CCSP Cloud Application Security Practice Question
A company is moving a legacy application to the cloud. The application uses hard-coded passwords for database connections. Which secure development practice should be implemented to address this issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the distinction between 'encryption at rest' (protecting stored data) and 'secrets management' (protecting credentials used to access that data), leading candidates to confuse data protection with credential protection.
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
✓
Secrets management
Hard-coded passwords in application code violate the principle of least privilege and create a persistent security risk if the code is exposed. Secrets management (D) addresses this by storing database credentials in a secure, centralized vault (e.g., HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager) and retrieving them at runtime via API calls, eliminating the need to embed passwords in source code or configuration files.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Multi-factor authentication
Why it's wrong here
Multi-factor authentication strengthens interactive user logins; it does nothing for an application authenticating to a database with embedded credentials. MFA suits protecting human access to consoles and portals. Hard-coded secrets demand removal from source and retrieval from a managed secrets store at runtime.
- ✗
Input validation
Why it's wrong here
Input validation constrains data entering the application; it cannot remove credentials already embedded in source code or configuration. It suits preventing injection and malformed input. Hard-coded passwords require externalising secrets into a vault or managed identity, not validating inputs.
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Encryption at rest
Why it's wrong here
Encryption at rest protects stored data from unauthorised disclosure, but hard-coded credentials remain embedded in source code and configuration, so they are still exposed to anyone reading the repository. It is tempting because it is a core data-at-rest control, and would be correct where the requirement is protecting database files or backups from media theft.
- ✓
Secrets management
Why this is correct
Secrets management extracts hard-coded credentials into a dedicated vault that issues short-lived, rotated credentials at runtime, removing passwords from source and images. This directly satisfies the stem's constraint by eliminating the embedded database passwords that would otherwise leak through repositories and container layers.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CCSP practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 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 CCSP exam.