CV0-004 Security Practice Question
A company is migrating a legacy application to a Kubernetes cluster in the cloud. The application requires a database password to be accessible at runtime. Which approach aligns with cloud security best practices for secrets management?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use a secrets management solution like HashiCorp Vault with a sidecar container to inject the password
Storing secrets in a dedicated secrets manager like HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager is recommended. Kubernetes Secrets should be avoided if possible, and secrets should never be hardcoded or stored in environment variables directly.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Store the password as a Kubernetes Secret and mount it as a volume
Why it's wrong here
Kubernetes Secrets are base64 encoded, not encrypted at rest by default, and may not be sufficiently secure.
- ✗
Hardcode the password in the application code
Why it's wrong here
Hardcoding secrets is a security vulnerability.
- ✓
Use a secrets management solution like HashiCorp Vault with a sidecar container to inject the password
Why this is correct
Vault provides secure, audited access to secrets and integrates well with Kubernetes.
- ✗
Inject the password as an environment variable in the pod spec
Why it's wrong here
Environment variables can be exposed in logs or debugging tools.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CV0-004 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CV0-004 exam.