I am reviewing requirements for Azure KeyVault and I would like to store service accounts (username/password) in Azure KeyVault. Is it a best practice to encrypt the secret before storing in Azure KeyVault? Does Azure KeyVault encrypt the secret automatically? (both disk and logical).
I think you would like to store your credential like API-Keys, Certificate, Passwords or anything related to sensitive information ensuring more security right?
Well, As you may know cloud applications and services use cryptographic keys and secrets to help keep information secure.
For highly sensitive data, you should consider additional layers of protection for data. Encrypting data using a separate protection key prior to storage in Key Vault is worthwhile for example.
Azure Key Vault:
Azure Key Vault provides safeguards for following keys and secrets.for example, When you use Key Vault, you can encrypt authentication keys, storage account keys, data encryption keys, .pfx files, and passwords by using keys that are protected by hardware security modules (HSMs).
Key Vault reduce following problems:
Secret management
Key management
Certificate management
Store secrets backed by HSMs
Any Third party sensitive credentials
You could check for more details here
Access Your Key Vaults More securely
You may need to access your key vault more securely because of its data sensitivity learn more about Secure access to a key vault
How secret and Certificate collaborate with azure key vault
Also for key vault secret and certificate you can check here
Azure key vault quick start
Setting up and retrieve a secret from Azure Key Vault using the Azure portal you can quickly start from Microsoft official document for azure key vault
Best Practices:
As you know azure key vault preserves data with encrypted mode so its not necessary to encrypt again but you can for double. Here is some best practice while using azure key-vaults
Lock down access to your subscription, resource group and Key Vaults
(RBAC)
Create Access policies for every vault
Use least privilege access principal to grant access
Turn on Firewall and VNET Service Endpoints
For more details you could refer this docs
Note: Now a days azure key-vaults become more popular among the big organizations and towards the developer as well to manage large scale
of security key , certification and many more. For more details I
would recommend to take a look official document here
If you have any more query feel free to share. Thanks and happy coding!
Related
I have a requirement to create an azure blob using power automate based on a trigger. I am using the access key to connect to the storage account. If I need to rotate the access key, what are the options to avoid the manual edit in the connection. Is it possible to use azure key vault to retrieve the access key and use it in the connection details of create blob component?
The password field in the azure blob storage connector in power automate does not seem to accept the variable value, Is there a workaround?
When it comes to the Key Vault side of things, you can use the Key Vault managed storage account key feature to list (sync) keys with an Azure storage account, and regenerate (rotate) the keys periodically.
Please note that Key Vault Managed Storage Account Keys (legacy) is supported as-is with no more updates planned. For more info - Manage storage account keys.
Additional Links:
Manage storage account keys with Key Vault and Azure PowerShell
Create SAS definition and fetch shared access signature tokens in code
I hope this helps!
Where can we store the pfx certificate in azure so that we can get the private and public key in secure mode using java application whenever we need it.
Use Azure Key Vault to store the certifice
Azure Key Vault enables Microsoft Azure applications and users to store and use several types of secret/key data:
Cryptographic keys: Supports multiple key types and algorithms, and enables the use of Hardware Security Modules (HSM) for high value keys.>
Certificates: Supports certificates, which are built on top of keys and secrets and add an automated renewal feature.
Azure Storage: Can manage keys of an Azure Storage account for you. Internally, Key Vault can list (sync) keys with an Azure Storage Account, and regenerate (rotate) the keys periodically.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/key-vault/about-keys-secrets-and-certificates
Access Key Vault with Java
http://www.stratogator.com/2017/10/20/how-to-access-secrets-in-azure-key-vault-using-java/
What would be the best way to store credentials in Azure Automation? Azure Automation Assets or Azure Key Vault?
Unless there’s a particular reason to store the cred in keyvault. E.g single source of truth etc. It would be best to store as a credential asset in the run book. There a variety of reason for this, which include:
inclusion in graphical run book
ease of retrieving the credential in one line of PowerShellGet-AzureRmAutomationCredential
The biggest reason for not storing it in key vault is because with the cred in the keyvault you would have to manage the access policies associated with the keyvault and will change the sort of run book you need.
It depends on the use case and the level of confidentiality you want to maintain with those credentials.
With Azure Vault, you will have to manage/create policies for the credential access, and also add few lines into your PowerShell script to access those credentials. This can enhance the security but might create an overhead depending on the use case. For example, if you are storing service principal key, I would say go for the Key vault.
Azure Automation Credentials can be accessed easily by anyone that has access to the resource group or subscription. By adding a simple PowerShell commands, passwords can also be retrieved as plain text from the Credentials, like this:
$(Get-AutomationPSCredential -Name $name).GetNetworkCredential().Password.ToString()
However, for storing credentials that are used during deployments or are changing every now and then, Automation Credential is a good use case.
I deploy Asp.Net Core web app and I need to build a storage for private keys of my clients (it is a lot of values). What should I use: Azure Key Vault or Data Protection APIs?
The second seems more easy to programming, however there is information from docs:
The ASP.NET Core data protection APIs are not primarily intended for
indefinite persistence of confidential payloads...
But I need to store keys long-term.
If you're using the keys to protect data for long term storage, I would advise you to use Azure Key vault.
Azure Key vault is a high availability service designed for storage of secrets and keys. Keys and secrets are automatically copied to Key vault instances in multiple regions and easily backed up securely using PowerShell cmdlets. You can store them in an HSM if you are dealing with highly sensitive data.
The Data Protection APIs are more designed to protect local or ephemeral data.
You should use Azure Key Vault to store your keys. The Data Protection API is always used in your application, for example it is used to encrypt and secure your session cookie.
But don't forget that you also do need to configure and store the data protection keys in a secure place. If you don't do it properly, then uses might be kicked out of your site when you redeploy.
See this document for more details:
Key storage providers in ASP.NET Core
If you do want to store the Data Protection Key ring in AKZ, then check out my implementation here:
Storing the ASP.NET Core Data Protection Key Ring in Azure Key Vault
I am referring the document below:
How to generate and transfer HSM-protected keys for Azure Key Vault
One of the prerequisite is:
Thales HSM, smartcards, and support software
My question is do I really need to buy a physical HSM to generate key using HSM?
No you do not need to buy an HSM to have an HSM generated key. The Key Vault API exposes an option for you to create a key. The key creation happens inside the HSM. From the Documentation:
Create: Allows a client to create a key in Azure Key Vault. The value
of the key is generated by Azure Key Vault and stored and is not
released to the client. Asymmetric (and in the future, Elliptic Curve
and Symmetric) keys may be created in Azure Key Vault.
Source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/azure/dn903623.aspx#BKMK_KeyOperations