How does Vault encrypt secrets for security?

Vault utilizes a sophisticated approach to enhance the security of secrets by writing them to persistent storage, ensuring that raw access to the stored data alone is insufficient for unauthorized users. This practice helps protect sensitive information from being easily accessible, as the secrets are encrypted before being transmitted and stored. By encrypting the data before it ever reaches persistent storage, Vault ensures that even if someone gains access to that storage, they would not be able to obtain the plaintext secrets without the necessary permissions or access to the encryption keys.

Furthermore, this mechanism reinforces the principle of least privilege, allowing only authorized users and applications to decrypt and access the secrets stored in Vault. This contrasts with other strategies such as simply storing secrets in memory or at multiple locations, which do not inherently provide security against unauthorized access, as unprotected data in memory can be vulnerable to various attack vectors, and storing in multiple locations could lead to inconsistent access or management issues without adequate encryption.