You are deploying an application that needs to access sensitive information.
You need to ensure that this information is encrypted and the risk of exposure is minimal if a breach occurs.
What should you do?
Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer
A. B. C. D.A.
When deploying an application that requires access to sensitive information, it is essential to ensure that the information is encrypted and secure to minimize the risk of exposure if a breach occurs. To achieve this, there are several best practices that you can follow, and the correct approach will depend on the specifics of your deployment.
Option A: Store the encryption keys in Cloud Key Management Service (KMS) and rotate the keys frequently
Cloud Key Management Service (KMS) is a managed service offered by many cloud providers that allows you to create, store, and manage cryptographic keys used for encryption and decryption. With this approach, you would encrypt the sensitive information using a key that is stored in the KMS. By using KMS, you can benefit from the robust security measures that are built into the service, such as hardware security modules (HSMs) and the ability to audit access to the keys. Furthermore, by rotating the keys frequently, you can further increase the security of the system.
Option B: Inject the secret at the time of instance creation via an encrypted configuration management system.
Another approach is to inject the sensitive information into the application at the time of instance creation via an encrypted configuration management system. This can be accomplished by encrypting the sensitive information and storing it in a secure configuration management system such as HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager. The application can then retrieve the encrypted secret during runtime and decrypt it for use. This approach provides the benefit of securing the sensitive information during storage and transit, but it requires additional effort to ensure that the application is properly configured to retrieve and decrypt the secrets.
Option C: Integrate the application with a Single sign-on (SSO) system and do not expose secrets to the application.
Another approach is to integrate the application with a Single sign-on (SSO) system, such as Google Identity Platform or Okta. By doing so, the application can authenticate users without directly handling any sensitive information. SSO systems allow you to manage user authentication and authorization centrally and can enforce security policies, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA). This approach requires additional infrastructure and configuration, but it can help to reduce the attack surface of the application by minimizing the amount of sensitive information stored and transmitted.
Option D: Leverage a continuous build pipeline that produces multiple versions of the secret for each instance of the application.
Finally, another approach is to leverage a continuous build pipeline that produces multiple versions of the secret for each instance of the application. This approach ensures that each instance of the application has a unique secret, which can help to reduce the impact of a breach. However, this approach requires additional complexity to manage the distribution and rotation of secrets, and it may not be suitable for all scenarios.
In conclusion, there are multiple approaches to encrypting sensitive information when deploying an application. The best approach will depend on the specifics of your deployment, including the sensitivity of the information, the cloud provider you are using, and your team's expertise. The most secure approach is likely to be a combination of the above options, depending on your specific requirements.