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42 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: "docs"
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page_title: "Identity Secret Backend"
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sidebar_current: "docs-secrets-identity"
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description: |-
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The Identity secret backend for Vault manages client identities.
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---
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# Identity Secret Backend
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Name: `identity`
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The Identity secret backend is the identity management solution for Vault. It
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internally maintains the clients who are recognized by Vault. Each client is
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internally termed as an `Entity`. An entity can have multiple `Aliases`. For
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example, a single user who has accounts in both Github and LDAP, can be mapped
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to a single entity in Vault that has 2 aliases, one of type Github and one of
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type LDAP. When a client authenticates via any of the credential backend
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(except the Token backend), Vault creates a new entity and attaches a new
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alias to it, if a corresponding entity doesn't already exist. The entity identifier will
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be tied to the authenticated token. When such tokens are put to use, their
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entity identifiers are audit logged, marking a trail of actions performed by
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specific users.
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Identity store allows operators to **manage** the entities in Vault. Entities
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can be created and aliases can be tied to entities, via the ACL'd API. There
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can be policies set on the entities which adds capabilities to the tokens that
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are tied to entity identifiers. The capabilities granted to tokens via the
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entities are **an addition** to the existing capabilities of the token and
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**not** a replacement. The capabilities of the token that get inherited from
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entities are computed dynamically at request time. This provides flexibility in
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controlling the access of tokens that are already issued.
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This backend will be mounted by default. This backend cannot be unmounted or
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remounted.
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## API
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The Identity secret backend has a full HTTP API. Please see the
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[Identity secret backend API](/api/secret/identity/index.html) for more
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details.
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