VA-003 Assess Vault tokens Practice Question
A security audit reveals that many Vault tokens in an organization are orphan tokens (tokens with no parent). The tokens were created using a batch token creation script that did not set an explicit parent. The security team is concerned about these orphan tokens because they cannot be managed through the usual parent-child hierarchy. They want to revoke all orphan tokens created more than 30 days ago. However, the team does not have a list of token IDs for these tokens. Which approach should the team take to revoke the orphan tokens?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume orphan tokens can be managed through a parent-child hierarchy, forgetting that orphan tokens have no parent, making recursive revocation impossible.
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
✓
If the team stored token accessors at creation time, use the accessors to revoke the tokens via the /auth/token/revoke-accessor endpoint.
Token accessors are non-sensitive identifiers that can be used to revoke tokens without needing the token ID itself. If the team stored the accessors when the batch tokens were created, they can call the `/auth/token/revoke-accessor` endpoint to revoke each orphan token individually. This approach directly addresses the lack of a token ID list while respecting the security requirement to revoke only orphan tokens older than 30 days.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reinitialize Vault and restore from a snapshot taken before the orphan tokens were created.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: This is an extreme and disruptive approach; other methods should be attempted first.
- ✓
If the team stored token accessors at creation time, use the accessors to revoke the tokens via the /auth/token/revoke-accessor endpoint.
Why this is correct
Correct: Accessors allow revocation without the token ID, making them ideal for orphan tokens if accessors were captured.
- ✗
Use the token's parent token (the batch token creation script's token) to recursively revoke all children, which includes orphan tokens.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Orphan tokens have no parent, so they cannot be revoked via a parent token's recursive revocation.
- ✗
Revoke the batch token creation script's token and all its children, which will indirectly revoke orphan tokens associated with that script.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Orphan tokens are not children of the creation script's token, so revoking that token does not affect them.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This VA-003 practice question is part of Courseiva's free HashiCorp 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 VA-003 exam.