VA-003 Assess Vault tokens Practice Question
An administrator needs to revoke a token but wants to keep all child tokens that were created using this token as the parent. Which revocation operation should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common trap in Vault exams is confusing 'orphan' revocation with 'immediate' revocation. Candidates may incorrectly assume that all token revocations are recursive, forgetting that the -orphan flag specifically preserves child tokens. Some may also mistakenly think 'sudo' revocation is required for this operation.
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
✓
Orphan token revocation
Orphan token revocation is the correct operation because it revokes the parent token while preserving all child tokens that were created using it. This is achieved by removing the parent token's accessor and its associated policies, but leaving the child tokens' hierarchy intact so they continue to function independently. In Vault, this is done via the `vault token revoke -orphan` command or the corresponding API endpoint.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Orphan token revocation
Why this is correct
Orphan revocation removes the token from the hierarchy but preserves children.
- ✗
Immediate token revocation
Why it's wrong here
Immediate revocation revokes the token and all children.
- ✗
Sudo token revocation
Why it's wrong here
Sudo is a capability, not a revocation operation.
- ✗
Self token revocation
Why it's wrong here
Self revocation revokes the token making the request, with no orphan option.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This VA-003 question is part of Courseiva's 498-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.