Understanding Secrets Management and Its Importance

In a digital enterprise, various types of secrets exist. In this post, we will explore the concept of secrets management and examine the lifecycle of a secret. First, we’ll define what a secret is, its functions, its significance, and how you can use this information to safeguard your organization.

What is a Secret?

• A secret is a digital authentication credential.

• Secrets are individually named sets of sensitive information that encompass a wide range of secure data. These include user passwords, application and database passwords, auto-generated encryption keys, private encryption keys, API keys, application keys, SSH keys, authorization tokens, and private certificates (such as TLS and SSL). Each type of secret is tailored for specific uses, whether for storing information at rest, transmitting data, or granting access to sensitive and critical IT resources.

• Passwords, commonly used to log in to applications, websites, or endpoints, are the most well-known examples of secrets. However, they are neither the most common nor the most challenging secrets to secure.

• Non-human secrets are ever-present yet often invisible, essential to cybersecurity but frequently underappreciated.

• The growth of modern applications, whether hosted in the cloud or on-premises, has amplified the need for various digital secrets. The use of application-to-application secrets is rising. These secrets encrypt data during transfers between applications, such as when sending information from a web page, making secure API requests, accessing cloud databases, and numerous other scenarios encountered by modern enterprises as they advance digital transformation and increase automation.

• Given the types of secrets used in diverse contexts, it’s easy to lose track of them or apply them consistently across the enterprise. This is where secrets management becomes crucial.

What is Secrets Management?

• Secrets management is the process of handling digital authentication credentials, such as IDs and passwords, API access keys, tokens, and sensitive information like application configuration data, within a secure and centralized repository with strict access controls. It integrates security controls into the most vulnerable layers of an organization’s infrastructure, including cloud, code, data, and devices.

• Secrets management ensures the security of all secrets, prevents secret sprawl, and allows systems to connect instantly for automated tasks. It provides control over how secrets are stored and transmitted, when they are used, how frequently they are rotated, and how easily they can be revoked. Effective secrets management makes it harder for malicious actors to exploit your secrets.

• Managing secrets involves more extensive and rigorous security controls than traditional enterprise password management. It necessitates a coordinated approach to handle all types of secrets centrally, ensuring the security of systems and data.

• Cloud: According to the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Report, 77% of cloud breaches involved compromised credentials. Secrets management addresses the security needs of SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, private, and hybrid multi-cloud environments.

• Code: Rapid development practices require equally rapid PAM practices. Secrets management provides development in teams with on-demand access to applications and databases for administrative changes without compromising security or production credentials.

• Data: Secrets management safeguards the access and use of sensitive data, personal data, and intellectual property stored and shared within databases and applications.

• Devices: According to SANS, 85% of cyber-attacks originate from compromised endpoints. Secrets management protects secrets that is used to access devices such as user workstations, laptops, and servers.

Secrets Lifecycle

Most people understand the steps required to maintain physical and mental fitness, but they sometimes cut corners or skip steps, leading to long-term health issues. The same principle applies to the secret’s lifecycle. Once a secret is created, it isn’t always managed correctly. It may never be rotated and can be challenging to revoke. Most secrets do not age well.

A well-managed secret should follow this lifecycle:

Generation/Creation The secret is created, either manually by a user or automatically as needed. Passwords often need to adhere to a policy governing their composition and use. Automatically generating credentials addresses one of the key weaknesses in secrets management: human-generated credentials are typically easier to crack than computer-generated ones.

Rotation Once in use, a secret should be changed regularly. Various standards, such as PCI DSS, require a maximum 90-day rotation cycle. This can involve automatically regenerating a new secret on a schedule or prompting manual creation. If a secret becomes stale or expired, access is denied until it is updated.

Revocation The ability to remove credentials from a user or application, thereby denying access to a resource, is crucial and is mandated by many security policy standards, such as NIST 800-53. Secret revocation is essential when an employee leaves a company or when anomalous behavior is detected. Pruning unneeded, expired, breached, or weak secrets is a vital part of maintaining good secret hygiene. To effectively manage secrets throughout their lifecycle, any PAM system you choose must be able to store and provide secrets when needed, while offering visibility and policy-based control from end to end.

Why is Secrets Management Important?

Secrets management allows you to securely store, transmit, and audit secrets, reducing human involvement to minimize potential points of failure. This systematic approach prevents unauthorized access to sensitive data and systems, helping you avoid data breaches, identity theft, and data manipulation.

A robust secrets management policy helps mitigate several common challenges

Sharing Secrets with Other Users Ensuring that secrets are not easily shared reduces the risk of unauthorized access.

Reusing Secrets Prevents the reuse of passwords that may be hardcoded or embedded within applications and systems.

Weak Secret Storage Avoids storing secrets unencrypted or in plain text.

No Secret Rotation Addresses the lack of secret rotation, often caused by hardcoded or embedded secrets.

No Secret Revocation Ensures that secrets can be revoked promptly when no longer needed.

Secrets management prevents secret sprawl

• As the volume, diversity, and complexity of your IT systems grow, implementing and managing a consistent policy becomes more challenging. Secret sprawl occurs when an organization loses track of its credentials, resulting in a patchwork of management systems, each with its own policy. When each application, cloud provider, or department uses its own security model, the organization loses overall visibility.

• Centralized management of secrets policies ensures they are consistently applied, defining the rules for handling secrets at each stage of their lifecycle.

Secrets Management Best Practices

To maintain a well-run secrets management system, adhere to these key principles:

Discover Secrets Identify all secrets used across your organization and secure them.

Create a Comprehensive Secrets Management Policy Establish strict rules regarding the structure of secrets, including minimum length, complexity, use of special characters, forbidden passwords, reuse, and duration. Avoid using default or hard-coded secrets.

Automate the Secrets Management Process Minimize human involvement by eliminating hard-coded and embedded secrets. Use automated systems to create, manage, distribute, and maintain secrets.

Enforce Secrets Policies Ensure compliance with your policies by requiring applications and users to adhere to rules on secret strength, rotation, reuse, and revocation. Implement session monitoring and regularly review audit logs to verify adherence.

Separate Data from Secrets Utilize the distributed nature of modern networks by keeping secrets management and sensitive data in separate locations, reducing the risk of simultaneous breaches.

Conclusion

Secrets management is the process of securely handling digital authentication credentials like passwords, API keys, and tokens. It is crucial because it ensures the protection, proper use, and audit of these secrets, reducing the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access.

By implementing best practices such as discovering all secrets, creating a comprehensive policy, automating management processes, enforcing policies, and separating data from secrets, organizations can maintain robust security and operational efficiency.