What are the best practices for managing secrets and credentials in ALM?

1 Use a centralized and secure vault

One of the best practices for managing secrets and credentials in ALM is to use a centralized and secure vault that stores, encrypts, and distributes them across different environments and stages. A vault is a dedicated service or tool that provides a single source of truth and a consistent interface for managing secrets and credentials. It also enforces policies and permissions, audits access and usage, and rotates and revokes secrets and credentials as needed. Some examples of vaults are HashiCorp Vault, Azure Key Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, and Google Cloud Secret Manager.

2 Avoid hard-coding and exposing secrets and credentials

Another best practice for managing secrets and credentials in ALM is to avoid hard-coding and exposing them in the source code, configuration files, environment variables, or other places that can be easily accessed or leaked. Hard-coding and exposing secrets and credentials can make them vulnerable to unauthorized access, theft, or misuse by attackers, insiders, or third parties. It can also make them difficult to change or update when needed. Instead of hard-coding and exposing secrets and credentials, they should be fetched dynamically from the vault or injected as parameters or secrets at runtime.

3 Use encryption and hashing

A third best practice for managing secrets and credentials in ALM is to use encryption and hashing to protect them from being intercepted or tampered with in transit or at rest. Encryption is the process of transforming data into an unreadable form using a secret key, while hashing is the process of generating a unique and fixed-length value from data using a mathematical function. Encryption and hashing can prevent secrets and credentials from being revealed or modified by anyone who does not have the key or the function. They can also help verify the authenticity and integrity of the data. Some examples of encryption and hashing algorithms are AES, RSA, SHA-256, and bcrypt.

4 Implement least privilege and segregation of duties

A fourth best practice for managing secrets and credentials in ALM is to implement least privilege and segregation of duties principles to limit the access and scope of secrets and credentials. Least privilege means that each user, role, or service should only have the minimum level of access and permissions required to perform their tasks, while segregation of duties means that different users, roles, or services should perform different and complementary tasks to avoid conflicts of interest or abuse of power. These principles can reduce the attack surface and the impact of a breach or an error by minimizing the exposure and usage of secrets and credentials.

5 Monitor and audit secrets and credentials

A fifth best practice for managing secrets and credentials in ALM is to monitor and audit them regularly to detect and respond to any anomalies, incidents, or violations. Monitoring and auditing can involve collecting and analyzing logs, metrics, alerts, and reports on the creation, deletion, modification, distribution, access, and usage of secrets and credentials. They can also involve performing scans, tests, reviews, and audits to verify the compliance and effectiveness of the policies and procedures for managing secrets and credentials. Monitoring and auditing can help identify and mitigate any issues, risks, or gaps in the management of secrets and credentials.

6 Educate and train the team

A sixth best practice for managing secrets and credentials in ALM is to educate and train the team on the importance and the best practices of managing secrets and credentials. Education and training can involve providing guidance, documentation, tools, and resources on how to securely handle secrets and credentials throughout the ALM stages and processes. They can also involve raising awareness, fostering a culture of security, and enforcing accountability and responsibility among the team members. Education and training can help prevent or reduce human errors, negligence, or malice that can compromise the security of secrets and credentials.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?