Use dynamic credentials for secure authentication

Long-lived credentials create security vulnerabilities in your infrastructure. Dynamic credentials minimize this problem by generating temporary access tokens on demand.

Why use dynamic credentials

Using dynamic credentials addresses the following challenges:

• Eliminate credential theft from long-lived secrets: Static credentials stored in configuration files, environment variables, or secret management systems remain valid indefinitely. Attackers who gain access to these credentials can use them repeatedly until someone manually rotates them, providing persistent access even after the initial breach is detected.

• Reduce credential exposure across systems: Long-lived credentials often get copied across multiple systems, stored in version control, embedded in container images, or shared among team members. Each copy increases the attack surface, and tracking all credential locations becomes impossible, making comprehensive rotation unfeasible.

• Remove manual credential rotation burden: Organizations must regularly rotate static credentials to limit their exposure window, but manual rotation is time-consuming and error-prone. Teams often delay or skip rotation, extending the window where compromised credentials remain valid and increasing security risk.

• Prevent lateral movement after breach: When attackers compromise a system with static credentials, those credentials typically provide ongoing access to other systems and resources. Dynamic credentials that expire automatically limit an attacker's ability to move laterally through infrastructure, containing breaches to the initial compromise point.

What are dynamic credentials

Dynamic credentials are temporary, short-lived credentials generated on demand and automatically expire after a specified period. The credentials are typically used in scenarios where long-lived credentials are not necessary or pose a security risk.

Reduce credential exposure

You can generate dynamic credentials for various services, applications, and users, allowing them to authenticate without exposing their long-term credentials. Using dynamic credentials minimizes the attack surface and reduces the likelihood of credential theft or misuse.

When a service needs to connect to another service, such as a database, it requires some method to authenticate. Traditionally, you might use a username and password or an API token. When these credentials are available for an extended period, there is a greater potential for them to become compromised.

Create dynamic credentials with Vault

Vault creates dynamic credentials across multiple platforms, removing the need for long-lived static credentials in your infrastructure. Vault integrates with major cloud providers, container orchestration platforms, and database systems through its secrets engines.

The following are some of the Vault secret engines that support dynamic credentials:

• AWS
• Azure
• Google Cloud
• Kubernetes
• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• Microsoft SQL

Many of the secrets engines Vault supports allow you to manage static credentials as well. You onboard the static account to Vault, allowing Vault to manage the lifecycle of the password for that account when dynamic credentials are not supported.

Vault dynamic secrets also integrate with other HashiCorp tools and services like Boundary, allowing you to provide secure access to developers without ever having to share or expose the credentials.

HCP Terraform integrates with Vault allowing Terraform to generate dynamic credentials during a deployment. Configuring Terraform to request dynamic credentials from Vault allows you to avoid managing static credentials separately.

HashiCorp resources:

• Learn Vault with the Vault tutorials and read the Vault documentation
• Learn Boundary with the Boundary tutorials and read the Boundary documentation

Dynamic credential management:

• Understand static and dynamic secrets for credential management
• Use Vault-backed dynamic secrets in HCP Terraform for automated deployments
• Explore Vault secrets engines for different dynamic credential types

Vault and Boundary integration:

• Connect to Kubernetes using Vault and Boundary with dynamic credentials
• Broker credentials with HCP Boundary and Vault for just-in-time access
• Inject SSH certificates with HCP Boundary and Vault for secure connections

External resources:

• NIST SP 800-53 Security and Privacy Controls covers credential management
• NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture explains dynamic credential principles
• OWASP Credential Management Cheat Sheet covers secrets management best practices

Next steps

Following these documents in order ensures a logical progression through the key concepts and best practices, helping you build a strong foundation to build your identity and access management program.

• Define access requirements
• Grant least privilege
• Create permissions and guardrails
• Centralize identity management
• Implement strong sign-in workflows
• Use dynamic credentials (this document)
• Manage access lifecycle

In this section of Identity and access management you learned how replacing long-lived, static credentials with temporary credentials helps improve security. Identity and access management is part of the Secure systems pillar.