This document provides an overview of HashiCorp Vault for securely storing, accessing, and managing secrets. It discusses how Vault can be used to securely store secrets like API keys, passwords, and certificates. The document outlines Vault's architecture, data storage options, authentication methods, policies for access control, and integrating systems using Vault. It also provides an agenda for a demonstration of Spring Cloud Vault integration for retrieving database credentials from Vault and using them to connect to a MySQL database.

1. HashiCorp Vault
Managing Secrets and Passwords

2. What this Brown Bag is about
Quick intro to HashiCorp Vault
Storing secrets/config with Vault
Integrating systems using Vault

3. What this Brown Bag is NOT
about
Consul Discovery
Using Vault as an oAuth service

4. Ever had this happen to you?
**** WARNING AWS SECRET FOUND IN REPO ****
**** WARNING CREDENTIALS FOUND! ****
config:
aws_access_key_id: AHSSKK21342KJ234LJH
aws_secret_access_key_id: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
config:
jdbc.username: quickadminuser
jdbc.password: G3tM30u70fH3r3!

5. Storing credentials in a
public repo is risky!
Tip
Never push credentials
to GitHub.
GitHub uses bots to
scan files on public
repos to discover keys
and secrets!

6. Vault by Hashicorp
Vault secures, stores, and tightly controls access to tokens,
passwords, certificates, API keys, and other secrets in modern
computing. Vault handles leasing, key revocation, key rolling,
and auditing. Through a unified API, users can access an
encrypted Key/Value store and network encryption-as-a-
service, or generate AWS IAM/STS credentials, SQL/NoSQL
databases, X.509 certificates, SSH credentials, and more.

7. How many times do you
change your
password? Tip
No one is expected to
change their password
every day.
Though it is a good idea
to change your
password regularly.

8. Agenda
Overview of Vault
Vault Architecture
Vault Data Storage Options
Vault Authentication Options
Policies
Using Vault
Demo

9. Vault by Hashicorp
● Secret storage
● Key & Password Rotation
● Audit Logs
● Object Storage

10. Vault Architecture

11. Vault Architecture
Access Vault with:
command line tool
HTTP APIs
$ vault read secret/patient-svc
$ curl -X GET -H “X-Vault-Token: $VAULT_TOKEN”
“http://vault:8200/v1/secret/patient-svc”

12. 12 Factor App
Software as a Service
Declarative Format
Minimize Divergence
Scale up without changes
https://12factor.net
Tip
12 Factor App helps
separate the application
from the environment
removing the distinction
of the environment and
the application.

13. Vault Storage Options
Consul (HA)
etcd (HA)
ZooKeeper (HA)
DynamoDB (HA)
S3
Google Cloud Storage
Azure
Swift
MySQL
PostgreSQL
InMem
File

14. Vault Backends (Mounts)
AWS
Cassandra
Consul
Cubbyhole
Generic
MongoDB
MSSQL
MySQL
PKI Certificates
PostgreSQL
RabbitMQ
SSH
Transit
Custom

15. Vault Authentication
App Id
AppRole
AWS EC2
GitHub
LDAP
● MFA
● TLS Certificates
● Tokens
● Username & Password

16. AppRole Authentication
Requires a role_id (UUID) and secret (UUID)
Secret is volatile
lasts for a preconfigured time and number of uses
Application requests a client token using role_id & secret_id
Client token is used to access vault

17. AppRole Authentication

18. Vault Policies
Control who has access to which parts of Vault
Capabilities include:
Create
Read
Update
List
Sudo

19. Vault Policies

20. Create a new consumer (Token)
$ vault policy-write patient-policy @patient-policy.json
$ vault token-create -policy=’patient-policy’
Key Value
--- -----
token a7c4e3c1-f9b3-71c0-514c-67c469b9bd3f
token_accessor 40d7fcf6-8ff1-c6c4-632f-9916935ba9a3
token_duration 768h0m0s
token_renewable true
token_policies [patient-policy default]

21. Create a new consumer
(AppRole)
$ vault write auth/approle/role/cloud-auth-role secret_id_ttl=10m
token_ttl=20m token_max_ttl=30m secret_id_num_uses=40 policies=patient-
policy
$ vault read auth/approle/role/cloud-auth-role/role_id
Key Value
--- -----
role_id d4494db4-4047-90fb-30ec-18a5fa79cc19

22. Create a new consumer
(AppRole)
$ vault write -f auth/approle/role/cloud-auth-role/secret-id
Key Value
--- -----
secret_id e01b6593-03c4-6023-cec2-24c8f3c0f2d7
secret_id_accessor cde853e3-f264-816f-479e-a63a15097630

23. Create a new consumer
(AppRole)
$ vault write auth/approle/login
role_id=d4494db4-4047-90fb-30ec-18a5fa79cc19
secret_id=e01b6593-03c4-6023-cec2-24c8f3c0f2d7
Key Value
--- -----
token 50a69d9b-f5ad-21d8-386d-f6fbbbef404d
token_accessor 6a72e1af-15ae-b896-211d-4f218214db20
token_duration 20m0s
token_renewable true
token_policies [default patient-policy]

24. Storing data to Vault
$ vault write secret/application app_name=”My Application”
Success! Data written to secret/application
$ vault read secret/application
Key Value
--- -----
refresh_interval 768h0m0s
name My Application

25. Storing data to Vault
$ vault write secret/application @data.json
Success! Data written to secret/application
$ vault read secret/application
Key Value
--- -----
refresh_interval 768h0m0s
name My Application
conn_url tcp(192.168.99.100:3306)
data.json
{
“name” : “My Application”,
“conn_url” : “tcp(192.168.99.100:3306)”
}

26. Setting up MySQL Mount
$ vault mount mysql
$vault write mysql/config/connection
connection_url=”user:password@tcp(database:port)/”
$ vault write mysql/roles/patient-svc
sql = “CREATE USER ‘{{name}}’@’%’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘{{password}}’;
GRANT ALL ON patient_db.* TO ‘{{name}}’@’%’;”

27. Configure your application
spring.cloud.vault.mysql:
enabled: true
role: patient-svc
backend: mysql

28. DEMO
Spring Cloud Vault

29. Demo
Basic Spring JDBC integration
Request JDBC Username/Password
Return database metadata (database name & version)
Request config data from Vault
Display value
JPA Integration
Persist data to MySQL using:

30. Architecture

31. Spring Cloud Vault
http://cloud.spring.io/spring-cloud-vault-config/
Currently at 1.0.0.M1
Add-on to the Spring Cloud Suite
Supports configuration and optional database config