VA-003 Create Vault policies — 20 Questions

Question 1

A security team wants to ensure that all Vault policies for applications follow the principle of least privilege. They have a policy 'app-kv' that grants read access to secrets under 'secret/data/app/*'. An auditor finds that a developer can also read secrets under 'secret/data/team/*'. The policy currently uses a path-based glob. Which change should the team make to restrict access to only the app path?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Change the path to 'secret/data/app/' (without glob) and ensure the policy only grants 'read' capability.. The essential fix is to change the path to the exact glob 'secret/data/app/*' so that it only matches secrets under that directory. In Vault, policies are additive and only allow capabilities; there is no 'deny' capability, but the path change itself restricts access to the intended path. Other options are incorrect: A uses '+' which matches a single segment and 'list' does not grant read; C incorrectly applies a deny policy which is invalid; D removes the glob, which only allows listing the directory, not reading secrets within it.

Answer

Change the path to 'secret/data/app/+' and use 'list' capability.

Answer

Change the path to 'secret/data/app/*' and add 'deny' capability for other paths.

Answer

Keep the path as 'secret/data/app/*' but add a policy with path 'secret/data/team/*' and 'deny' capability.

Question 2

A development team is using the Vault transit secrets engine to encrypt sensitive data in their application. They have created a policy that includes: path "transit/keys/*" { capabilities = ["encrypt", "decrypt"] } and attached it to their application tokens. However, when the application calls the '/v1/transit/encrypt/my-key' endpoint, it receives a permission denied error. The key 'my-key' exists in the transit engine. The team has verified that the token is not expired and has the correct policy attached. What is the most likely cause of the error?

Accepted Answer

The encrypt and decrypt capabilities must be applied to the specific encrypt/decrypt paths, not the key metadata path.. The Vault transit secrets engine exposes encryption and decryption operations under specific API paths like `/v1/transit/encrypt/my-key` and `/v1/transit/decrypt/my-key`, not under the key metadata path `transit/keys/*`. The policy must grant `encrypt` and `decrypt` capabilities on the exact operation paths (e.g., `transit/encrypt/*` and `transit/decrypt/*`), not on the key configuration path. Since the policy only covers `transit/keys/*`, the token lacks permission to call the encrypt endpoint, resulting in a permission denied error.

Answer

The policy also needs 'read' capability on 'transit/keys/*'.

Answer

The application token has expired.

Answer

The transit engine requires the 'create' capability on the key to perform encryption.

Question 3

A company wants to grant developers the ability to read and write secrets under the path 'secret/dev/*', but only they should be able to delete their own secrets. Which policy design best meets this requirement?

Accepted Answer

path "secret/dev/*" { capabilities = ["create", "read", "update", "delete", "list"] } path "secret/dev/{{identity.entity.name}}/*" { capabilities = ["delete"] }. It grants full CRUDL access to 'secret/dev/*' for reading and writing, but then restricts delete to only the path 'secret/dev/{{identity.entity.name}}/*', which uses the entity's name to ensure developers can only delete secrets under their own sub-path. This leverages Vault's identity entity name templating to enforce per-developer delete scoping.

Answer

path "secret/dev/*" { capabilities = ["create", "read", "update", "delete", "list"] }

Answer

path "secret/dev/*" { capabilities = ["read", "list"] }

Answer

path "secret/dev/+/{{identity.entity.name}}" { capabilities = ["create", "read", "update", "delete"] }

Question 4

Which TWO of the following are valid capabilities that can be specified in a Vault policy?

Accepted Answer

create. In Vault policies, capabilities define the allowed actions on paths. The `create` capability permits creating new data at a path without needing to read existing data, which is distinct from `update` that allows modifying existing data. Both `create` and `update` are valid, separate capabilities in Vault's policy system.

Answer

write

Answer

sudo

Answer

rename

Question 5

A DevOps team is managing secrets for a microservices application using Vault. They have created a policy named 'app-policy' that grants read access to secrets under the path 'secret/data/app/*'. The policy is assigned to an AppRole role. When a service authenticates with the role ID and secret ID, it receives a token but is unable to read secrets from 'secret/data/app/db-creds'. The token's identity metadata shows the policies associated with the token include 'default' and 'app-policy'. The Vault server logs show no errors. The service can successfully read other secrets from the same path, like 'secret/data/app/config'. What is the most likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The secret 'secret/data/app/db-creds' does not exist in Vault.. The most likely cause is that the secret 'secret/data/app/db-creds' does not exist in Vault. The token has the 'app-policy' policy attached, which grants read access to 'secret/data/app/*', and the service can successfully read other secrets under that path (e.g., 'secret/data/app/config'). The absence of Vault server errors indicates that the policy is correctly evaluated and the path is valid, but a read on a non-existent secret returns a 404 (or a permission-denied-like response) without logging an error. The token's metadata confirms the policy is present, ruling out policy assignment issues.

Answer

The token does not have the 'app-policy' policy attached due to a misconfiguration in the role.

Answer

There is an explicit deny rule in the policy that denies access to 'db-creds'.

Answer

The token is periodic and does not have the correct capabilities for the path.

Question 6

A DevOps team is writing a Vault policy for a CI/CD pipeline that needs to authenticate using AppRole, read specific secrets, and write dynamic database credentials. Which THREE capabilities should be included in the policy to meet these requirements? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

read. The only capability required for the described tasks is 'read'. Reading specific secrets from KV v2 or generating dynamic database credentials (via database/creds/<role-name>) both use the 'read' operation. AppRole authentication is handled before the policy applies; the policy itself does not need to grant capabilities for the login process.

Answer

write

Answer

create

Answer

sudo

Answer

update

Question 7

Refer to the exhibit. A developer reports that they cannot read secrets under 'secret/data/kv-v2/engineering/db-pass' using a token that has the above policy attached. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The token does not have the policy attached.. The policy shown in the exhibit defines a path with a glob pattern (`secret/data/kv-v2/engineering/*`), which matches the secret path `secret/data/kv-v2/engineering/db-pass`. However, the developer reports they cannot read the secret, indicating the token likely does not have this policy attached. In Vault, a token must have a policy explicitly attached to it; merely having the policy defined in Vault does not grant permissions unless the token is associated with that policy.

Answer

The policy requires the 'sudo' capability for reading secrets.

Answer

The secret does not exist because the path is incorrect.

Answer

The path uses a glob that does not match the exact secret path.

Question 8

Drag and drop the steps to create and use a periodic service token in Vault into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Create role, generate token, use token, renew periodically. First create the role, then generate a token with a TTL, use it, and renew periodically.

Answer

Generate token, create role, use token, renew periodically

Answer

Create role, use token, renew periodically, generate token

Answer

Generate token, use token, renew periodically, create role

Question 9

Match each Vault command to its function.

Accepted Answer

vault kv put: Stores a secret at a specified path in the KV secret engine.. The correct matches are: A (vault kv put) stores secrets in KV, D (vault kv delete) deletes secrets, and F (vault read) reads data from any path. Options B and C are incorrect because their descriptions are swapped: vault kv get retrieves a secret (not lists), and vault kv list lists keys (not retrieves). Option E is incorrect because vault write is a generic command that writes to any path, not specifically to the KV secret engine; the KV-specific command for storing secrets is vault kv put.

Answer

vault kv get: Lists all secrets at a given path.

Answer

vault kv list: Retrieves a secret from a specified path.

Answer

vault write: Stores a secret at a specified path in the KV secret engine.

Question 10

A DevOps team needs to create a Vault policy that allows reading secrets from path "secret/data/app" but only for the key "db_password". They want to enforce this using Vault's policy syntax. Which policy statement achieves this?

Accepted Answer

path "secret/data/app" { capabilities = ["read"]; allowed_parameters = {"db_password"=[]} }. Vault policy syntax uses `allowed_parameters` to restrict which keys within a path can be read. By setting `allowed_parameters = {"db_password"=[]}`, the policy permits reading only the `db_password` key under `secret/data/app`, while denying access to any other keys at that path. This enforces the requirement precisely.

Answer

path "secret/data/app" { capabilities = ["read"] }

Answer

path "secret/data/app/db_password" { capabilities = ["read"] }

Answer

path "secret/data/app" { capabilities = ["read"]; required_parameters = ["db_password"] }

Question 11

A security administrator wants to create a policy that allows a service to renew its own token and list its own token capabilities, but not create new tokens. Which policy statements should be included?

Accepted Answer

path "auth/token/renew-self" { capabilities = ["update"] }; path "auth/token/capabilities-self" { capabilities = ["read"] }. It uses the correct endpoints and capabilities: update for renew-self and read for capabilities-self. Option B uses create for renew-self, which is incorrect (renew-self requires update). Option C uses update for capabilities-self, which is wrong (capabilities-self requires read). Option D uses non-self endpoints (renew and capabilities) which would allow renewing or checking capabilities of any token, granting broader privileges than intended.

Answer

path "auth/token/renew-self" { capabilities = ["create"] }; path "auth/token/lookup-self" { capabilities = ["read"] }

Answer

path "auth/token/renew-self" { capabilities = ["update"] }; path "auth/token/capabilities-self" { capabilities = ["update"] }

Answer

path "auth/token/renew" { capabilities = ["update"] }; path "auth/token/capabilities" { capabilities = ["read"] }

Question 12

A Vault administrator is designing a policy for a CI/CD pipeline that must be able to read dynamic database credentials from "database/creds/my-role" and also write to "secret/data/ci-cd" for storing build artifacts. The policy should follow the principle of least privilege. Which policy statements should be used?

Accepted Answer

path "database/creds/my-role" { capabilities = ["read"] }; path "secret/data/ci-cd" { capabilities = ["create", "update"] }. It grants the minimum required capabilities: 'read' for reading dynamic database credentials from 'database/creds/my-role', and 'create' and 'update' for writing to 'secret/data/ci-cd'. The principle of least privilege dictates that 'delete' is unnecessary for storing build artifacts, and the path must be exact without a wildcard to avoid granting unintended access to sub-paths.

Answer

path "database/creds/my-role" { capabilities = ["read"] }; path "secret/data/ci-cd" { capabilities = ["create", "update", "delete"] }

Answer

path "database/creds/my-role" { capabilities = ["read"] }; path "secret/data/ci-cd/*" { capabilities = ["create", "update"] }

Answer

path "database/creds/my-role" { capabilities = ["read"] }; path "secret/data/ci-cd" { capabilities = ["write"] }

Question 13

A Vault operator is crafting a policy for a new application. Which two of the following are valid capabilities in a Vault policy path statement? (Select two.)

Accepted Answer

sudo. 'sudo' is a valid capability in Vault policy path statements that allows a token to access paths and perform operations that would normally be denied by the policy, effectively granting elevated privileges for those paths. It is used to enable certain administrative actions, such as reading or writing to paths that require sudo-like permissions, and is explicitly supported in Vault's policy language.

Answer

modify

Answer

patch

Answer

encrypt

Question 14

Which three of the following are valid capabilities in a Vault policy path statement? (Select three.)

Accepted Answer

list. In Vault policy path statements, capabilities define the allowed operations on secrets. The 'list' capability is valid and allows listing keys at a given path, which is essential for enumerating secrets without reading their values. This is a core capability in Vault's policy system, distinct from 'read' or 'write'.

Answer

encrypt

Answer

patch

Question 15

A Vault policy must allow a service to read secrets from "secret/data/app" and also be able to renew its own token. Which two policy statements are necessary and sufficient for this requirement? (Select two.)

Accepted Answer

path "secret/data/app" { capabilities = ["read"] }. The policy must grant read access to the specific path 'secret/data/app' for the service to retrieve secrets. Option B is correct because renewing a token requires the 'update' capability on the 'auth/token/renew-self' endpoint, which allows the service to extend its own token's TTL without needing broader token management privileges.

Answer

path "auth/token/renew" { capabilities = ["update"] }

Answer

path "secret/data/app/*" { capabilities = ["read"] }

Answer

path "sys/auth" { capabilities = ["read"] }

Question 16

Refer to the exhibit. A user with this policy attempts to read the secret at path "secret/data/team-a/admin". What will happen?

Accepted Answer

The read is denied because the deny policy takes precedence.. The deny policy takes precedence over any allow policy in Vault, regardless of the path specificity. Even though the first path grants read access to 'secret/data/team-a/*', the second path explicitly denies all capabilities (including read) on 'secret/data/team-a/admin', which is a more specific path. Vault's policy evaluation uses a deny-overrides model, so the deny action blocks the read operation.

Answer

The read fails because the path does not exist.

Answer

The read succeeds because the first path grants read.

Answer

The read succeeds because deny only applies to write operations.

Question 17

Refer to the exhibit. An application needs to encrypt data using the transit engine with key "app-key". It currently has this policy. Which statement is true?

Accepted Answer

The policy allows both encryption and decryption, which is correct for the transit engine.. The transit engine in Vault uses the `encrypt` and `decrypt` capabilities to allow encryption and decryption operations, respectively. The policy shown uses `create` and `update` capabilities, which are correct for the transit engine because `create` is used to encrypt data (creating ciphertext) and `update` is used to decrypt data (updating the ciphertext back to plaintext). Therefore, the policy allows both encryption and decryption, making option B correct.

Answer

The policy allows both encryption and decryption, but the capabilities should be "read" and "write" instead.

Answer

The policy allows encryption but not decryption, which is sufficient.

Answer

The policy incorrectly uses "create" and "update" for transit operations; it should use "read" and "write".

Question 18

Refer to the exhibit. A user with this policy tries to write a new secret to "secret/data/production/db". What will happen?

Accepted Answer

The write fails because the policy only allows read on production.. The policy only grants 'read' capability on the 'secret/data/production/*' path, which allows reading secrets but not creating or updating them. Writing a new secret requires 'create' or 'update' capabilities (or 'write' which encompasses both). Since the policy lacks these capabilities, the write operation fails regardless of whether the secret already exists.

Answer

The write succeeds if the secret already exists.

Answer

The write succeeds because the path matches.

Answer

The write fails because the user does not have list capability.

Question 19

A company uses Vault's KV v2 secrets engine. A policy is needed to allow a service to only update existing secrets at path "secret/data/service/config", but not create new ones. Which capabilities should be included?

Accepted Answer

["update"]. In Vault's KV v2 secrets engine, the 'update' capability is specifically required to modify an existing secret at a given path without the ability to create a new one. The 'create' capability is needed only for initial creation, and 'read' is not required for the update operation itself. Since the policy must allow updating existing secrets but not creating new ones, only the 'update' capability is necessary.

Answer

["read", "update"]

Answer

["write"]

Answer

["create", "update"]

Question 20

An administrator wants to create a policy that grants the ability to list all authentication methods enabled on the Vault server. Which path and capability are required?

Accepted Answer

path "sys/auth" { capabilities = ["list"] }. Option A. To list all enabled authentication methods, the required path is 'sys/auth' with the 'list' capability. The 'list' action returns the names of all auth methods. Option B is incorrect because it includes 'read', which is unnecessary and not required for listing. Option C is also incorrect because it only has 'read', which would only retrieve a specific method if the name is known. Option D uses a wildcard 'auth/*', which would grant list capability on all sub-paths under 'auth/', but the standard path for listing auth methods is 'sys/auth'. Therefore, option A is the most precise and correct.

Answer

path "sys/auth" { capabilities = ["read", "list"] }

Answer

path "sys/auth" { capabilities = ["read"] }

Answer

path "auth/*" { capabilities = ["list"] }