Secrets Management and Rotation

Secret management remains one of the most challenging aspects of DevSecOps. Traditional approaches like environment variables or configuration files frequently lead to exposed credentials in code repositories or logs. Modern secrets management tools provide secure storage, access control, and automatic rotation capabilities. These tools integrate with applications and infrastructure to provide just-in-time secret access without exposing credentials to developers or systems that don't need them.

HashiCorp Vault has become the leading open-source secrets management platform, offering dynamic secrets, encryption as a service, and comprehensive audit logging. Vault's dynamic secrets eliminate long-lived credentials by generating temporary credentials on demand. For example, instead of storing database passwords, Vault can generate temporary database accounts that automatically expire. This approach significantly reduces risk from compromised credentials.

Cloud provider secret management services like AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, and Google Secret Manager offer native integration with their respective platforms. These services excel for cloud-native applications, providing automatic rotation, fine-grained access control, and seamless integration with other cloud services. Many organizations use multiple secret management solutions, with cloud services for cloud resources and Vault for cross-platform needs.