Why use AWS Secrets Manager

Correct use of AWS Secrets Manager helps fulfill an IT professional's responsibility to comply with Illinois Cybersecurity standards.

In particular, use of AWS Secrets Manager can help comply with the IT05 Identity Management Security Standard.

AWS Secrets Manager is recommended for secrets that control programmatic access.

Storing secrets in AWS parameter store is not recommended, because while it is encrypted, it lacks support for automated key rotation.

How to use AWS Secrets Manager

These are links to official Amazon documentation.

• Manage AWS Secrets
  • Create an AWS Secret
  • Modify a Secret
  • Retrieve a Secret
• API Documentation: Get a Secret Value
• AWS Secrets Manager Pricing
• AWS Secrets Manager Best Practices

Security / Operations Resources

• AWS Authentication 
• AWS IAM Best Practices
• Rotating Secrets on AWS
  • How often should I rotate the keys? Start with 30-90 days. Feel free to reach out to securitysupport@illinois.edu to get expert guidance relevant to the threat model for your use case.

Relevant Campus Example Code

• Terraform can intelligently fetch a secret and feed it in
• Example Lambda function in Python that rotates an AWS secret