In today’s digital landscape, ensuring secure secret storage is a must for any organization. Cyber threats and attacks are rampant, and a single data breach can lead to devastating consequences. But with so many options available, which is the best one for your organization?

In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the most popular and effective solutions for secure credential storage in 2023.

First, it’s important to note that even with the most secure credential storage solution in place, it’s still essential to monitor for improperly stored credentials. Tools like TruffleHog can help you find existing credentials and monitor for new ones that leak. Once you’ve identified the problem, you can then take action to remove or secure the credentials appropriately.

Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the best options for secure credential storage.

Vault

Vault is a popular and established solution for credential storage, and it remains a reliable choice. Its greatest strength is its ability to work across a diverse infrastructure environment, whether it’s on-premises, colocation, or cloud. With Vault, you can pull credentials directly from the system or push them to the environment using auxiliary tools. This flexibility makes it an attractive option for companies with a wide range of infrastructure environments.

Vault’s plugin ecosystem makes it extensible and allows for dynamic secret rotation, which is especially useful for generating short-lived cloud credentials or database credentials. It also has secret engines that can help generate, sync, and access secrets. Additionally, Vault has a SaaS offering, making it easier for companies that don’t want to host it themselves.

Doppler

Doppler is a newcomer to the secure credential storage market, and it has a unique focus on developer ease of use. It is a SaaS tool that is easy to integrate with, making it a good choice for companies that prioritize agility and flexibility. Doppler does not have the on-premises capabilities of Vault, but its focus on integrations makes it a valuable tool for teams that need to generate, sync, and access secrets quickly and easily.

Your cloud’s secret storage

Many cloud providers offer their own secret manager, which can be an easy and integrated solution for companies with cloud infrastructure. These solutions are well-integrated into the cloud offerings and may offer additional benefits like automatic secret rotation or access management. For communication with the cloud services, it is recommended to leverage their IAM solution to eliminate the need to store credentials for those services.

Kubernetes Secret Manager

If you are running your workloads on Kubernetes, you can use the built-in secret manager to inject credentials as files or variables. Kubernetes Secrets are extensible, allowing for tools like cert-manager to automatically rotate TLS certificates or sync secrets from other secret managers like Vault. Kubernetes Secrets can be used for short-lived credentials, like database or cloud credentials, as well as long-lived secrets like API keys or certificates.

Finally

When it comes to secure credential storage, there are several options available in 2023. The key to choosing the best option is to understand your infrastructure environment and needs. Hashicorp Vault is a reliable choice for companies with a diverse infrastructure environment, while Doppler and 1Password is a great choice for those who prioritize developer ease of use. For companies with cloud infrastructure, leveraging your cloud provider’s secret manager is a great option, and for those using Kubernetes, the built-in secret manager offers flexibility and extensibility. Whichever option you choose, it’s important to make sure it is easy for your organization to use and consistent in use to ensure that your credentials remain secure.