VA-003 Manage Vault leases Practice Question
Which two commands can be used to manually revoke leases? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
In the HashiCorp Vault exam, candidates often confuse lease revocation with token revocation, leading them to mistakenly choose `vault token revoke` (option B) when the question specifically asks about leases, not tokens.
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
✓
vault lease revoke <lease_id>
Option C, `vault lease revoke <lease_id>`, is correct because it directly revokes a single lease by its lease ID, immediately invalidating the associated secret and removing it from Vault's lease tracking. Option E, `vault lease revoke -prefix <prefix>`, is correct because the `-prefix` flag revokes all leases whose IDs begin with the given prefix, enabling bulk revocation of leases under a path or hierarchy. Option A, `vault secrets disable <path>`, is not a lease-revocation command; it disables a secrets engine at the given path, which revokes leases as a side effect but is not the manual lease-revocation operation asked for. Option B, `vault token revoke <token>`, revokes a token and its child tokens, not leases directly. Option D, `vault lease renew <lease_id>`, extends a lease's TTL rather than revoking it.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
vault secrets disable <path>
Why it's wrong here
Disabling the secrets engine destroys its configuration and all stored secrets rather than revoking individual leases, so it cannot perform the targeted lease revocation the question asks for. It is tempting because disabling a mount does immediately invalidate outstanding leases, which suits decommissioning an entire secrets path, not selective revocation.
- ✗
vault token revoke <token>
Why it's wrong here
vault token revoke invalidates the token and its child tokens, but it does not target a specific lease; the lease record persists until its TTL lapses. It is tempting because revoking a token does destroy the credentials it issued, yet lease-level revocation requires vault lease revoke with the lease_id.
- ✓
vault lease revoke <lease_id>
Why this is correct
vault lease revoke with a specific lease_id terminates that single lease immediately, invalidating its associated token or secret. This satisfies the stem's requirement for manual revocation of an individual lease rather than bulk or prefix-based revocation.
- ✗
vault lease renew <lease_id>
Why it's wrong here
vault lease renew extends a lease's TTL; it does not revoke it, and the lease remains valid until expiry. It is tempting because both commands operate on a lease_id, but renewal is the opposite operation. Revocation is performed with vault lease revoke, which invalidates the lease and its associated credentials immediately.
- ✓
vault lease revoke -prefix <prefix>
Why this is correct
`vault lease revoke -prefix <prefix>` revokes every lease sharing a path prefix in one operation, satisfying the stem's requirement to revoke leases manually. Unlike single-lease revocation, which needs a specific lease ID, the `-prefix` flag targets a whole group, making it ideal for bulk cleanup.
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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.