README.md
1# Vault [](https://travis-ci.org/hashicorp/vault) [](https://gitter.im/hashicorp-vault/Lobby?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge) [](https://www.hashicorp.com/products/vault/?utm_source=github&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=github-vault-enterprise)
2
3----
4
5**Please note**: We take Vault's security and our users' trust very seriously. If you believe you have found a security issue in Vault, _please responsibly disclose_ by contacting us at [security@hashicorp.com](mailto:security@hashicorp.com).
6
7----
8
9- Website: https://www.vaultproject.io
10- IRC: `#vault-tool` on Freenode
11- Announcement list: [Google Groups](https://groups.google.com/group/hashicorp-announce)
12- Discussion list: [Google Groups](https://groups.google.com/group/vault-tool)
13
14<img width="300" alt="Vault Logo" src="https://github.com/hashicorp/vault/blob/f22d202cde2018f9455dec755118a9b84586e082/Vault_PrimaryLogo_Black.png">
15
16Vault is a tool for securely accessing secrets. A secret is anything that you want to tightly control access to, such as API keys, passwords, certificates, and more. Vault provides a unified interface to any secret, while providing tight access control and recording a detailed audit log.
17
18A modern system requires access to a multitude of secrets: database credentials, API keys for external services, credentials for service-oriented architecture communication, etc. Understanding who is accessing what secrets is already very difficult and platform-specific. Adding on key rolling, secure storage, and detailed audit logs is almost impossible without a custom solution. This is where Vault steps in.
19
20The key features of Vault are:
21
22* **Secure Secret Storage**: Arbitrary key/value secrets can be stored
23 in Vault. Vault encrypts these secrets prior to writing them to persistent
24 storage, so gaining access to the raw storage isn't enough to access
25 your secrets. Vault can write to disk, [Consul](https://www.consul.io),
26 and more.
27
28* **Dynamic Secrets**: Vault can generate secrets on-demand for some
29 systems, such as AWS or SQL databases. For example, when an application
30 needs to access an S3 bucket, it asks Vault for credentials, and Vault
31 will generate an AWS keypair with valid permissions on demand. After
32 creating these dynamic secrets, Vault will also automatically revoke them
33 after the lease is up.
34
35* **Data Encryption**: Vault can encrypt and decrypt data without storing
36 it. This allows security teams to define encryption parameters and
37 developers to store encrypted data in a location such as SQL without
38 having to design their own encryption methods.
39
40* **Leasing and Renewal**: All secrets in Vault have a _lease_ associated
41 with it. At the end of the lease, Vault will automatically revoke that
42 secret. Clients are able to renew leases via built-in renew APIs.
43
44* **Revocation**: Vault has built-in support for secret revocation. Vault
45 can revoke not only single secrets, but a tree of secrets, for example
46 all secrets read by a specific user, or all secrets of a particular type.
47 Revocation assists in key rolling as well as locking down systems in the
48 case of an intrusion.
49
50For more information, see the [getting started guide](https://learn.hashicorp.com/vault/)
51on Hashicorp's learning platform.
52
53Getting Started & Documentation
54-------------------------------
55
56All documentation is available on the [Vault website](https://www.vaultproject.io).
57
58Developing Vault
59--------------------
60
61If you wish to work on Vault itself or any of its built-in systems, you'll
62first need [Go](https://www.golang.org) installed on your machine (version
631.11+ is *required*).
64
65For local dev first make sure Go is properly installed, including setting up a
66[GOPATH](https://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH). Next, clone this repository
67into `$GOPATH/src/github.com/hashicorp/vault`. You can then download any
68required build tools by bootstrapping your environment:
69
70```sh
71$ make bootstrap
72...
73```
74
75To compile a development version of Vault, run `make` or `make dev`. This will
76put the Vault binary in the `bin` and `$GOPATH/bin` folders:
77
78```sh
79$ make dev
80...
81$ bin/vault
82...
83```
84
85To run tests, type `make test`. Note: this requires Docker to be installed. If
86this exits with exit status 0, then everything is working!
87
88```sh
89$ make test
90...
91```
92
93If you're developing a specific package, you can run tests for just that
94package by specifying the `TEST` variable. For example below, only
95`vault` package tests will be run.
96
97```sh
98$ make test TEST=./vault
99...
100```
101
102### Acceptance Tests
103
104Vault has comprehensive [acceptance tests](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_testing)
105covering most of the features of the secret and auth methods.
106
107If you're working on a feature of a secret or auth method and want to
108verify it is functioning (and also hasn't broken anything else), we recommend
109running the acceptance tests.
110
111**Warning:** The acceptance tests create/destroy/modify *real resources*, which
112may incur real costs in some cases. In the presence of a bug, it is technically
113possible that broken backends could leave dangling data behind. Therefore,
114please run the acceptance tests at your own risk. At the very least,
115we recommend running them in their own private account for whatever backend
116you're testing.
117
118To run the acceptance tests, invoke `make testacc`:
119
120```sh
121$ make testacc TEST=./builtin/logical/consul
122...
123```
124
125The `TEST` variable is required, and you should specify the folder where the
126backend is. The `TESTARGS` variable is recommended to filter down to a specific
127resource to test, since testing all of them at once can sometimes take a very
128long time.
129
130Acceptance tests typically require other environment variables to be set for
131things such as access keys. The test itself should error early and tell
132you what to set, so it is not documented here.
133
134For more information on Vault Enterprise features, visit the [Vault Enterprise site](https://www.hashicorp.com/products/vault/?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=github-vault-enterprise).
135
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