AZ-204 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure Exam

Employ Azure Key Vault for Secret Management

Azure Key Vault is a cloud service for secret management that helps you store and control access to sensitive information like API keys, passwords, and certificates. Instead of embedding secrets in your code or configuration files, you keep them in Key Vault so they stay protected. Key Vault automatically encrypts secrets at rest and in transit, ensuring only authorized applications can read them. This setup reduces the risk of accidental exposure and makes your apps more secure.

To manage access, Key Vault uses role-based access control (RBAC) and access policies that follow the principle of least privilege. You assign built-in roles such as Key Vault Secrets User or Key Vault Admin, or create custom roles to fit your needs. Access policies define which operations (like Get, List, or Set) an identity can perform on secrets, keys, and certificates. By carefully setting these policies, you ensure each app or user only has the rights it truly needs.

Applications can fetch secrets from Key Vault in two main ways. First, you create Key Vault references in Azure App Configuration, storing only the URI for each secret. At runtime, the App Configuration provider sees these references and transparently retrieves the real values. Second, you use code libraries such as the SecretClient in Azure SDK, paired with a TokenCredential (for example, DefaultAzureCredential). This method gives you direct control over how your app authenticates and handles secret retrieval.

Azure offers multiple authentication strategies for accessing Key Vault, each with different trade-offs in security and management. Common options include:

• Managed identities: Built-in identities for Azure resources that remove the need to store credentials.
• Client secrets: A client ID paired with a secret string, following OAuth 2.0 flows.
• Certificate-based flows: A client ID paired with a certificate, offering stronger proof of identity.

Finally, keep your secrets fresh and your vault locked down with rotation and network controls. Use Key Vault’s built-in secret rotation features or set a refresh interval so your apps automatically pick up new values. Strengthen access by configuring private endpoints and firewall rules to limit which networks and services can talk to your vault.

Conclusion

In this section, you learned how to use Azure Key Vault for secure secret management and how to integrate it with applications and Azure App Configuration. You saw how role-based access control and access policies help enforce the principle of least privilege. You also explored authentication options like managed identities, client secrets, and certificates, and how to keep your secrets safe with rotation and network restrictions. Together, these practices make your Azure solutions more secure and easier to manage.