Vault is an identity-based secrets and encryption management system, created by HashiCorp and written in Go. Vault provides encryption services that are gated by authentication and authorization methods, allowing teams to securely store and tightly control access to tokens, passwords, certificates, encryption keys, and other sensitive data.
Its OSS fork is OpenBao, also written in Go, under the Linux Foundation.
Identity-based secrets and encryption management. Store, access, rotate secrets across distributed systems.
✨ Features
KV, database, PKI, SSH, transit. Pluggable engines for every secret type.
Generate database credentials on demand. Auto-expiry means stolen creds are short-lived.
Encryption as a service. Apps encrypt data without holding the keys themselves.
AWS IAM, Kubernetes service accounts, OIDC, LDAP — verify identity before issuing secrets.
Every request audited. Tamper-evident logs to file, syslog, or socket.
