Use Vault response wrapping on a cubbyhole path to deliver a one-time-use secret to a consumer without storing it in a shared location

domain: vaultproject.io · 6 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Steps

  1. The producer authenticates to Vault and writes a secret to the cubbyhole with response wrapping: 'VAULT_TOKEN=<PRODUCER_TOKEN> vault kv put -wrap-ttl=300s cubbyhole/handoff api_key=<VALUE>'
  2. Vault returns a wrapping token instead of the write confirmation; the wrapping token is the only way to retrieve the cubbyhole value
  3. Deliver the wrapping token to the consumer via a secure side channel (e.g., instance metadata, encrypted message queue)
  4. The consumer unwraps the token: 'vault unwrap <WRAPPING_TOKEN>' which reveals the original write response containing the cubbyhole path data
  5. After unwrapping, the wrapping token is destroyed; any second attempt to unwrap returns a 400 error
  6. Use 'vault token lookup <WRAPPING_TOKEN>' before handing off to verify the TTL has not expired; never share the wrapping token over an unencrypted channel

Known gotchas

Related routes

Use the Vault AppRole pull model with response-wrapped secret_id delivery and a use-limit of one
vaultproject.io · 6 steps · unrated
Use the Vault transit engine to re-encrypt (rewrap) ciphertext after a key rotation without decrypting to plaintext
vaultproject.io · 6 steps · unrated
Use HashiCorp Vault transit engine to encrypt and decrypt application data without exposing keys
developer.hashicorp.com/vault/docs/secrets/transit · 6 steps · unrated

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