Which of the following best describes the purpose of the Vault server?

The primary role of the Vault server is to handle secret storage and retrieval. It is designed specifically for securely storing sensitive information such as API keys, passwords, certificates, and other types of secrets. Vault serves as a central place for organizations to manage access to these secrets, ensuring that only authorized users or applications can retrieve them. The server uses encryption both at rest and in transit to protect this sensitive data, and it offers robust mechanisms for authentication, access control, and audit logging to maintain security and compliance.

While managing user permissions is a functionality that can interact with Vault, it is not the core purpose of the Vault server. Vault focuses much more on the secure handling of secrets rather than just managing user permissions or other application-related tasks. Additionally, hosting web applications or compiling application code falls outside the scope of what Vault is designed to do, which is specifically centered around secrets management. Therefore, the best description of the purpose of the Vault server is its ability to effectively manage secret storage and retrieval.