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Implementing Azure Key Vault for Secure Secret Management

From the chain of clouds where we live today, the world's place where keeping sensitive information such as API keys, passwords, and certificates has become a necessity. Azure Key Vault is a simple yet very secure and comprehensive way for storing secrets and managing these sensitive pieces of information. In this blog post, I will give a complete overview of Azure Key Vault and operationalizing it into your Azure environment.

What is Azure Key Vault?

Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that securely stores secrets, keys, and certificates. It offers centralized storage, granular access control, and audit logging.

Why Use Azure Key Vault?

  • Enhanced Security: Hardware-secured storage with strong encryption
  • Centralized Management: Manage all application secrets in one place.
  • Access Control: Control access using Azure RBAC.
  • Audit Logging: Track secret access.
  • Simplified Development: No hardcoded secrets in applications.

Use Case: Securely Storing Database Connection Strings

Typical uses include storing connection strings for databases. Using Key Vault, you can instead store the connection string and access it at runtime. This way, no one gets unauthorized access to your database credentials.

Implementation Steps

Step 1. Create a Key Vault.

az group create \
  --name myResourceGroup \
  --location EastUS

az keyvault create \
  --name myKeyVault \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --location EastUS

Step 2. Set Access Policy.

ApplicationId=$(az ad app create \
  --display-name "myApp" \
  --reply-urls "http://localhost" | jq -r '.appId')

ServicePrincipalId=$(az ad sp create \
  --id $ApplicationId | jq -r '.objectId')

az keyvault set-policy \
  --name myKeyVault \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --object-id $ServicePrincipalId \
  --secret-permissions get list

Step 3. Store Secrets.

az keyvault secret set \
  --vault-name myKeyVault \
  --name mySecret \
  --value "MySecretValue"

Step 4. Retrieve Secrets in Your Application.

Here is an example using C#.

using Azure.Identity;
using Azure.Security.KeyVault.Secrets;
using System;
namespace KeyVaultExample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string keyVaultUri = "https://myKeyVault.vault.azure.net";
            var client = new SecretClient(new Uri(keyVaultUri), new DefaultAzureCredential());
            try
            {
                KeyVaultSecret secret = client.GetSecret("mySecret");
                string secretValue = secret.Value;

                Console.WriteLine($"The value of mySecret is: {secretValue}");
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}");
            }
        }
    }
}

Best Practices

  • Use managed identities for authentication.
  • Grant least privilege access.
  • Regularly rotate secrets.
  • Enable soft delete.
  • Monitor access.

Conclusion

Azure Key Vault is important for managing sensitive information securely in Azure. By centralizing storage and access control, Key Vault secures applications and data.

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