secrets-management

name	secrets-management
description	Secure secrets management practices for CI/CD pipelines using Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, and other tools.
type	skill
created	2026-02-27T00:00:00.000Z
domain	life-learning
category	career
risk	unknown
source	community
tags	["skill","life-learning","career","secrets","management"]

Secrets Management

Secure secrets management practices for CI/CD pipelines using Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, and other tools.

Purpose

Implement secure secrets management in CI/CD pipelines without hardcoding sensitive information.

Use this skill when

• Store API keys and credentials
• Manage database passwords
• Handle TLS certificates
• Rotate secrets automatically
• Implement least-privilege access

Do not use this skill when

• You plan to hardcode secrets in source control
• You cannot secure access to the secrets backend
• You only need local development values without sharing

Instructions

1. Identify secret types, owners, and rotation requirements.
2. Choose a secrets backend and access model.
3. Integrate CI/CD or runtime retrieval with least privilege.
4. Validate rotation and audit logging.

Safety

• Never commit secrets to source control.
• Limit access and log secret usage for auditing.

Secrets Management Tools

HashiCorp Vault

• Centralized secrets management
• Dynamic secrets generation
• Secret rotation
• Audit logging
• Fine-grained access control

AWS Secrets Manager

• AWS-native solution
• Automatic rotation
• Integration with RDS
• CloudFormation support

Azure Key Vault

• Azure-native solution
• HSM-backed keys
• Certificate management
• RBAC integration

Google Secret Manager

• GCP-native solution
• Versioning
• IAM integration

HashiCorp Vault Integration

Setup Vault

# Start Vault dev server
vault server -dev

# Set environment
export VAULT_ADDR='http://127.0.0.1:8200'
export VAULT_TOKEN='root'

# Enable secrets engine
vault secrets enable -path=secret kv-v2

# Store secret
vault kv put secret/database/config username=admin password=secret