Environment variables should be securely managed across multiple environments to prevent accidental leaks and ensure controlled access.
Use Secret Management Tools: Store environment-specific secrets, database credentials, and API keys, in encrypted form, using AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store or Secrets Manager. Secrets are to be stored in AWS as encrypted SSM parameters, and accessed using IAM permissions.
Role-based Access: Restrict access based on roles and environments. For example, manage specific roles for dev, qa, and prod while restricting access to the secrets of the respective environment.
Environment-specific Prefixes: Use consistent naming conventions, such as DEV_DATABASE_URL, QA_DATABASE_URL, and PROD_DATABASE_URL, to define secrets for each environment. This structure helps when validating secrets within tools like Terraform or Kubernetes.
Dynamic Secrets using HashiCorp Vault: For sensitive applications, use the dynamic secrets of Vault that will rotate your credentials with each use. In that sense, credentials will be short-lived and thus pose less security risk.
Integrate with CI/CD: Configure your CI/CD pipeline to draw secrets at runtime from a secret management tool. For example, in GitHub Actions, you can pull secrets from AWS using AWS CLI or from Vault using Vault CLI and keep them out of version control.
These best practices enhance security even further, minimize human error, and allow secrets to be centrally managed and rotated.
