HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate (002) Vault-Associate Exam Questions

Answer : B

Not all storage backends support high availability mode for Vault. Only the storage backends that support locking can enable Vault to run in a multi-server mode where one server is active and the others are standby. Some examples of storage backends that support high availability mode are Consul, Integrated Storage, and ZooKeeper.Some examples of storage backends that do not support high availability mode are Filesystem, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.Reference: https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/docs/concepts/ha1, https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/docs/configuration/storage2

Answer : B

The command that does not meet the security requirement of not having secrets appear in the shell history is B. vault kv put secret/password value-itsasecret. This command would store the secret value ''itsasecret'' in the key/value secrets engine at the path secret/password, but it would also expose the secret value in the shell history, which could be accessed by other users or malicious actors. This is not a secure way of storing secrets in Vault.

The other commands are more secure ways of storing secrets in Vault without revealing them in the shell history. A. generate-password | vault kv put secret/password value would use a pipe to pass the output of the generate-password command, which could be a script or a tool that generates a random password, to the vault kv put command, which would store the password in the key/value secrets engine at the path secret/password. The password would not be visible in the shell history, only the commands. C. vault kv put secret/password value=@data.txt would use the @ syntax to read the secret value from a file named data.txt, which could be encrypted or protected by file permissions, and store it in the key/value secrets engine at the path secret/password. The file name would be visible in the shell history, but not the secret value. D. vault kv put secret/password value-SSECRET_VALUE would use the -S syntax to read the secret value from the environment variable SECRET_VALUE, which could be set and unset in the shell session, and store it in the key/value secrets engine at the path secret/password. The environment variable name would be visible in the shell history, but not the secret value.

[Write Secrets | Vault | HashiCorp Developer]

Answer : B, B

When unsealing Vault, each Shamir unseal key should be entered by different administrators each connecting from different computers. This is because the Shamir unseal keys are split into shares that are distributed to trusted operators, and no single operator should have access to more than one share. This way, the unseal process requires the cooperation of a quorum of key holders, and enhances the security and availability of Vault. The unseal keys can be entered via multiple mechanisms from multiple client machines, and the process is stateful. The order of the keys does not matter, as long as the threshold number of keys is reached. The unseal keys should not be entered at the command line in one single command, as this would expose them to the history and compromise the security.The unseal keys should not be encrypted with each administrator's PGP key, as this would prevent Vault from decrypting them and reconstructing the master key.Reference: https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/docs/concepts/seal3, https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/docs/commands/operator/unseal

Answer : A

The correct answer is A because the lease ID is the unique identifier for the credential. The lease ID is used to revoke the credential using the vault lease revoke command. This command will invalidate the credential immediately and prevent any further renewals.It will also delete the access key and secret key from AWS, rendering them useless1. The access key and secret key are not sufficient to revoke the credential, as they are not recognized by Vault. The lease ID is composed of the path of the secrets engine, the role name, and a random UUID. In this case, the path is aws/creds, the role name is s3-access, and the UUID is f3e92392-7d9c-99c8-c921-57Sd62fe89d8.

lease revoke - Command | Vault | HashiCorp Developer

Answer : A, E

The vault lease operations that use a lease_id as an argument are renew and revoke. The renew operation allows a client to extend the validity of a lease associated with a secret or a token. The revoke operation allows a client to terminate a lease immediately and invalidate the secret or the token. Both operations require a lease_id as an argument to identify the lease to be renewed or revoked. The lease_id can be obtained from the response of reading a secret or creating a token, or from the vault lease list command. The other operations, revoke-prefix, create, and describe, do not use a lease_id as an argument. The revoke-prefix operation allows a client to revoke all secrets or tokens generated under a given prefix. The create operation allows a client to create a new lease for a secret. The describe operation allows a client to view information about a lease, such as its TTL, policies, and metadata.Reference:Lease, Renew, and Revoke | Vault | HashiCorp Developer,vault lease - Command | Vault | HashiCorp Developer

Answer : A

The Vault's auth method component is the component that performs authentication and assigns identity and policies to a client. It verifies a client against an internal or external system, and generates a token with the appropriate policies attached. The token can then be used to access the secrets and resources that are authorized by the policies. Vault supports various auth methods, such as userpass, ldap, aws, kubernetes, etc., that can integrate with different identity providers and systems. The auth method component can also handle token renewal and revocation, as well as identity grouping and aliasing.Reference:Auth Methods | Vault | HashiCorp Developer,Authentication - Concepts | Vault | HashiCorp Developer

Answer : B

The statement is false. The Vault encryption key is not stored in Vault's backend storage, but rather in Vault's memory. The Vault encryption key is the key that is used to encrypt and decrypt the data that is stored in Vault's backend storage, such as secrets, tokens, policies, etc. The Vault encryption key is derived from the master key, which is generated when Vault is initialized. The master key is split into unseal keys using Shamir's secret sharing algorithm, and the unseal keys are distributed to trusted operators. To start Vault, a quorum of unseal keys is required to reconstruct the master key and derive the encryption key. The encryption key is then kept in memory and used to protect the data in Vault's backend storage. The encryption key is never written to disk or exposed via the API.Reference:Seal/Unseal | Vault | HashiCorp Developer,Key Rotation | Vault | HashiCorp Developer