Secrets

Secrets protect sensitive information about the organization’s infrastructure and operations.

This includes system passwords, encryption keys, APIs, service certificates, and other forms of confidential data.

Secrets secure such information by preventing unauthorized access, data breaches, or critical security incidents.

Secrets

Benefits

• Variable secure

• Modularizing Infrastructure

• Configuration Splitting

• User Access Control

• Malicious Protection

• User Access Control

Types of Secrets

1. API Keys

2. Database Credentials

3. SSH Keys

Risk factors

1. Compliance Violations

2. Unauthorized Access

3. Security Breaches

Best Practices

Managing secrets securely in Terraform is crucial to protect sensitive information and prevent unauthorized access.

Several best practices for handling secrets in Terraform, including using environment variables, storing secrets in secure external storage, and encrypting sensitive data.

Environment Variable

Storing secrets as environment variables keeps them out of your Terraform code and version control systems.

Environment variables can be easily accessed in Terraform using the var keyword.

export TF_VAR_aws_access_key=<your_access_key>

variable "aws_access_key" {}

provider "aws" {
	access_key = var.aws_access_key
	region     = "us-west-2"
}

External Storage

Instead of storing secrets directly in your Terraform code or environment variables, consider using a secure external storage service designed for secrets management, such as HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager.

These services provide advanced features like access control, auditing, and automatic rotation of secrets.

Encrypt Sensitive Data

When storing secrets in remote backends or transferring them over the network, ensure they are encrypted.

Many cloud providers offer Key Management Services (KMS) to encrypt and decrypt data.

For instance, with AWS KMS, you can encrypt sensitive data using the aws_kms_secrets data source:

data "aws_kms_secrets" "example" {
  secret {
    name    = "db_username"
    payload = "your_encrypted_db_username_here"
  }

  secret {
    name    = "db_password"
    payload = "your_encrypted_db_password_here"
  }
}

resource "aws_db_instance" "example" {
  # ...

  username = data.aws_kms_secrets.example.plaintext["db_username"]
  password = data.aws_kms_secrets.example.plaintext["db_password"]
}

Secret Management Tools

Secret management tools can significantly enhance the security of your Terraform deployments by providing centralized, secure storage for sensitive information.

There are several secrets management tools available, each offering different features and levels of integration with Terraform.

1. AWS Secrets Manager

A managed service provided by AWS that offers seamless integration with other AWS services and Terraform.

1. Hashicorp Vault

A comprehensive secrets management solution designed to handle a wide range of secret types, with tight integration with Terraform.