Secrets Management: Tools & Methods for Authentication

TL;DR

Secrets management is the discipline of securing digital authentication credentials — such as Application Programming Interface (API) keys, Secure Shell (SSH) keys, passwords, and certificates — through automated policies, centralized storage, and strict access controls. Organizations face challenges including hardcoded credentials, sprawling multi-cloud environments, and human error. Effective secrets management eliminates these risks by enforcing least-privilege access, rotating credentials regularly, and extending governance to third-party vendors and DevOps pipelines.

What is secrets management?

Non-human identities and privileged credentials called secrets are protected through practices, tools, and processes known as secrets management. These secrets include sensitive information in the digital environment across IT networks. They need to be secured and only accessed by trusted entities. Storing, transmitting, and auditing secrets can be complicated, as the digital environment is complex and constantly changing. Comprehensive, holistic, broad, and automated solutions usually offer the most secure environment and best practices for secrets management.

A secret in the tech world refers to digital authentication tools and can include the following:

• API keys as well as other application keys and credentials
• Auto-generated or user passwords
• System-to-system passwords, including databases
• SSH keys
• Private encryption keys
• Private certificates for secure communication, transmitting, and receiving data, such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
• Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) and additional one-time password devices
• Privileged account credentials

Secrets management refers to the protection of these secrets, allowing only authorized and authenticated entities access to them. Secrets management involves policies, processes, and tools in a digital environment. It can include the following:

• Authentication of access requests using non-human credentials
• Automated management of secrets
• Consistent access policies
• Enforcement of the principle of least privilege (giving lowest level of access possible)
• Rotating credentials and secrets often
• Using role-based access control (RBAC) (allowing access based on role in the organization)
• Maintaining comprehensive audits and tracking all access
• Removing secrets from unprotected areas, including within code and configuration files

Secrets management can help to reduce human error, and keep applications and pipelines secure.

What are the main challenges of secrets management?

Application secrets and digital authorization credentials are part of a complex IT infrastructure that needs to be carefully managed. These are some of the challenges regarding secrets management:

• The scope of secrets is large and often without complete oversight. Secrets are often held within certain parts of the team or organization, for example, and they are not visible across the entire infrastructure. This can leave security gaps and challenges with auditing.  
• Credentials are often hardcoded and easy to crack. Applications and Internet of Things (IoT) devices regularly come with default credentials. DevOps tools often have secrets already hardcoded in files or scripts. This can create security risks for the automation of secrets management.  
• Complex infrastructures often encompass multiple cloud services, all with their own secrets that need to be managed.  
• DevOps environments rely on numerous scripts and automation processes that require secrets to run properly. These secrets need to be managed using good security practices.  
• Integration can be tricky with large infrastructures and environments. Tools used to manage secrets need to orchestrate well with other tools in the security stack and with all parts of the DevOps stack.  
• Remote access and authorized third-party access need to be used appropriately, and secrets need to be managed for these users as well.  

What are the best practices for managing secrets?

Some of the issues with managing software secrets are the secrets themselves. Secrets need to be strong, so they should be long, complex, and changed regularly. There is the human element with creating and storing secrets, as humans are often the cause of leaked secrets. Automating secrets management can take the human error factor out of the equation. Passwords should be rotated regularly. Automation can help achieve this and reduce the risk for leaks.

Why is automation central to secrets management?

Automating secrets management removes the human error factor from the equation, ensures passwords are rotated regularly, and reduces the risk of leaks across the entire IT infrastructure.

Core best practices to follow

Best practices for secret management include the following:

• Identify and keep track of all passwords with a centralized management system.
• Eliminate all hardcoded, embedded, and default secrets.
• Enforce security best practices, including one-time passwords for sensitive systems, password rotation, separation of privilege, and principle of least privilege (PoLP).
• Extend secret management to partners and vendors, ensuring third parties are also conforming to best practices.
• Use privileged session monitoring to log, monitor, and audit activity.
• Analyze secrets continuously to work to detect threats and anomalies. 
• Build security into the DevOps lifestyle and ensure code does not contain embedded passwords.

Secret management should be automated, integrated, holistic, and comprehensive to encompass your entire IT infrastructure all the way down to third parties.

What solutions are available for secrets management?

Secrets should not be stored where they can be easily hacked or accessed by unauthorized users. This means keeping them out of the source code and application systems. There are several types of secret management tools on the market today that serve to store and maintain secrets. Many of them provide a method or external place to store and manage sensitive information.

What makes a good secrets management solution?

A good secret management solution will:

• Manage application passwords and eliminate hardcoded ones
• Manage secrets for scripts and automation processes
• Work across the entire IT infrastructure, not just limited capacity or use
• Integrate with multiple cloud services via an external secrets manager
• Keep secrets secure, integrated, and automated
• Support combining multiple tools for layered security

How do multiple secrets management tools work together?

All of the big cloud service providers have a secrets manager, but if you are using multiple cloud services, an external secrets manager tool can help to keep things simple. Using a secret management service can also help to keep things secure, integrated, and automated. Secret management tools, practices, and processes can be combined. Multiple tools can be used together to make things even more secure.

What are the most common use cases for secrets management?

Any environment with digital authentication credentials can benefit from secret management. Managing secrets properly can protect you from cyber attacks and bad actors who are seeking to gain access to privileged and sensitive information. Four of the most common use cases for secrets management are as follows:

How complex should a secrets management system be?

Secrets management should enforce best security practices. It should be only as complex as necessary, so the system is still manageable. Secret management programs, policies, and tools are designed to take some of the human error out and improve security while maintaining usability.  

Frequently asked questions

What types of credentials are considered secrets in IT environments?

Secrets include any digital authentication credential that grants access to sensitive systems or data. Common examples are Application Programming Interface (API) keys, Secure Shell (SSH) keys, auto-generated and user passwords, private encryption keys, Transport Layer Security (TLS)/Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates, Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) one-time password devices, and privileged account credentials.

Why is hardcoding secrets in source code a security risk?

Hardcoded credentials embedded in application code, scripts, or configuration files are static and difficult to rotate, making them easy targets for attackers. DevOps tools and IoT devices frequently ship with default hardcoded secrets, which creates persistent vulnerabilities if they are not removed and replaced with dynamically managed credentials.

How does the principle of least privilege apply to secrets management?

The principle of least privilege means granting each user, application, or system only the minimum level of access required to perform its function. In secrets management, this is enforced through role-based access control (RBAC) and consistent access policies, limiting the blast radius if a secret is ever compromised.

What makes secrets management especially challenging in multi-cloud environments?

Each cloud provider maintains its own secrets manager with its own interface and policies. When an organization uses multiple cloud services simultaneously, managing secrets across all of them becomes fragmented. An external, provider-agnostic secrets manager can centralize this management and reduce complexity.

How does secrets management support Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline security?

CI/CD pipeline tools are optimized for speed and often store secrets insecurely as hardcoded values. A secrets management solution removes these default credentials, replaces them with securely stored and rotated secrets, and ensures that automated pipelines can access protected resources like databases and SSH servers without exposing sensitive information.

When should an organization consider using an external secrets management tool?

Organizations running workloads across multiple cloud providers, managing large DevOps environments, or dealing with auto-scaling infrastructure should consider an external secrets manager. These tools provide a unified, automated, and holistic approach to storing, rotating, and auditing secrets across the entire IT infrastructure, including third-party vendors and partners.

References

Securing Pipelines Through Secrets Management. (June 2021). The Newstack.

Secret Management Design Decisions: Theory Plus an Example. (March 2018). Sander Knape.

Secret Management Architectures: Finding the Balance Between Security and Complexity. (June 2017). Slalom.