as $0.03 per hour with the managed plan. This plan offers basic features and is great for small-scale deployments or testing.

• If you need more advanced features or want to standardize large deployments, the HCP Plus plan may be a better fit. Starting at $1.84 per hour, this plan includes advanced policy management, auditing, and replication features.

• For organizations with unique needs or large-scale deployments, Vault also offers custom enterprise plans. These plans come with additional features and support to help ensure your deployment succeeds.

How Does HashiCorp Vault Work?

Vault is a secure storage system for sensitive data, such as passwords, API keys, and certificates.

First, Vault uses encryption to ensure that secrets are stored securely. When you write a secret to Vault, it is encrypted using a unique key.

The key decrypts the data when you later read that secret back from Vault. This means that even if an attacker gains access to your Vault instance, they won't be able to read your secrets without the encryption key.

But encryption is just the beginning. Vault also provides a variety of access controls to ensure that only authorized users and services can access sensitive data.

These controls include fine-grained policies that can be tailored to specific use cases and authentication mechanisms that integrate with existing identity providers.

Vault also provides auditing capabilities to track all access to secrets. This makes it easy to see who accessed what secret and when. This can be useful for compliance purposes or investigating security incidents.

Also Read: Kubernetes vs OpenShift

What is HashiCorp Vault Used for?

Now that we know what HashiCorp Vault is and how it works let's look at its use cases.

Employee Credential Storage

Storing and managing large numbers of usernames and passwords can be challenging for any organization. Vault provides a secure, centralized location for storing and managing employee credentials.

With access controls, you can ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive data, reducing the risk of passwords being stored insecurely or leaked.

Data Encryption

Vault can be used to encrypt sensitive data, making it unreadable to anyone who doesn't have the proper encryption keys.

This can be particularly useful for storing data in cloud environments or other untrusted locations.

With Vault, you can be confident that your data is secure, even if it falls into the wrong hands.

API Key Generation for Scripts

Many scripts require API keys to interact with various services, and managing those keys can be a hassle. Vault can generate API keys on demand, making it easy to manage credentials for your scripts.

With Vault's API key generation, you can ensure that only authorized scripts can access your services.

General Secret Storage

A vault can be used for general secret storage, providing a secure location for storing sensitive data. This could include anything from SSH keys to database credentials.

With Vault, you can store all your secrets in one secure location, with access controls to ensure that only authorized users can access them.

Pros & Cons of HashiCorp Vault

HashiCorp Vault is a powerful tool for securely managing secrets and sensitive data. However, like any technology, it has its pros and cons. Here are some of the main ones to consider:

Pros of HashiCorp Vault

Streamlined Secret Management

One of HashiCorp Vault's biggest advantages is its streamlined secret management approach.

With its intuitive user interface, flexible policies, and powerful automation capabilities, Vault allows you to easily manage secrets across your organization.

All this while maintaining strong security and compliance standards. This can help you reduce the risk of data breaches, improve operational efficiency, and simplify your security workflows.

Robust Security Features

Regarding storing sensitive data, security is always a top priority. And that's where HashiCorp Vault shines. It has a wide range of security features that help keep your secrets safe from prying eyes.

Here are some of the key security features of HashiCorp Vault:

• Encryption: Vault uses industry-standard encryption to protect your secrets while they're at rest and in transit.

• Access control: Vault lets you set up fine-grained access controls to ensure that only authorized users and applications can access specific secrets.

• Audit logging: Vault tracks all access and changes to secrets to easily see who did what and when.

• Dynamic secrets: With Vault, you can generate short-lived dynamic secrets on-the-fly, which can help reduce the risk of credential theft and unauthorized access.

It is an Open Source Tool

Many organizations often favor open-source tools for their flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. And, HashiCorp Vault is no exception.

It is an open-source tool available for free and can be used by anyone. It is built on an open architecture that allows developers to customize and extend the tool's functionality per their specific needs.

This means there are no licensing fees or vendor lock-ins, making it an attractive option for businesses of all sizes.

Also Read: Blue Green vs Canary Deployment

Faster Release Cycle

HashiCorp Vault is a versatile tool that offers several benefits to its users. One of the major advantages of using Vault is its faster release cycle.

This means that it releases new features and improvements more frequently. Hence users can get access to the latest updates promptly.

This also shows that HashiCorp is dedicated to continuously improving the product and providing users with the best experience possible.

Flexible Deployment Options

Whether you prefer to deploy Vault on-premises, in the cloud, or as a managed service, HashiCorp offers a variety of deployment options to meet your needs.

This flexibility allows you to choose the deployment model that best suits your organization's requirements without sacrificing security or scalability.

Hassle-Free Self Hosting

With HashiCorp Vault, you can easily manage your self-hosted environment.

This gives you full control over your data and eliminates relying on third-party services, which can be expensive and time-consuming to manage.

Here are some of the benefits of self-hosting with HashiCorp Vault:

• Greater flexibility: You can customize your setup to meet your needs and integrate with your existing infrastructure.

• Improved performance: With self-hosting, you can optimize your system for speed and reduce latency.

• Better cost control: Self-hosting eliminates the ongoing costs associated with third-party services and lets you invest in your infrastructure instead.

Generates Your PKI Certificates with Ease

Do you find it difficult and time-consuming to generate PKI certificates?

With HashiCorp Vault, you can easily streamline this process and generate certificates. Its built-in certificate authority can issue and revoke certificates while handling expiry and renewal.

This saves you time and effort and ensures your certificates are always up-to-date and secure.

Also Read: Top Kubernetes Best Practices for Security, Logging & Monitoring, Resource Limits, & Namespace

Cons of HashiCorp Vault

It can be Complex

HashiCorp Vault can be complex, especially for users who are not familiar with the technology. Here are a few reasons why some users might find Vault challenging to use:

• Vault has a steep learning curve: Because of its many features and capabilities, Vault can be difficult to learn for beginners. Becoming comfortable with its various components and the best practices for deploying and managing them might take some time.

• Requires specialized knowledge: Vault requires specialized knowledge and expertise, especially when configuring its advanced security features. This can make it challenging for smaller teams or organizations with limited resources to use effectively.

• Can be time-consuming: Setting up and configuring Vault can be time-consuming, especially for users who are new to the technology. This can make it difficult to quickly deploy and use in time-sensitive situations.

Ensuring Security at the Expense of Tedious Inspection

Vault's audit logs are an incredibly powerful tool for ensuring security by tracking who accesses which secret and when. This level of transparency can help you quickly detect and respond to any potential security threats.

However, the downside of this feature is that it can sometimes be a little too heavy-handed with hashing sensitive information in the logs. That can make it difficult to inspect and extract the data you need.

Vault's hashing of sensitive information in audit logs is great for protecting the data. But it can also be a little confusing to work with, particularly when you need to inspect and extract the data for analysis.

Unfortunately, there is no simple way to selectively disable hashing for certain values in the logs. This can make inspection and analysis a bit of a headache.

User Interface Limitations

Although it provides a good starting point for basic tasks, more advanced operations require additional API or command-line interface configuration.

For instance, the Vault UI lacks useful features, such as search functionality, making finding specific secrets within a large collection difficult.

In addition, the UI can be slow to load large data sets, making it cumbersome.

Users may also encounter issues accessing certain types of secrets, such as those stored in databases or generated dynamically.

These limitations can be overcome with additional configuration and custom development, but they can add complexity to the setup process.

Lack of Search Functionality for Secret Keys

One downside of using HashiCorp Vault is the lack of built-in search functionality for secret keys. Searching for a specific key within Vault can be a tedious process.

Unfortunately, the current version of Vault does not offer a search feature for secret keys.

Users have to manually navigate through the hierarchical structure of the Vault paths to find the desired key.

This can be especially challenging in large organizations where many teams and applications use the same Vault instance. That can result in a complex and potentially confusing path structure.

Also Read: What is Containerization?

Top 3 Alternatives to HashiCorp Vault

BeyondTrust

If you're looking for an alternative to HashiCorp Vault, one option to consider is BeyondTrust.

BeyondTrust is a privileged access management solution with features for managing secrets, credentials, and other sensitive information.

Some of the key features of BeyondTrust's secret management capabilities include:

• Centralized storage of secrets and credentials

• Automatic password rotation and management

• Access controls and permissions for managing secrets

• Audit logs and reporting to track access and usage of secrets

• Integration with other security tools and platforms

One of the key features of BeyondTrust is its ability to manage both privileged and non-privileged accounts.

With BeyondTrust, you can store and manage secrets for both privileged and non-privileged accounts in a single platform, simplifying your management tasks.

BeyondTrust offers integration with Active Directory, so you can easily manage user access to your secrets.

One Identity

One Identity is one of the great alternatives to HasiCorp. Here are some of its key features:

• Offers secure and automated management of privileged credentials, such as passwords and keys.

• Provides centralized access control and password management across various systems and applications.

• Enables organizations to monitor and audit all privileged account activity for compliance and security purposes.

• Offers session recording and playback to enhance troubleshooting and forensic analysis.

• Includes a customizable self-service portal for password resets and management.

• Pricing is available upon request and can vary based on deployment size and additional features needed.

One Identity is a powerful alternative to HashiCorp Vault, offering robust secret management capabilities, flexible deployment options, and extensive audit logging.

Its role-based access control and integration with existing tools make it a compelling option for organizations looking to secure their secrets.

Oracle

Oracle offers a range of identity and access management solutions, including a robust vault management system that can help you secure your organization's secrets and sensitive data.

Here are some of the features of Oracle's vault management system:

• Seamless integration with Oracle databases and applications makes deploying and managing easy.

• Supports various authentication and authorization mechanisms, including LDAP, Active Directory, and more.

• Offers strong encryption and key management capabilities, ensuring your secrets remain safe and secure.

• Provides comprehensive audit logging and reporting features, giving you complete visibility into who accessed what and when.

• Offers granular access controls, allowing you to define fine-grained permissions for different users and groups.

• Comes with a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to manage secrets and monitor access.

Oracle's vault management system is part of the Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite.

It is a comprehensive solution for managing user identities and access across your organization.

HashiCorp Vault vs. CyberArk

Deployment and Setup

HashiCorp Vault has a relatively simple deployment process, with easy-to-follow documentation available for installation on various operating systems.

It also offers multiple deployment options, such as on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid. Vault also supports a variety of authentication methods, including AWS IAM, Kubernetes Service Accounts, and LDAP, among others.

On the other hand, CyberArk requires more complex deployment and configuration processes, which can be challenging for new users.

The tool also has a more limited range of authentication options than Vault.

However, CyberArk's enterprise-grade security features make it a preferred choice for large organizations with more complex security requirements.

Scalability and Flexibility

Regarding scalability and flexibility, both HashiCorp Vault and CyberArk offer solutions that can grow with your organization's needs.

However, HashiCorp Vault's open-source nature and cloud-native design make it more adaptable to changing environments and easier to integrate with modern architectures.

CyberArk's solutions focus on traditional on-premise deployments, which may limit their flexibility in hybrid or cloud-based environments.

Supported Types of Secrets

HashiCorp Vault supports a wide range of secrets, including:

• SSH keys

• TLS keys

• Docker credentials

• Service accounts tokens - OpenShift, Kubernetes and Nomad

• Login pass pairs

• Services and API certificates

• Env variables

CyberArk, on the other hand, is primarily focused on:

• Docker credentials

• Service accounts tokens - Kubernetes secrets, login pass pairs, services, and API tokens

Pricing

HashiCorp offers various pricing tiers, with prices starting as low as $0.03 per hour. It has a transparent pricing model based on usage. This can be more cost-effective for small and medium-sized businesses.

In comparison, CyberArk's pricing is typically higher and can be more suitable for larger organizations with more complex needs. Users can get quotations based on their specific needs.

Also Read: Kubernetes vs OpenShift

Supported Types of Applications

HashiCorp Vault and CyberArk support many applications and platforms, including cloud, on-premise, and hybrid environments.

However, HashiCorp Vault has a more extensive list of integrations and can work with many applications and platforms.

HashiCorp Vault and CyberArk are excellent tools for managing secrets and privileged access. However, the choice between the two depends on several factors.

That includes deployment and setup, scalability and flexibility, supported types of secrets, pricing, and applications. Ultimately, the best choice will depend on your organization's specific needs and requirements.

FAQs

What are vault alternatives in AWS?

Some popular alternatives to HashiCorp Vault on AWS are AWS Secrets Manager, AWS Key Management Service (KMS), and CyberArk Conjur.

Is HashiCorp Vault a password manager?

No, HashiCorp Vault is not just a password manager. It is a secret management solution that can securely store and manage sensitive data, including passwords.

What can I store in the HashiCorp vault?

The HashiCorp Vault can store sensitive data, such as credentials, certificates, API keys, tokens, and other secrets.

Where is HashiCorp vault data stored?

HashiCorp Vault data is stored in a backend storage system. It can be configured using various options such as file systems, databases, cloud storage, etc.

What is the best storage for the HashiCorp vault?

Some popular options include Consul, Amazon S3, and various database solutions such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Cassandra.

Further Reading