---
layout: docs
page_title: Introduction
description: >-
  Welcome to the intro guide to Vault! This guide is the best place to start
  with Vault. We cover what Vault is, what problems it can solve, how it
  compares to existing software, and contains a quick start for using Vault.
---

# What is Vault?

HashiCorp Vault is an identity-based secrets and encryption management system. A _secret_ is anything that you want to tightly control access to, such as API encryption keys, passwords, and certificates. Vault provides encryption services that are gated by authentication and authorization methods. Using Vault’s UI, CLI, or HTTP API, access to secrets and other sensitive data can be securely stored and managed, tightly controlled (restricted), and auditable.

If you are already familiar with the basics of Vault, the
[documentation](/vault/docs) provides a better reference guide for all
available features as well as internals.

## What is Vault?

HashiCorp Vault is an identity-based secrets and encryption management system.
It provides encryption services that are gated by authentication and authorization 
methods to ensure secure, auditable and restricted access to _secrets_. 
It is used to secure, store and protect secrets and other sensitive data using a UI, CLI, or HTTP API.

A secret is anything that you
want to tightly control access to, such as tokens, API keys, passwords, encryption keys or certificates.
Vault provides a unified interface to any secret, while providing tight access
control and recording a detailed audit log.

API keys for external services, credentials for service-oriented architecture
communication, etc. It can be difficult to understand who is accessing which secrets, especially since this can be platform-specific. Adding on key rolling, secure storage, and
detailed audit logs is almost impossible without a custom solution. This is
where Vault steps in.

Vault validates and authorizes clients (users, machines, apps) before providing them access to secrets or stored sensitive data.

![How Vault Works](/img/how-vault-works.png)

### How does Vault work?

Vault works primarily with tokens and a token is associated to the client's policy. Each policy is path-based and policy rules constrains the actions and accessibility to the paths for each client. With Vault, you can create tokens manually and assign them to your clients, or the clients can log in and obtain a token. The illustration below displays Vault's core workflow.

![Vault Workflow](/img/vault-workflow-diagram1.png)

 The core Vault workflow consists of four stages:

* **Authenticate:** Authentication in Vault is the process by which a client supplies information that Vault uses to determine if they are who they say they are. Once the client is authenticated against an auth method, a token is generated and associated to a policy.
* **Validation:** Vault validates the client against third-party trusted sources, such as Github, LDAP, AppRole, and more.
* **Authorize**: A client is matched against the Vault security policy.  This policy is a set of rules defining which API endpoints a client has access to with its Vault token. Policies provide a declarative way to grant or forbid access to certain paths and operations in Vault.
* **Access**: Vault grants access to secrets, keys, and encryption capabilities by issuing a token based on policies associated with the client’s identity. The client can then use their Vault token for future operations.

### Why Vault?

Most enterprises today have credentials sprawled across their organizations. Passwords, API keys, and credentials are stored in plain text, app source code, config files, and other locations. Because these credentials live everywhere, the sprawl can make it difficult and daunting to really know who has access and authorization to what. Having credentials in plain text also increases the potential for malicious attacks, both by internal and external attackers.

Vault was designed with these challenges in mind. Vault takes all of these credentials and centralizes them so that they are defined in one location, which reduces unwanted exposure to credentials. But Vault takes it a few steps further by making sure users, apps, and systems are authenticated and explicitly authorized to access resources, while also providing an audit trail that captures and preserves a history of clients' actions.

The key features of Vault are:

- **Secure Secret Storage**: Arbitrary key/value secrets can be stored
  in Vault. Vault encrypts these secrets prior to writing them to persistent
  storage, so gaining access to the raw storage isn't enough to access
  your secrets. Vault can write to disk, [Consul](https://www.consul.io/),
  and more.

- **Dynamic Secrets**: Vault can generate secrets on-demand for some
  systems, such as AWS or SQL databases. For example, when an application
  needs to access an S3 bucket, it asks Vault for credentials, and Vault
  will generate an AWS keypair with valid permissions on demand. After
  creating these dynamic secrets, Vault will also automatically revoke them
  after the lease is up.

- **Data Encryption**: Vault can encrypt and decrypt data without storing
  it. This allows security teams to define encryption parameters and
  developers to store encrypted data in a location such as a SQL database
  without having to design their own encryption methods.

- **Leasing and Renewal**: All secrets in Vault have a _lease_ associated
  with them. At the end of the lease, Vault will automatically revoke that
  secret. Clients are able to renew leases via built-in renew APIs.

- **Revocation**: Vault has built-in support for secret revocation. Vault
  can revoke not only single secrets, but a tree of secrets, for example
  all secrets read by a specific user, or all secrets of a particular type.
  Revocation assists in key rolling as well as locking down systems in the
  case of an intrusion.

-> **Tip**: Learn more about Vault [use cases](/vault/docs/use-cases).

### What is HCP Vault?

HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) Vault is a hosted version of Vault, which is operated by HashiCorp to allow organizations to get up and running quickly. HCP Vault uses the same binary as self-hosted Vault, which means you will have a consistent user experience. You can use the same Vault clients to communicate with HCP Vault as you use to communicate with a self-hosted Vault. Refer to the [HCP Vault](/hcp/docs/vault) documentation to learn more.

-> **Hands On:** Try the [Get started](/vault/tutorials/cloud) tutorials to set up a managed Vault cluster.

### Community

We welcome questions, suggestions, and contributions from the community.

* Ask questions in [HashiCorp Discuss](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/c/vault/30).
* Read our [contributing guide](https://github.com/hashicorp/vault/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).
* [Submit an issue](https://github.com/hashicorp/vault/issues/new/choose) for bugs and feature requests.
