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Advanced Secrets Configuration

Vault implementations offer a variety of advanced configuration options.

Query arguments

You can configure your vault backend with query arguments.

For example, the following query uses an option called prefix with the value SECURE_:

{vault://env/my-secret-config-value?prefix=SECURE_}

For more information on available configuration options, refer to respective vault backend documentation.

Environment Variables

You can configure your vault backend with KONG_VAULT_<vault-backend>_<config_opt> environment variables.

For example, Kong Gateway might look for an environment variable that matches KONG_VAULT_ENV_PREFIX:

export KONG_VAULT_ENV_PREFIX=SECURE_

Vaults entity

You can configure your vault backend using the vaults entity.

http -f PUT :8001/vaults/my-env-vault \
  name=env \
  description="ENV vault for secrets" \
  config.prefix=SECURE_

This lets you drop the configuration from environment variables and query arguments and use the entity name in the reference.

{vault://my-env-vault/my-secret-config-value}

For more information, see the section on the Vaults entity.

Vaults CLI

Usage: kong vault COMMAND [OPTIONS]

Vault utilities for Kong Gateway.

Example usage:
 TEST=hello kong vault get env/test

The available commands are:
  get <reference>  Retrieves a value for <reference>

Options:
 --v              verbose
 --vv             debug

Vaults Entity

Kong Manager currently doesn’t support configuring vault entities.

The Vault entity can only be used once the database is initialized. Secrets for values that are used before the database is initialized can’t make use of the Vaults entity.

Create a Vault entity:

$ curl -i -X PUT http://HOSTNAME:8001/vaults/my-env-vault-1  \
        --data name=env \
        --data description='ENV vault for secrets' \
        --data config.prefix=SECRET_

http -f PUT :8001/vaults/my-env-vault-1 \
  name=env \
  description="ENV vault for secrets" \
  config.prefix=SECRET_

Result:

{
    "config": {
        "prefix": "SECRET_"
    },
    "created_at": 1644929952,
    "description": "ENV vault for secrets",
    "id": "684ff5ea-7f65-4377-913b-880857f39251",
    "name": "env",
    "prefix": "my-env-vault-1",
    "tags": null,
    "updated_at": 1644929952
}

Config options depend on the associated backend used.