Spring Cloud Vault

2/4/2018 Spring Cloud Vault
Spring Cloud Vault
Table of Contents
1. Quick Start
2. Client Side Usage

2.1. Authentication
3. Authentication methods
3.1. Token authentication
3.2. AppId authentication
3.2.1. Custom UserId
3.3. AppRole authentication

3.4. AWS-EC2 authentication
3.5. AWS-IAM authentication

3.6. TLS certificate authentication
3.7. Cubbyhole authentication
3.8. Kubernetes authentication
4. Secret Backends
http://cloud.spring.io/spring-cloud-vault/single/spring-cloud-vault.html 1/29
4.1. Generic Backend

4.2. Consul
4.3. RabbitMQ
4.4. AWS
5. Database backends
5.1. Database
5.2. Apache Cassandra
5.3. MongoDB
5.4. MySQL
5.5. PostgreSQL
6. Configure PropertySourceLocator behavior
7. Service Registry Configuration
8. Vault Client Fail Fast
9. Vault Client SSL configuration
10. Lease lifecycle management (renewal

and revocation)
© 2016-2017 The original authors.
Copies of this document may be made for your own use and for distribution to
others, provided that you do not charge any fee for such copies and further
provided that each copy contains this Copyright Notice, whether distributed in
print or electronically.
Spring Cloud Vault Config provides client-side support for externalized configuration in a
distributed system. With HashiCorp’s Vault you have a central place to manage external secret
properties for applications across all environments. Vault can manage static and dynamic
secrets such as username/password for remote applications/resources and provide credentials
for external services such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Apache Cassandra, MongoDB, Consul,
AWS and more.
1. Quick Start
Prerequisites
To get started with Vault and this guide you need a *NIX-like operating systems that provides:
wget , openssl and unzip

at least Java 7 and a properly configured JAVA_HOME environment variable
Install Vault
$ src/test/bash/install_vault.sh
Create SSL certificates for Vault
$ src/test/bash/create_certificates.sh
create_certificates.sh creates certificates in work/ca and a JKS truststore

work/keystore.jks . If you want to run Spring Cloud Vault using this quickstart
guide you need to configure the truststore the
spring.cloud.vault.ssl.trust-store property to
file:work/keystore.jks .
Start Vault server
$ src/test/bash/local_run_vault.sh
Vault is started listening on 0.0.0.0:8200 using the inmem storage and https . Vault is
sealed and not initialized when starting up.
If you want to run tests, leave Vault uninitialized. The tests will initialize Vault and
create a root token 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 .
If you want to use Vault for your application or give it a try then you need to initialize it first.
$ export VAULT_ADDR="https://localhost:8200"
$ export VAULT_SKIP_VERIFY=true # Don't do this for production
$ vault init
You should see something like:
Key 1: 7149c6a2e16b8833f6eb1e76df03e47f6113a3288b3093faf5033d44f0e70fe701
Key 2: 901c534c7988c18c20435a85213c683bdcf0efcd82e38e2893779f152978c18c02
Key 3: 03ff3948575b1165a20c20ee7c3e6edf04f4cdbe0e82dbff5be49c63f98bc03a03
Key 4: 216ae5cc3ddaf93ceb8e1d15bb9fc3176653f5b738f5f3d1ee00cd7dccbe926e04
Key 5: b2898fc8130929d569c1677ee69dc5f3be57d7c4b494a6062693ce0b1c4d93d805
Initial Root Token: 19aefa97-cccc-bbbb-aaaa-225940e63d76
Vault initialized with 5 keys and a key threshold of 3. Please

securely distribute the above keys. When the Vault is re-sealed,
restarted, or stopped, you must provide at least 3 of these keys
to unseal it again.
Vault does not store the master key. Without at least 3 keys,
your Vault will remain permanently sealed.
Vault will initialize and return a set of unsealing keys and the root token. Pick 3 keys and unseal
Vault. Store the Vault token in the VAULT_TOKEN environment variable.
$ vault unseal (Key 1)

$ export VAULT_TOKEN=(Root token)

# Required to run Spring Cloud Vault tests after manual initialization
$ vault token-create -id="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" -policy="root"
Spring Cloud Vault accesses different resources. By default, the secret backend is enabled
which accesses secret config settings via JSON endpoints.
The HTTP service has resources in the form:
/secret/{application}/{profile}
/secret/{application}
/secret/{defaultContext}/{profile}
/secret/{defaultContext}
where the "application" is injected as the spring.application.name in the

SpringApplication (i.e. what is normally "application" in a regular Spring Boot app), "profile"
is an active profile (or comma-separated list of properties). Properties retrieved from Vault will
be used "as-is" without further prefixing of the property names.
2. Client Side Usage

To use these features in an application, just build it as a Spring Boot application that depends
on spring-cloud-vault-config (e.g. see the test cases). Example Maven configuration:
Example 2.1. pom.xml
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>1.5.4.RELEASE</version>
<relativePath /> 
</parent>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-vault-config</artifactId>
<version>2.0.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>

Then you can create a standard Spring Boot application, like this simple HTTP server:
@SpringBootApplication
@RestController
public class Application {
@RequestMapping("/")
public String home() {
return "Hello World!";
}
public static void main(String[] args) {

SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
}
}
When it runs it will pick up the external configuration from the default local Vault server on port
8200 if it is running. To modify the startup behavior you can change the location of the Vault
server using bootstrap.properties (like application.properties but for the bootstrap
phase of an application context), e.g.
Example 2.2. bootstrap.yml
spring.cloud.vault:
host: localhost
port: 8200
scheme: https
uri: https://localhost:8200
connection-timeout: 5000
read-timeout: 15000
config:
order: -10
host sets the hostname of the Vault host. The host name will be used for SSL certificate
validation
port sets the Vault port
scheme setting the scheme to http will use plain HTTP. Supported schemes are http
and https .
uri configure the Vault endpoint with an URI. Takes precedence over host/port/scheme
configuration
connection-timeout sets the connection timeout in milliseconds
read-timeout sets the read timeout in milliseconds
config.order sets the order for the property source
Enabling further integrations requires additional dependencies and configuration. Depending on

how you have set up Vault you might need additional configuration like SSL and authentication.
If the application imports the spring-boot-starter-actuator project, the status of the vault
server will be available via the /health endpoint.
The vault health indicator can be enabled or disabled through the property
health.vault.enabled (default true ).
2.1 Authentication
Vault requires an authentication mechanism to authorize client requests.
Spring Cloud Vault supports multiple authentication mechanisms to authenticate applications

with Vault.
For a quickstart, use the root token printed by the Vault initialization.
spring.cloud.vault:
token: 19aefa97-cccc-bbbb-aaaa-225940e63d76
Consider carefully your security requirements. Static token authentication is fine if

you want quickly get started with Vault, but a static token is not protected any
further. Any disclosure to unintended parties allows Vault use with the associated
token roles.
3. Authentication methods
Different organizations have different requirements for security and authentication. Vault reflects
that need by shipping multiple authentication methods. Spring Cloud Vault supports token and
AppId authentication.
3.1 Token authentication

Tokens are the core method for authentication within Vault. Token authentication requires a
static token to be provided using the Bootstrap Application Context.
Token authentication is the default authentication method. If a token is disclosed

an unintended party gains access to Vault and can access secrets for the
intended client.
spring.cloud.vault:
authentication: TOKEN
token: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
authentication setting this value to TOKEN selects the Token authentication method
token sets the static token to use
See also: Vault Documentation: Tokens

3.2 AppId authentication

Vault supports AppId authentication that consists of two hard to guess tokens. The AppId
defaults to spring.application.name that is statically configured. The second token is the
UserId which is a part determined by the application, usually related to the runtime environment.
IP address, Mac address or a Docker container name are good examples. Spring Cloud Vault
Config supports IP address, Mac address and static UserId’s (e.g. supplied via System
properties). The IP and Mac address are represented as Hex-encoded SHA256 hash.
IP address-based UserId’s use the local host’s IP address.
Example 3.2. bootstrap.yml using SHA256 IP-Address UserId’s
spring.cloud.vault:
authentication: APPID
app-id:
user-id: IP_ADDRESS
authentication setting this value to APPID selects the AppId authentication method
app-id-path sets the path of the AppId mount to use
user-id sets the UserId method. Possible values are IP_ADDRESS , MAC_ADDRESS or a
class name implementing a custom AppIdUserIdMechanism
The corresponding command to generate the IP address UserId from a command line is:
$ echo -n 192.168.99.1 | sha256sum
Including the line break of echo leads to a different hash value so make sure to
include the -n flag.
Mac address-based UserId’s obtain their network device from the localhost-bound device. The
configuration also allows specifying a network-interface hint to pick the right device. The
value of network-interface is optional and can be either an interface name or interface
index (0-based).
Example 3.3. bootstrap.yml using SHA256 Mac-Address UserId’s
spring.cloud.vault:
app-id:
user-id: MAC_ADDRESS
network-interface: eth0
network-interface sets network interface to obtain the physical address
The corresponding command to generate the IP address UserId from a command line is:
$ echo -n 0AFEDE1234AC | sha256sum
The Mac address is specified uppercase and without colons. Including the line
break of echo leads to a different hash value so make sure to include the -n
flag.
3.2.1 Custom UserId

The UserId generation is an open mechanism. You can set
spring.cloud.vault.app-id.user-id to any string and the configured value will be used as
static UserId.
A more advanced approach lets you set spring.cloud.vault.app-id.user-id to a

classname. This class must be on your classpath and must implement the
org.springframework.cloud.vault.AppIdUserIdMechanism interface and the
createUserId method. Spring Cloud Vault will obtain the UserId by calling createUserId
each time it authenticates using AppId to obtain a token.
spring.cloud.vault:
app-id:
user-id: com.examlple.MyUserIdMechanism
Example 3.5. MyUserIdMechanism.java
public class MyUserIdMechanism implements AppIdUserIdMechanism {
@Override
public String createUserId() {
String userId = ...
return userId;
}
}
See also: Vault Documentation: Using the App ID auth backend
3.3 AppRole authentication

AppRole is intended for machine authentication, like the deprecated (since Vault 0.6.1)
Section 3.2, “AppId authentication”. AppRole authentication consists of two hard to guess
(secret) tokens: RoleId and SecretId.
Spring Vault supports AppRole authentication by providing either RoleId only or together with a
provided SecretId (push or pull mode).
RoleId and optionally SecretId must be provided by configuration, Spring Vault will not look up
these or create a custom SecretId.
Example 3.6. bootstrap.yml with AppRole authentication properties
spring.cloud.vault:
authentication: APPROLE
app-role:
role-id: bde2076b-cccb-3cf0-d57e-bca7b1e83a52
role-id sets the RoleId.
Example 3.7. bootstrap.yml with all AppRole authentication properties
spring.cloud.vault:
authentication: APPROLE
app-role:
role-id: bde2076b-cccb-3cf0-d57e-bca7b1e83a52
secret-id: 1696536f-1976-73b1-b241-0b4213908d39
app-auth-path: approle
role-id sets the RoleId.

secret-id sets the SecretId. SecretId can be omitted if AppRole is configured without
requiring SecretId (See bind_secret_id )
approle-path sets the path of the approle authentication mount to use
See also: Vault Documentation: Using the AppRole auth backend
3.4 AWS-EC2 authentication

The aws-ec2 auth backend provides a secure introduction mechanism for AWS EC2 instances,
allowing automated retrieval of a Vault token. Unlike most Vault authentication backends, this
backend does not require first-deploying, or provisioning security-sensitive credentials (tokens,
username/password, client certificates, etc.). Instead, it treats AWS as a Trusted Third Party
and uses the cryptographically signed dynamic metadata information that uniquely represents
each EC2 instance.
Example 3.8. bootstrap.yml using AWS-EC2 Authentication
spring.cloud.vault:
authentication: AWS_EC2
AWS-EC2 authentication enables nonce by default to follow the Trust On First Use (TOFU)
principle. Any unintended party that gains access to the PKCS#7 identity metadata can
authenticate against Vault.
During the first login, Spring Cloud Vault generates a nonce that is stored in the auth backend
aside the instance Id. Re-authentication requires the same nonce to be sent. Any other party
does not have the nonce and can raise an alert in Vault for further investigation.
The nonce is kept in memory and is lost during application restart. You can configure a static
nonce with spring.cloud.vault.aws-ec2.nonce .
AWS-EC2 authentication roles are optional and default to the AMI. You can configure the
authentication role by setting the spring.cloud.vault.aws-ec2.role property.
Example 3.9. bootstrap.yml with configured role
spring.cloud.vault:
aws-ec2:
role: application-server
Example 3.10. bootstrap.yml with all AWS EC2 authentication properties
spring.cloud.vault:
aws-ec2:
role: application-server
aws-ec2-path: aws-ec2
identity-document: http://...
nonce: my-static-nonce
authentication setting this value to AWS_EC2 selects the AWS EC2 authentication
method
role sets the name of the role against which the login is being attempted.
aws-ec2-path sets the path of the AWS EC2 mount to use
identity-document sets URL of the PKCS#7 AWS EC2 identity document
nonce used for AWS-EC2 authentication. An empty nonce defaults to nonce generation
See also: Vault Documentation: Using the aws auth backend
3.5 AWS-IAM authentication

The aws backend provides a secure authentication mechanism for AWS IAM roles, allowing the
automatic authentication with vault based on the current IAM role of the running application.
Unlike most Vault authentication backends, this backend does not require first-deploying, or
provisioning security-sensitive credentials (tokens, username/password, client certificates, etc.).
Instead, it treats AWS as a Trusted Third Party and uses the 4 pieces of information signed by
the caller with their IAM credentials to verify that the caller is indeed using that IAM role.
The current IAM role the application is running in is automatically calculated. If you are running
your application on AWS ECS then the application will use the IAM role assigned to the ECS
task of the running container. If you are running your application naked on top of an EC2
instance then the IAM role used will be the one assigned to the EC2 instance.
When using the AWS-IAM authentication you must create a role in Vault and assign it to your
IAM role. An empty role defaults to the friendly name the current IAM role.
Example 3.11. bootstrap.yml with required AWS-IAM Authentication properties
spring.cloud.vault:
authentication: AWS_IAM
Example 3.12. bootstrap.yml with all AWS-IAM Authentication properties
spring.cloud.vault:
authentication: AWS_IAM
aws-iam:
role: my-dev-role
aws-path: aws
server-id: some.server.name
role sets the name of the role against which the login is being attempted. This should be
bound to your IAM role. If one is not supplied then the friendly name of the current IAM user
will be used as the vault role.
aws-path sets the path of the AWS mount to use
server-id sets the value to use for the X-Vault-AWS-IAM-Server-ID header
preventing certain types of replay attacks.
AWS-IAM requires the AWS Java SDK dependency ( com.amazonaws:aws-java-sdk-core )

as the authentication implementation uses AWS SDK types for credentials and request signing.
See also: Vault Documentation: Using the aws auth backend
3.6 TLS certificate authentication

The cert auth backend allows authentication using SSL/TLS client certificates that are either
signed by a CA or self-signed.
To enable cert authentication you need to:
1. Use SSL, see Chapter 9, Vault Client SSL configuration

2. Configure a Java Keystore that contains the client certificate and the private key
3. Set the spring.cloud.vault.authentication to CERT
spring.cloud.vault:
authentication: CERT
ssl:
key-store: classpath:keystore.jks
key-store-password: changeit
cert-auth-path: cert
See also: Vault Documentation: Using the Cert auth backend
3.7 Cubbyhole authentication

Cubbyhole authentication uses Vault primitives to provide a secured authentication workflow.
Cubbyhole authentication uses tokens as primary login method. An ephemeral token is used to
obtain a second, login VaultToken from Vault’s Cubbyhole secret backend. The login token is
usually longer-lived and used to interact with Vault. The login token will be retrieved from a
wrapped response stored at /cubbyhole/response .
Creating a wrapped token
Response Wrapping for token creation requires Vault 0.6.0 or higher.
Example 3.14. Creating and storing tokens
$ vault token-create -wrap-ttl="10m"

Key Value
--- -----
wrapping_token: 397ccb93-ff6c-b17b-9389-380b01ca2645
wrapping_token_ttl: 0h10m0s
wrapping_token_creation_time: 2016-09-18 20:29:48.652957077 +0200 CEST
wrapped_accessor: 46b6aebb-187f-932a-26d7-4f3d86a68319
spring.cloud.vault:
authentication: CUBBYHOLE
token: 397ccb93-ff6c-b17b-9389-380b01ca2645
See also:
Vault Documentation: Tokens

Vault Documentation: Cubbyhole Secret Backend
Vault Documentation: Response Wrapping
3.8 Kubernetes authentication

Kubernetes authentication mechanism (since Vault 0.8.3) allows to authenticate with Vault using
a Kubernetes Service Account Token. The authentication is role based and the role is bound to
a service account name and a namespace.
A file containing a JWT token for a pod’s service account is automatically mounted at
/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token .
Example 3.16. bootstrap.yml with all Kubernetes authentication properties
spring.cloud.vault:
authentication: KUBERNETES
kubernetes:
role: my-dev-role
service-account-token-file: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount
role sets the Role.

service-account-token-file sets the location of the file containing the Kubernetes
Service Account Token. Defaults to
/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token .
See also:
Vault Documentation: Kubernetes

Kubernetes Documentation: Configure Service Accounts for Pods
4. Secret Backends
4.1 Generic Backend

Spring Cloud Vault supports at the basic level the generic secret backend. The generic secret
backend allows storage of arbitrary values as key-value store. A single context can store one or
many key-value tuples. Contexts can be organized hierarchically. Spring Cloud Vault allows
using the Application name and a default context name ( application ) in combination with
active profiles.
/secret/{application}/{profile}
/secret/{application}
/secret/{default-context}/{profile}
/secret/{default-context}
The application name is determined by the properties:
spring.cloud.vault.generic.application-name
spring.cloud.vault.application-name
spring.application.name
Secrets can be obtained from other folders within the generic backend by adding their paths to
the application name, separated by commas. For example, given the application name
usefulapp,mysql1,projectx/aws , each of these folders will be used:
/secret/usefulapp
/secret/mysql1
/secret/projectx/aws
Spring Cloud Vault adds all active profiles to the list of possible context paths. No active profiles
will skip accessing contexts with a profile name.
Properties are exposed like they are stored (i.e. without additional prefixes).
spring.cloud.vault:
generic:
enabled: true
backend: secret
profile-separator: '/'
default-context: application
application-name: my-app
enabled setting this value to false disables the secret backend config usage
backend sets the path of the secret mount to use
default-context sets the context name used by all applications
application-name overrides the application name for use in the generic backend
profile-separator separates the profile name from the context in property sources with
profiles
See also: Vault Documentation: Using the generic secret backend
4.2 Consul
Spring Cloud Vault can obtain credentials for HashiCorp Consul. The Consul integration
requires the spring-cloud-vault-config-consul dependency.
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<artifactId>spring-cloud-vault-config-consul</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
The integration can be enabled by setting spring.cloud.vault.consul.enabled=true

(default false ) and providing the role name with spring.cloud.vault.consul.role=… .
The obtained token is stored in spring.cloud.consul.token so using Spring Cloud Consul

can pick up the generated credentials without further configuration. You can configure the
property name by setting spring.cloud.vault.consul.token-property .
spring.cloud.vault:
consul:
enabled: true
role: readonly
backend: consul
token-property: spring.cloud.consul.token
enabled setting this value to true enables the Consul backend config usage
role sets the role name of the Consul role definition
backend sets the path of the Consul mount to use
token-property sets the property name in which the Consul ACL token is stored
See also: Vault Documentation: Setting up Consul with Vault

4.3 RabbitMQ
Spring Cloud Vault can obtain credentials for RabbitMQ.
The RabbitMQ integration requires the spring-cloud-vault-config-rabbitmq dependency.
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<artifactId>spring-cloud-vault-config-rabbitmq</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
The integration can be enabled by setting spring.cloud.vault.rabbitmq.enabled=true

(default false ) and providing the role name with spring.cloud.vault.rabbitmq.role=… .
Username and password are stored in spring.rabbitmq.username and

spring.rabbitmq.password so using Spring Boot will pick up the generated credentials
without further configuration. You can configure the property names by setting
spring.cloud.vault.rabbitmq.username-property and
spring.cloud.vault.rabbitmq.password-property .
spring.cloud.vault:
rabbitmq:
enabled: true
role: readonly
backend: rabbitmq
username-property: spring.rabbitmq.username
password-property: spring.rabbitmq.password
enabled setting this value to true enables the RabbitMQ backend config usage
role sets the role name of the RabbitMQ role definition
backend sets the path of the RabbitMQ mount to use
username-property sets the property name in which the RabbitMQ username is stored
password-property sets the property name in which the RabbitMQ password is stored
See also: Vault Documentation: Setting up RabbitMQ with Vault
4.4 AWS
Spring Cloud Vault can obtain credentials for AWS.
The AWS integration requires the spring-cloud-vault-config-aws dependency.
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<artifactId>spring-cloud-vault-config-aws</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
The integration can be enabled by setting spring.cloud.vault.aws=true (default false )

and providing the role name with spring.cloud.vault.aws.role=… .
The access key and secret key are stored in cloud.aws.credentials.accessKey and
cloud.aws.credentials.secretKey so using Spring Cloud AWS will pick up the generated
credentials without further configuration. You can configure the property names by setting
spring.cloud.vault.aws.access-key-property and
spring.cloud.vault.aws.secret-key-property .
spring.cloud.vault:
aws:
enabled: true
role: readonly
backend: aws
access-key-property: cloud.aws.credentials.accessKey
secret-key-property: cloud.aws.credentials.secretKey
enabled setting this value to true enables the AWS backend config usage
role sets the role name of the AWS role definition
backend sets the path of the AWS mount to use
access-key-property sets the property name in which the AWS access key is stored
secret-key-property sets the property name in which the AWS secret key is stored
See also: Vault Documentation: Setting up AWS with Vault
5. Database backends
Vault supports several database secret backends to generate database credentials dynamically
based on configured roles. This means services that need to access a database no longer need
to configure credentials: they can request them from Vault, and use Vault’s leasing mechanism
to more easily roll keys.
Spring Cloud Vault integrates with these backends:
Section 5.1, “Database”

Section 5.2, “Apache Cassandra”
Section 5.3, “MongoDB”
Section 5.4, “MySQL”
Section 5.5, “PostgreSQL”
Using a database secret backend requires to enable the backend in the configuration and the
spring-cloud-vault-config-databases dependency.
Vault ships since 0.7.1 with a dedicated database secret backend that allows database
integration via plugins. You can use that specific backend by using the generic database
backend. Make sure to specify the appropriate backend path, e.g.
spring.cloud.vault.mysql.role.backend=database .
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<artifactId>spring-cloud-vault-config-databases</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
Enabling multiple JDBC-compliant databases will generate credentials and store

them by default in the same property keys hence property names for JDBC
secrets need to be configured separately.
5.1 Database
Spring Cloud Vault can obtain credentials for any database listed at
https://www.vaultproject.io/api/secret/databases/index.html. The integration can be enabled by
setting spring.cloud.vault.database.enabled=true (default false ) and providing the
role name with spring.cloud.vault.database.role=… .
While the database backend is a generic one, spring.cloud.vault.database specifically

targets JDBC databases. Username and password are stored in
spring.datasource.username and spring.datasource.password so using Spring Boot
will pick up the generated credentials for your DataSource without further configuration. You
can configure the property names by setting
spring.cloud.vault.database.username-property and
spring.cloud.vault.database.password-property .
spring.cloud.vault:
database:
enabled: true
role: readonly
backend: database
username-property: spring.datasource.username
password-property: spring.datasource.username
enabled setting this value to true enables the Database backend config usage
role sets the role name of the Database role definition
backend sets the path of the Database mount to use
username-property sets the property name in which the Database username is stored
password-property sets the property name in which the Database password is stored
See also: Vault Documentation: Database Secrets backend
5.2 Apache Cassandra
The cassandra backend has been deprecated in Vault 0.7.1 and it is

recommended to use the database backend and mount it as cassandra .
Spring Cloud Vault can obtain credentials for Apache Cassandra. The integration can be
enabled by setting spring.cloud.vault.cassandra.enabled=true (default false ) and
providing the role name with spring.cloud.vault.cassandra.role=… .
Username and password are stored in spring.data.cassandra.username and

spring.data.cassandra.password so using Spring Boot will pick up the generated
credentials without further configuration. You can configure the property names by setting
spring.cloud.vault.cassandra.username-property and
spring.cloud.vault.cassandra.password-property .
spring.cloud.vault:
cassandra:
enabled: true
role: readonly
backend: cassandra
username-property: spring.data.cassandra.username
password-property: spring.data.cassandra.username
enabled setting this value to true enables the Cassandra backend config usage
role sets the role name of the Cassandra role definition
backend sets the path of the Cassandra mount to use
username-property sets the property name in which the Cassandra username is stored
password-property sets the property name in which the Cassandra password is stored
See also: Vault Documentation: Setting up Apache Cassandra with Vault
5.3 MongoDB
The mongodb backend has been deprecated in Vault 0.7.1 and it is

recommended to use the database backend and mount it as mongodb .
Spring Cloud Vault can obtain credentials for MongoDB. The integration can be enabled by
setting spring.cloud.vault.mongodb.enabled=true (default false ) and providing the
role name with spring.cloud.vault.mongodb.role=… .
Username and password are stored in spring.data.mongodb.username and

spring.data.mongodb.password so using Spring Boot will pick up the generated credentials
spring.cloud.vault.mongodb.username-property and
spring.cloud.vault.mongodb.password-property .
spring.cloud.vault:
mongodb:
enabled: true
role: readonly
backend: mongodb
username-property: spring.data.mongodb.username
password-property: spring.data.mongodb.password
enabled setting this value to true enables the MongodB backend config usage
role sets the role name of the MongoDB role definition
backend sets the path of the MongoDB mount to use
username-property sets the property name in which the MongoDB username is stored
password-property sets the property name in which the MongoDB password is stored
See also: Vault Documentation: Setting up MongoDB with Vault
5.4 MySQL
The mysql backend has been deprecated in Vault 0.7.1 and it is recommended
to use the database backend and mount it as mysql . Configuration for
spring.cloud.vault.mysql will be removed in a future version.
Spring Cloud Vault can obtain credentials for MySQL. The integration can be enabled by setting
spring.cloud.vault.mysql.enabled=true (default false ) and providing the role name
with spring.cloud.vault.mysql.role=… .
Username and password are stored in spring.datasource.username and

spring.datasource.password so using Spring Boot will pick up the generated credentials
spring.cloud.vault.mysql.username-property and
spring.cloud.vault.mysql.password-property .
spring.cloud.vault:
mysql:
enabled: true
role: readonly
backend: mysql
enabled setting this value to true enables the MySQL backend config usage
role sets the role name of the MySQL role definition
backend sets the path of the MySQL mount to use

username-property sets the property name in which the MySQL username is stored
password-property sets the property name in which the MySQL password is stored
See also: Vault Documentation: Setting up MySQL with Vault
5.5 PostgreSQL
The postgresql backend has been deprecated in Vault 0.7.1 and it is

recommended to use the database backend and mount it as postgresql .
Configuration for spring.cloud.vault.postgresql will be removed in a future
version.
Spring Cloud Vault can obtain credentials for PostgreSQL. The integration can be enabled by
setting spring.cloud.vault.postgresql.enabled=true (default false ) and providing the
role name with spring.cloud.vault.postgresql.role=… .
Username and password are stored in spring.datasource.username and

spring.datasource.password so using Spring Boot will pick up the generated credentials
spring.cloud.vault.postgresql.username-property and
spring.cloud.vault.postgresql.password-property .
spring.cloud.vault:
postgresql:
enabled: true
role: readonly
backend: postgresql
enabled setting this value to true enables the PostgreSQL backend config usage
role sets the role name of the PostgreSQL role definition
backend sets the path of the PostgreSQL mount to use
username-property sets the property name in which the PostgreSQL username is stored
password-property sets the property name in which the PostgreSQL password is stored
See also: Vault Documentation: Setting up PostgreSQL with Vault
6. Configure PropertySourceLocator behavior

Spring Cloud Vault uses property-based configuration to create PropertySource s for generic
and discovered secret backends.
Discovered backends provide VaultSecretBackendDescriptor beans to describe the

configuration state to use secret backend as PropertySource . A
SecretBackendMetadataFactory is required to create a SecretBackendMetadata object
which contains path, name and property transformation configuration.
SecretBackendMetadata is used to back a particular PropertySource .
You can register an arbitrary number of beans implementing VaultConfigurer for

customization. Default generic and discovered backend registration is disabled if Spring Cloud
Vault discovers at least one VaultConfigurer bean. You can however enable default
registration with SecretBackendConfigurer.registerDefaultGenericSecretBackends()
and SecretBackendConfigurer.registerDefaultDiscoveredSecretBackends() .
public class CustomizationBean implements VaultConfigurer {
@Override
public void addSecretBackends(SecretBackendConfigurer configurer) {
configurer.add("secret/my-application");
configurer.registerDefaultGenericSecretBackends(false);
configurer.registerDefaultDiscoveredSecretBackends(true);
}
}
All customization is required to happen in the bootstrap context. Add your

configuration classes to META-INF/spring.factories at
org.springframework.cloud.bootstrap.BootstrapConfiguration in your
application.
7. Service Registry Configuration

You can use a DiscoveryClient (such as from Spring Cloud Consul) to locate a Vault server
by setting spring.cloud.vault.discovery.enabled=true (default false ). The net result of that is
that your apps need a bootstrap.yml (or an environment variable) with the appropriate discovery
configuration. The benefit is that the Vault can change its co-ordinates, as long as the discovery
service is a fixed point. The default service id is vault but you can change that on the client
with spring.cloud.vault.discovery.serviceId .
The discovery client implementations all support some kind of metadata map (e.g. for Eureka
we have eureka.instance.metadataMap). Some additional properties of the service may need to
be configured in its service registration metadata so that clients can connect correctly. Service
registries that do not provide details about transport layer security need to provide a scheme
metadata entry to be set either to https or http . If no scheme is configured and the service
is not exposed as secure service, then configuration defaults to spring.cloud.vault.scheme
which is https when it’s not set.
spring.cloud.vault.discovery:
enabled: true
service-id: my-vault-service
8. Vault Client Fail Fast

In some cases, it may be desirable to fail startup of a service if it cannot connect to the Vault
Server. If this is the desired behavior, set the bootstrap configuration property
spring.cloud.vault.fail-fast=true and the client will halt with an Exception.
spring.cloud.vault:
fail-fast: true
9. Vault Client SSL configuration

SSL can be configured declaratively by setting various properties. You can set either
javax.net.ssl.trustStore to configure JVM-wide SSL settings or
spring.cloud.vault.ssl.trust-store to set SSL settings only for Spring Cloud Vault
Config.
spring.cloud.vault:
ssl:
trust-store: classpath:keystore.jks
trust-store-password: changeit
trust-store sets the resource for the trust-store. SSL-secured Vault communication will
validate the Vault SSL certificate with the specified trust-store.
trust-store-password sets the trust-store password
Please note that configuring spring.cloud.vault.ssl.* can be only applied when either
Apache Http Components or the OkHttp client is on your class-path.
10. Lease lifecycle management (renewal

and revocation)
With every secret, Vault creates a lease: metadata containing information such as a time
duration, renewability, and more.
Vault promises that the data will be valid for the given duration, or Time To Live (TTL). Once the
lease is expired, Vault can revoke the data, and the consumer of the secret can no longer be
certain that it is valid.
Spring Cloud Vault maintains a lease lifecycle beyond the creation of login tokens and secrets.
That said, login tokens and secrets associated with a lease are scheduled for renewal just
before the lease expires until terminal expiry. Application shutdown revokes obtained login
tokens and renewable leases.
Secret service and database backends (such as MongoDB or MySQL) usually generate a
renewable lease so generated credentials will be disabled on application shutdown.
Static tokens are not renewed or revoked.
Lease renewal and revocation is enabled by default and can be disabled by setting
spring.cloud.vault.config.lifecycle.enabled to false . This is not recommended as
leases can expire and Spring Cloud Vault cannot longer access Vault or services using
generated credentials and valid credentials remain active after application shutdown.
spring.cloud.vault:
config.lifecycle.enabled: true
See also: Vault Documentation: Lease, Renew, and Revoke

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2/4/2018 Spring Cloud Vault

Spring Cloud Vault

2. Client Side Usage

3.3. AppRole authentication

3.5. AWS-IAM authentication

4.1. Generic Backend

6. Configure PropertySourceLocator behavior

7. Service Registry Configuration

8. Vault Client Fail Fast

9. Vault Client SSL configuration

10. Lease lifecycle management (renewal

© 2016-2017 The original authors.

wget , openssl and unzip

Create SSL certificates for Vault

create_certificates.sh creates certificates in work/ca and a JKS truststore

Start Vault server

You should see something like:

Vault initialized with 5 keys and a key threshold of 3. Please

$ vault unseal (Key 1)

$ export VAULT_TOKEN=(Root token)

The HTTP service has resources in the form:

where the "application" is injected as the spring.application.name in the

2. Client Side Usage

Example 2.1. pom.xml

public static void main(String[] args) {

Example 2.2. bootstrap.yml

Enabling further integrations requires additional dependencies and configuration. Depending on

Spring Cloud Vault supports multiple authentication mechanisms to authenticate applications

Example 2.3. bootstrap.yml

Consider carefully your security requirements. Static token authentication is fine if

3.1 Token authentication

Token authentication is the default authentication method. If a token is disclosed

Example 3.1. bootstrap.yml

See also: Vault Documentation: Tokens

3.2 AppId authentication

IP address-based UserId’s use the local host’s IP address.

Example 3.2. bootstrap.yml using SHA256 IP-Address UserId’s

$ echo -n 192.168.99.1 | sha256sum

Example 3.3. bootstrap.yml using SHA256 Mac-Address UserId’s

network-interface sets network interface to obtain the physical address

$ echo -n 0AFEDE1234AC | sha256sum

3.2.1 Custom UserId

A more advanced approach lets you set spring.cloud.vault.app-id.user-id to a

Example 3.4. bootstrap.yml

Example 3.5. MyUserIdMechanism.java

public class MyUserIdMechanism implements AppIdUserIdMechanism {

See also: Vault Documentation: Using the App ID auth backend

3.3 AppRole authentication

Example 3.6. bootstrap.yml with AppRole authentication properties

role-id sets the RoleId.

Example 3.7. bootstrap.yml with all AppRole authentication properties

role-id sets the RoleId.

See also: Vault Documentation: Using the AppRole auth backend

3.4 AWS-EC2 authentication

Example 3.8. bootstrap.yml using AWS-EC2 Authentication

Example 3.9. bootstrap.yml with configured role

Example 3.10. bootstrap.yml with all AWS EC2 authentication properties

See also: Vault Documentation: Using the aws auth backend

3.5 AWS-IAM authentication