HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate (002) Practice Exam

HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate (002) Practice Exam

The HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate (002) certification validates your competency in using HashiCorp Vault, a leading open-source tool for managing secrets within infrastructure environments. By earning this credential, you demonstrate your ability to leverage Vault's functionalities to effectively secure and control access to sensitive data like passwords, API keys, and certificates.

Who Should Take This Exam?

This certification is well-suited for a range of individuals, including:

• Cloud Engineers: Aspiring or existing cloud engineers specializing in security, development, or operations, seeking to strengthen their knowledge of securing data with Vault.
• Security Professionals: Individuals working in security roles who want to demonstrate expertise in securing sensitive data within cloud environments.
• IT Professionals: Anyone working with infrastructure as code (IaC) tools who wants to gain proficiency in using Vault to manage secrets within their infrastructure.

Are There Prerequisites?

There are no mandatory prerequisites for taking the exam. However, to maximize your success, it's recommended that you possess:

• Basic understanding of cloud computing concepts
• Experience working with IaC tools
• Familiarity with fundamental security principles

Roles and Responsibilities 

• Implement Secure Secret Management: Effectively utilize Vault to store, manage, and access secrets in a secure and controlled manner.
• Integrate Vault with Existing Tools: Seamlessly integrate Vault with other tools and platforms within your infrastructure to centralize secret management.
• Enforce Access Controls: Configure robust access controls within Vault to define who can access specific secrets and how they can be used.
• Maintain Vault Security: Understand best practices for deploying and configuring Vault to maintain a high level of security within your infrastructure.

Exam Details

• Exam Type: Multiple choice
• Exam Format: Online proctored
• Exam Duration: 1 hour
• Exam Price: $70.50 USD (plus locally applicable taxes and fees)
• Exam Language: English
• Validity: 2 years

Exam Objectives

The HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate Exam covers the following topics - 

1 Compare authentication methods

• 1a Describe authentication methods
• 1b Choose an authentication method based on use case
• 1c Differentiate human vs. system auth methods

2 Create Vault policies

• 2a Illustrate the value of Vault policy
• 2b Describe Vault policy syntax: path
• 2c Describe Vault policy syntax: capabilities
• 2d Craft a Vault policy based on requirements

3 Assess Vault tokens

• 3a Describe Vault token
• 3b Differentiate between service and batch tokens. Choose one based on use-case
• 3c Describe root token uses and lifecycle
• 3d Define token accessors
• 3e Explain time-to-live
• 3f Explain orphaned tokens
• 3g Create tokens based on need

4 Manage Vault leases

• 4a Explain the purpose of a lease ID
• 4b Renew leases
• 4c Revoke leases

5 Compare and configure Vault secrets engines

• 5a Choose a secret method based on use case
• 5b Contrast dynamic secrets vs. static secrets and their use cases
• 5c Define transit engine
• 5d Define secrets engines

6 Utilize Vault CLI

• 6a Authenticate to Vault
• 6b Configure authentication methods
• 6c Configure Vault policies
• 6d Access Vault secrets
• 6e Enable Secret engines
• 6f Configure environment variables

7 Utilize Vault UI

• 7a Authenticate to Vault
• 7b Configure authentication methods
• 7c Configure Vault policies
• 7d Access Vault secrets
• 7e Enable Secret engines

8 Be aware of the Vault API

• 8a Authenticate to Vault via Curl
• 8b Access Vault secrets via Curl

9 Explain Vault architecture

• 9a Describe the encryption of data stored by Vault
• 9b Describe cluster strategy
• 9c Describe storage backends
• 9d Describe the Vault agent
• 9e Describe secrets caching
• 9f Be aware of identities and groups
• 9g Describe Shamir secret sharing and unsealing
• 9h Be aware of replication
• 9i Describe seal/unseal
• 9j Explain response wrapping
• 9k Explain the value of short-lived, dynamically generated secrets

10 Explain encryption as a service

• 10a Configure transit secret engine
• 10b Encrypt and decrypt secrets
• 10c Rotate the encryption key