Final answer:
Azure Key Vault protects secrets after they are loaded into applications by providing secure access, controlling who can retrieve them, and allowing encryption both at rest and during transmission. It ensures that secrets are retrieved dynamically and are never stored insecurely within the application.
Step-by-step explanation:
Azure Key Vault is a cloud service provided by Microsoft Azure which is designed to securely store and tightly control access to tokens, passwords, certificates, API keys, and other secrets. The main aim of Azure Key Vault is to safeguard cryptographic keys and other secrets used by cloud applications and services. After secrets have been loaded into an application, Azure Key Vault helps in protecting them in a few ways:
- It provides secure access to the secrets through managed identities and secrets are retrieved dynamically when needed, reducing the risk of secrets being stored in a less secure location within the application.
- Vault access policies and Azure role-based access control (RBAC) can be used to control who has access to the secrets and keys within the Azure Key Vault, ensuring that only authorized applications and users can retrieve them.
- Enables the use of encryption for additional security. When a secret is requested, it is transmitted over a secure channel and can be encrypted at rest in the vault as well as during transmission if desired.
Overall, Azure Key Vault provides a centralized and secure location for storing sensitive data that can help maintain the confidentiality and integrity of the secrets even after they have been retrieved by applications.