A Complete Guide to Securing Secrets in AWS Lambda
1 min read
Summary
Secrets, such as API keys, database credentials and tokens, are often stored as environment variables in AWS Lambda functions, allowing configuration changes without changing the code directly.
This method is convenient, but raises important security considerations around access and encryption of these secrets, and the potential impact of any leaked secrets on the wider business.
This article provides a comprehensive guide to securing secrets in AWS Lambda environments, including the use of AWS KMS for encryption, AWS Secrets Manager and AWS Parameter Store for secret management, and the enrolment of these secrets into cloud security tools such as AWS CloudTrail for logging and AWS Config for tracking changes to the environment.
It includes references and best practices for each point covered, based on up-to-date AWS documentation and cloud security methodologies.
The article also explains how environment variables work in AWS Lambda, which keys and values should be used, and the limits and specifications that apply to these.