Medusa

Table of Contents

• About
• Supported HashiCorp Vault versions
• How to use
  • Setting up Medusa
  • Importing secrets
  • Exporting secrets
  • Deleting secrets
  • Decrypt secrets
  • Kubernetes examples
  • Docker examples
• Secure secret management outside Vault
• Help
• How to contribute

About

Medusa is a cli tool currently for importing and exporting a json or yaml file into HashiCorp Vault.
Medusa currently supports kv1 and kv2 Vault secret engines.

Supported HashiCorp Vault versions

The minimum required HashiCorp Vault version that is supported by Medusa is Vault version 0.10.0. Medusa has not been tested with earlier verisons than Vault version 0.10.0.

How to use

In this section you can read about how to configure and use Medusa.
You can also watch the Medusa 101 introduction video to get a quick introduction on how to use Medusa for importing and exporting secrets in HashiCorp Vault.

Setting up Medusa

Config file

It's possible to create a config file for Medusa to read in your homefolder ~/.medusa/config.yaml that looks like this

VAULT_ADDR: https://192.168.86.41:8201
VAULT_SKIP_VERIFY: true
VAULT_TOKEN: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

If you haven't set any environment variables, or given any parameters, this file will tell Medusa where to connect, the token to use and to VAULT_SKIP_VERIFY should be enabled or not.

Environment variables

It's also possible configure Medusa via environment variables by setting them like this:

export VAULT_ADDR=https://192.168.86.41:8201
export VAULT_SKIP_VERIFY=true
export VAULT_TOKEN=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

Parameters

Get help with ./medusa -h You can configure Medusa in the commands you run like this :

  -a, --address string   Address of the Vault server
  -k, --insecure         Allow insecure server connections when using SSL
  -t, --token string     Vault authentication token

Use them like this:

./medusa import secret ./test/data/import-example-1.yaml --address="https://0.0.0.0:8201" --token="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" --insecure
./medusa export secret/A --address="https://0.0.0.0:8201" --token="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" --format="json" --insecure

Importing secrets

Get help with ./medusa import -h

Import a yaml file into a Vault instance

Usage: medusa import [vault path] ['file' to import | '-' read from stdin] [flags]

  Flags:
  -d, --decrypt              Decrypt the Vault data before importing
  -m, --engine-type string   Specify the secret engine type [kv1|kv2] (default "kv2")
  -h, --help                 help for import
  -p, --private-key string   Location of the RSA private key

  Global Flags:
  -a, --address string       Address of the Vault server
  -k, --insecure             Allow insecure server connections when using SSL
  -n, --namespace string     Namespace within the Vault server (Enterprise only)
  -t, --token string         Vault authentication token

Example:

# Read from file
./medusa import secret ./test/data/import-example-1.yaml -a="https://0.0.0.0:8201" -t="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" --insecure
Secret successfully written to Vault instance on path [/A/B/E]
Secret successfully written to Vault instance on path [/A/Xa/Z]
Secret successfully written to Vault instance on path [/A/F/G]
Secret successfully written to Vault instance on path [/A/B/C/D]
Secret successfully written to Vault instance on path [/A/B/C/D/Db]

# Read from file
./medusa import secret/folder ./test/data/import-example-1.yaml -a="https://0.0.0.0:8201" -t="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" --insecure
Secret successfully written to Vault instance on path [folder/A/F/G]
Secret successfully written to Vault instance on path [folder/A/B/C/D]
Secret successfully written to Vault instance on path [folder/A/B/C/D/Db]
Secret successfully written to Vault instance on path [folder/A/B/E]
Secret successfully written to Vault instance on path [folder/A/Xa/Z]

# Read from stdin
cat ./test/data/import-example-1.yaml | ./medusa import secret -
Secret successfully written to Vault [https://localhost:8201] using path [/A/F/G]
Secret successfully written to Vault [https://localhost:8201] using path [/A/B/C/D]
Secret successfully written to Vault [https://localhost:8201] using path [/A/B/C/D/Db]
Secret successfully written to Vault [https://localhost:8201] using path [/A/B/E]
Secret successfully written to Vault [https://localhost:8201] using path [/A/Xa/Z]

Exporting secrets

Get help with ./medusa export -h and yaml is the default output format Medusa import will take a [vault path] with [flags]

  Flags:
  -e, --encrypt              Encrypt the exported Vault data
  -m, --engine-type string   Specify the secret engine type [kv1|kv2] (default "kv2")
  -f, --format string        Specify the export format [yaml|json] (default "yaml")
  -h, --help                 help for export
  -o, --output string        Write to file instead of stdout
  -p, --public-key string    Location of the RSA public key

  Global Flags:
  -a, --address string       Address of the Vault server
  -k, --insecure             Allow insecure server connections when using SSL
  -n, --namespace string     Namespace within the Vault server (Enterprise only)
  -t, --token string         Vault authentication token

Example:

./medusa export secret --address="https://0.0.0.0:8201" --token="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" --format="yaml" --insecure
A:
  B:
    C:
      D:
        Db:
          DBa: value 1
          DBb: value 2
    E:
      Ea: value 1
      Eb: value 2
  F:
    G:
      Ga: value1
  Xa:
    Z:
      Za: value 1
      Zb: value 2

Deleting secrets

Get help with ./medusa delete -h Medusa delete will take a [vault path] with [flags]

  Flags:
  -y, --auto-approve         Skip interactive approval of plan before deletion
  -m, --engine-type string   Specify the secret engine type [kv1|kv2] (default "kv2")
  -h, --help                 help for import

  Global Flags:
  -a, --address string       Address of the Vault server
  -k, --insecure             Allow insecure server connections when using SSL
  -n, --namespace string     Namespace within the Vault server (Enterprise only)
  -t, --token string         Vault authentication token

Example:

./medusa delete secret/production --address="https://0.0.0.0:8201" --token="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" --insecure
Deleting secret [secret/production/users/cart/database]
Deleting secret [secret/production/users/cart/database/users/readuser]
Deleting secret [secret/production/users/cart/database/users/writeuser]
Deleting secret [secret/production/users/user/database]
Deleting secret [secret/production/users/user/database/users/readuser]
? Do you want to delete the 25 secrets listed above? Only 'y' will be accepted to approve.? [y/N] y
The secrets has now been deleted


./medusa delete secret/staging --address="https://0.0.0.0:8201" --token="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" --insecure --auto-approve
Deleting secret [secret/staging/users/cart/database]
Deleting secret [secret/staging/users/cart/database/users/readuser]
Deleting secret [secret/staging/users/cart/database/users/writeuser]
Deleting secret [secret/staging/users/user/database]
Deleting secret [secret/staging/users/user/database/users/readuser]
The secrets has now been deleted

Decrypt secrets

Get help with ./medusa decrypt -h Medusa decrypt will take a [FILE path] with [flags]

  Flags:
  -p, --private-key string   Location of the RSA private key

Example:

# Write to stdout
./medusa decrypt encrypted-export.txt --private-key private-key.pem
env:
  dev:
    nomad:
      token: secret-token
  production:
    nomad:
      token: secret-other-token


# Write to file
./medusa decrypt encrypted-export.txt --private-key private-key.pem > plaintext-export.yaml

Encrypt secrets

Get help with ./medusa encrypt -h Medusa encrypt will take a [FILE path] with [flags]

  Flags:
  -o, --output string       Write to file instead of stdout
  -p, --public-key string   Location of the RSA public key

Example:

# Write to stdout
./medusa encrypt plaintext-export.txt --public-key public-key.pem
<Encrypted data>

# Write to file
./medusa encrypt plaintext-export.txt --public-key public-key.pem --output encrypted-export.txt.b64

Secure secret management outside Vault

Medusa will help you securely manage your secrets outside Vault. This could for instance be as a backup of your Vault data or while your secrets are being transported between Vault instances.
Medusa uses a hybrid encryption solution in order to keep your secrets safe.

Key generation

When exporting your Vault secrets using Medusa, the secrets are encrypted using the AES symmetric encryption algorithm. The 256-bit AES encryption key is randomly generated by Medusa every time the export command is being called.
Then the AES key is encrypted by the provided RSA public key and then stored together with the encrypted secrets.
This ensures that both the exported secrets and AES enctyption key can be transfered safely between Vault instances.
The exported secrets and AES enctyption key can only be decrypted by a person who is in possession of the RSA private key.

The RSA key-pair can be generated by the following two commands:

# Generate private key
openssl genrsa -out private-key.pem 4096

# Generate public key
openssl rsa -in private-key.pem -pubout -out public-key.pem

Exporting and encrypting Vault secrets

Encrypting your Vault export is easy using Medusa. Simply add the following two flags to your command:

-e, --encrypt bool       Encrypt the exported Vault data [true/false]
-p, --public-key string  Location of the RSA public key

Use them like this:

./medusa export kv --address="https://my-vault-server.com" --token="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" --insecure --encrypt="true" --public-key="public-key.pem" --output="encrypted-vault-secrets.txt"

Importing and decrypting Vault secrets

Decrypting and importing your encrypted Vault export can be done by adding the following two flags to your command:

-d, --decrypt bool        Decrypt the Vault data before importing [true/false]
-p, --private-key string  Location of the RSA private key

Use them like this:

./medusa import kv encrypted-vault-secrets.txt --address="https://my-vault-server.com" --token="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" --insecure --decrypt="true" --private-key="private-key.pem"

Help

To test out medusa on your laptop

Medusa is a cli tool currently for importing a json or yaml file into HashiCorp Vault.
Created by Jonas Vinther & Henrik Høegh.

Usage:
  medusa [command]

Available Commands:
  completion  Generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell
  decrypt     Decrypt an encrypted Vault output file into plaintext in stdout
  delete      Recursively delete all secrets below the given path
  encrypt     Encrypt a Vault export file onto stdout or to an output file
  export      Export Vault secrets as yaml
  help        Help about any command
  import      Import a yaml file into a Vault instance
  version     Print the version number of Medusa

Flags:
  -a, --address string                Address of the Vault server
  -h, --help                          help for medusa
  -k, --insecure                      Allow insecure server connections when using SSL
      --kubernetes                    Authenticate using the Kubernetes JWT token
      --kubernetes-auth-path string   Authentication mount point within Vault for Kubernetes
  -n, --namespace string              Namespace within the Vault server (Enterprise only)
  -r, --role string                   Vault role for Kubernetes JWT authentication
  -t, --token string                  Vault authentication token

Use "medusa [command] --help" for more information about a command.