28 Sep Automating Azure Key Vault Management with PowerShell

Intro

Protecting sensitive information such as secrets, keys, and certificates is paramount. Azure Key Vault provides a centralized, cloud-based service for managing these critical assets securely. However, manually managing these resources can be time-consuming and prone to errors. This is where automation with PowerShell comes into play. This blog post will guide you through the process of automating Azure Key Vault management using PowerShell, ensuring that your secrets, keys, and certificates are secure and efficiently managed.

What is Azure Key Vault?

Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that provides a secure store for secrets, keys, and certificates. It helps safeguard cryptographic keys and secrets used by cloud applications and services. By centralizing the storage of these sensitive items, Azure Key Vault helps reduce the chances of accidental leakage and ensures compliance with organizational security policies.

Automating Azure Key Vault Management with PowerShell

PowerShell provides a powerful and flexible way to automate the management of Azure Key Vault. Below are the steps to automate the creation, retrieval, and management of secrets, keys, and certificates.

Step 1: Connect to Azure

Before managing Azure Key Vault with PowerShell, you need to connect to your Azure account.

# Connect to Azure
Connect-AzAccount

Step 2: Create a Key Vault

Create a new Key Vault to store your secrets, keys, and certificates.

# Define parameters
$resourceGroupName = 'GarsonResourceGroup'
$keyVaultName = 'GarsonKeyVault'
$location = 'West Europe'

# Create a Key Vault
New-AzKeyVault -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -VaultName $keyVaultName -Location $location

Step 3: Managing Secrets

Adding a Secret

Add a secret to the Key Vault to securely store sensitive information such as passwords or API keys.

# Define secret parameters
$secretName = 'DatabasePassword'
$secretValue = ConvertTo-SecureString 'SuperSecretPassword123!' -AsPlainText -Force

# Add the secret to the Key Vault
Set-AzKeyVaultSecret -VaultName $keyVaultName -Name $secretName -SecretValue $secretValue

Retrieving a Secret

Retrieve a secret from the Key Vault when needed by your applications or services.

# Retrieve the secret from the Key Vault
$retrievedSecret = Get-AzKeyVaultSecret -VaultName $keyVaultName -Name $secretName
Write-Output "Retrieved Secret Value: $($retrievedSecret.SecretValueText)"

Step 4: Managing Keys

Creating an Encryption Key

Create a new cryptographic key for data encryption and decryption.

Step 4: Managing Keys
Creating an Encryption Key
Create a new cryptographic key for data encryption and decryption.

Step 5: Managing Certificates

Creating a Certificate

Provision and store a new SSL/TLS certificate in the Key Vault.

# Define certificate parameters
$certificateName = 'GarsonSSLCertificate'

# Create a new self-signed certificate in the Key Vault
Add-AzKeyVaultCertificate -VaultName $keyVaultName -Name $certificateName -Policy (New-AzKeyVaultCertificatePolicy -IssuerName Self -SubjectName 'CN=www.garsonit.com')

Retrieving a Certificate

Retrieve a certificate from the Key Vault for use in your applications or services.

# Retrieve the certificate from the Key Vault
$retrievedCertificate = Get-AzKeyVaultCertificate -VaultName $keyVaultName -Name $certificateName
Write-Output "Retrieved Certificate Thumbprint: $($retrievedCertificate.Certificate.Thumbprint)"

If you wish to start you journey from beggining check out how to start with Powershell in Azure: