OpenBao

OpenBao is an open source, community-driven secrets management system for securely managing sensitive data such as secrets, certificates, and cryptographic keys. It provides centralized access control and auditing to help teams control and track secret usage across applications and infrastructure.

Key Features

• Encrypted key/value secret storage with pluggable storage backends
• Dynamic secrets generation for supported systems with automatic expiration
• Leasing, renewal, and revocation workflows to reduce long-lived credentials
• Encryption-as-a-service (transit-style) for encrypt/decrypt without storing data
• Unified ACL-based access control and identity-based authorization
• Detailed audit logging for compliance and incident investigation

Use Cases

• Centralize application configuration secrets (API keys, database credentials)
• Issue short-lived credentials for databases or platforms and auto-revoke them
• Provide a shared encryption service for applications handling sensitive data

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires careful operational setup (unsealing, key management, and policy design) to avoid availability and access issues

OpenBao is well-suited for organizations that need a secure, auditable way to manage secrets at scale across modern infrastructure. It helps reduce credential sprawl by automating secret lifecycle management and enforcing consistent access policies.