Secrets Management

Store and rotate credentials in a vault instead of hardcoding them.

secrets

Detailed Description

Secrets should not live in source code, container images, or plain environment dumps.

A vault provides access control, audit logs, versioning, and rotation workflows.

Service starts
-> fetch secret from vault
-> use short-lived credential
-> rotate safely

Pros

Centralized rotation and audit

Cons

Vault availability and integration complexity

Examples: HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, encrypted K8s Secrets