VA-003 Practice Test 8 — 10 Questions

Question 1

An operator needs to create a token role named 'web-app' with a default TTL of 24 hours. Which API request is correct?

Accepted Answer

PUT /v1/auth/token/roles/web-app with body {"default_ttl":"24h"}. Creating a token role in Vault requires a PUT request to the /v1/auth/token/roles/<role_name> endpoint, and the default_ttl parameter must be specified as a string with a time suffix (e.g., '24h'). The PUT method is used for creating or updating a role, and the path must include 'roles' (plural) followed by the role name.

Answer

POST /v1/auth/token/roles/web-app with body {"default_ttl":"24h"}

Answer

POST /v1/auth/token/create/web-app with body {"default_ttl":"24h"}

Answer

PUT /v1/auth/token/role/web-app with body {"default_ttl":"24h"}

Question 2

A company uses Vault to manage secrets for multiple applications. A new security policy requires that all human users authenticate using LDAP and that all machine-to-machine authentication uses AppRole. An administrator has configured an LDAP auth method at 'ldap/' and an AppRole at 'approle/'. The administrator creates a role 'web-app' with a secret ID TTL of 30 days and a token TTL of 1 hour. After deploying the web application, the application successfully logs in using the AppRole role ID and secret ID, retrieves a token, and reads secrets. However, after 1 hour, the application begins receiving 'permission denied' errors when trying to read secrets. The application logs show that it is using the same token obtained during initial login. Which action should the administrator take to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Configure the application to renew the token before it expires by calling the 'auth/token/renew' endpoint.. The application's token has a TTL of 1 hour, and once it expires, Vault will reject any further requests using that token. The application must renew the token before it expires by calling the 'auth/token/renew' endpoint, which extends the token's lifetime (up to the maximum TTL configured on the role). This is the standard pattern for long-running applications using short-lived tokens.

Answer

Increase the secret ID TTL to 60 days so the application can re-authenticate less frequently.

Answer

Set the token TTL to 0 (unlimited) so the token never expires.

Answer

Have the application re-authenticate with the AppRole using the same secret ID after the token expires.

Question 3

An organization uses Vault to issue certificates via the PKI secrets engine. They have set the default lease TTL on the PKI mount to 72h, and the role's ttl to 24h. A user requests a certificate with a requested TTL of 48h. What will be the actual TTL of the issued certificate?

Accepted Answer

24h. (24h) because when a certificate request is made, Vault applies the most restrictive TTL among the role's configured `ttl`, the mount's default lease TTL, and the requested TTL. Here, the role's `ttl` of 24h is the shortest, so it overrides both the requested 48h and the mount default of 72h, resulting in a certificate with a 24-hour validity.

Answer

The request will be rejected because the requested TTL exceeds the role's ttl.

Answer

48h

Answer

72h

Question 4

An operator inspects a Vault policy and finds a rule granting read on database/creds/reporting. Applications using tokens bound to this policy can fetch credentials but receive permission denied when they attempt to extend them. Which capability must be added to the policy to allow lease renewal?

Accepted Answer

update on sys/leases/renew. Renewing a lease is an update to the sys/leases/renew endpoint, so the policy must grant update there. Reading lease metadata, using sudo on the generation path, or granting create instead of update all leave the renewal call unauthorized, which is exactly the failure the applications are hitting.

Answer

create on sys/leases/renew

Answer

sudo on database/creds/reporting

Answer

read on sys/leases/lookup

Question 5

A Vault user wants to check the capabilities of their token on a specific path. Which command should they use?

Accepted Answer

vault token capabilities <path>. The `vault token capabilities` command is specifically designed to check what operations (e.g., read, create, update, delete, list) a given token is allowed to perform on a particular path. It evaluates the token's attached policies against the path and returns the effective capabilities, making it the correct tool for this task.

Answer

vault token list

Answer

vault policy capabilities

Answer

vault token lookup <token>

Question 6

Which TWO of the following are components of Vault's architecture? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Barrier. The Barrier (D) is a core Vault architectural component: it is the cryptographic layer that ensures data written to the storage backend is encrypted, and all requests must pass through the barrier before reaching the storage backend. The Seal (E) is also a core Vault component: it is the mechanism that protects the barrier's encryption key, and Vault starts in a sealed state where it cannot decrypt data until it is unsealed with the required unseal keys or auto-unseal mechanism. Consul Template (B) is an external HashiCorp tool that can render templates from Vault data, but it is not part of Vault's internal architecture. Vault Agent (C) is an optional client-side helper for authentication and caching, not a core architectural component of the Vault server. Senlin (A) is an OpenStack clustering service and has no relation to Vault's architecture.

Answer

Senlin

Answer

Consul Template

Answer

Vault Agent

Question 7

A developer wants to use Vault to encrypt sensitive data before storing it in a database. They need to perform encryption and decryption operations without ever exposing the encryption key. Which secrets engine should they use?

Accepted Answer

Transit. The Transit secrets engine is designed specifically for encryption-as-a-service workflows, allowing applications to encrypt and decrypt data using keys managed entirely within Vault. The encryption key never leaves Vault, satisfying the requirement to avoid exposing the key. In contrast, other engines like KV v2 store raw secrets but do not perform cryptographic operations without exposing the key material.

Answer

PKI

Answer

KV v2

Answer

Database

Question 8

What command is used to view the remaining time on a lease?

Accepted Answer

vault lease lookup . The correct command to view the remaining time on a lease is `vault lease lookup `. This command retrieves the lease metadata, including the issue time, duration (TTL), and remaining time, directly from the Vault server. It is the standard method for inspecting lease details without extending or modifying the lease.

Answer

vault lease info <lease_id>

Answer

vault status <lease_id>

Answer

vault read <lease_id>

Question 9

A Vault cluster has a token with the following policy: path "secret/data/dev/*" { capabilities = ["read", "list"] }. The token is used to read a secret at "secret/data/dev/password". The read succeeds. Later, the token tries to read "secret/data/prod/password". What happens?

Accepted Answer

Fails because the token needs an explicit policy for "secret/data/prod/".. Vault policies are path-based and deny by default. The token's policy only grants 'read' and 'list' capabilities on paths matching 'secret/data/dev/*', so any attempt to access 'secret/data/prod/password' is not covered by that policy. Without an explicit policy allowing access to the 'prod' path, the request is denied by Vault's default deny behavior.

Answer

Fails with a system error.

Answer

Succeeds because token has read capability on all secrets.

Answer

Succeeds because the token can list and read any path.

Question 10

After a Vault migration, some leases are no longer valid and cause errors. What is the best way to force a cleanup of all leases under a specific mount without affecting other mounts?

Accepted Answer

Use vault lease revoke -prefix . The `vault lease revoke -prefix ` command is specifically designed to revoke all leases associated with a given mount path without affecting other mounts. This command iterates through all leases under that prefix and forces their revocation, cleaning up invalid leases efficiently. It is the targeted, non-disruptive approach for lease cleanup in Vault.

Answer

Restart Vault servers

Answer

Disable and re-enable the secret engine

Answer

Reduce the mount's max_lease_ttl to 0