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KV secrets engine (API)

This backend can be run in one of two versions. Each of which have a distinct API. Choose the version below you are running. For more information on the KV secrets engine see the Vault kv documentation.

KV secrets engine - version 1 (API)

This is the API documentation for the Vault KV secrets engine. For general information about the usage and operation of the version 1 KV secrets engine, please see the Vault KV documentation. For information about the differences between KV version 1 and version 2, please see the KV overview documentation.

Note: This documentation assumes the kv secrets engine is enabled at the /secret path in Vault. Since it is possible to enable secrets engines at any location, please update your API calls accordingly.

Read secret

This endpoint retrieves the secret at the specified location.

Method
Path

GET

/secret/:path

Parameters

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to read. This is specified as part of the URL.

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/my-secret

Sample response

{
  "auth": null,
  "data": {
    "foo": "bar",
    "ttl": "1h"
  },
  "lease_duration": 3600,
  "lease_id": "",
  "renewable": false
}

Note: the lease_duration field, which will be populated if a "ttl" field was included in the data, is advisory. No lease is created. This is a way for writers to indicate how often a given value should be re-read by the client. See the Vault KV secrets engine documentation for more details.

List secrets

This endpoint returns a list of key names at the specified location. Folders are suffixed with /. The input must be a folder; list on a file will not return a value. Note that no policy-based filtering is performed on keys; do not encode sensitive information in key names. The values themselves are not accessible via this API.

Method
Path

LIST

/secret/:path

Parameters

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secrets to list. This is specified as part of the URL.

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request LIST \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/my-secret

Sample response

The example below shows output for a query path of secret/ when there are secrets at secret/foo and secret/foo/bar; note the difference in the two entries.

{
  "auth": null,
  "data": {
    "keys": ["foo", "foo/"]
  },
  "lease_duration": 2764800,
  "lease_id": "",
  "renewable": false
}

Create/Update secret

This endpoint stores a secret at the specified location. If the value does not yet exist, the calling token must have an ACL policy granting the create capability. If the value already exists, the calling token must have an ACL policy granting the update capability.

Method
Path

POST

/secret/:path

Parameters

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secrets to create/update. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • :key (string: "") – Specifies a key in the payload, paired with an associated value, to be held at the given location. Multiple key/value pairs can be specified, and all will be returned on a read operation. A key called ttl will trigger some special behavior. See the Vault KV secrets engine documentation for details.

Sample payload

{
  "foo": "bar",
  "zip": "zap"
}

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request POST \
    --data @payload.json \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/my-secret

Delete secret

This endpoint deletes the secret at the specified location.

Method
Path

DELETE

/secret/:path

Parameters

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to delete. This is specified as part of the URL.

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request DELETE \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/my-secret

KV secrets engine - version 2 (API)

This is the API documentation for the Vault KV secrets engine while running in versioned mode. For general information about the usage and operation of the version 2 KV secrets engine, please see the Vault KV documentation. For information about the differences between KV version 1 and version 2, please see the KV overview documentation.

Configure the KV engine

This path configures backend level settings that are applied to every key in the key-value store.

Method
Path

POST

/:secret-mount-path/config

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount to config, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • max_versions (int: 0) – The number of versions to keep per key. This value applies to all keys, but a key's metadata setting can overwrite this value. Once a key has more than the configured allowed versions, the oldest version will be permanently deleted. When 0 is used or the value is unset, Vault will keep 10 versions.

  • cas_required (bool: false) – If true all keys will require the cas parameter to be set on all write requests.

  • delete_version_after (string:"0s") – If set, specifies the length of time before a version is deleted. Accepts duration format strings.

Sample payload

{
  "max_versions": 5,
  "cas_required": false,
  "delete_version_after": "3h25m19s"
}

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request POST \
    --data @payload.json \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/config

Read KV engine configuration

This path retrieves the current configuration for the secrets backend at the given path.

Method
Path

GET

/:secret-mount-path/config

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount to read the config, of, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/config

Sample response

{
  "data": {
    "cas_required": false,
    "delete_version_after": "3h25m19s",
    "max_versions": 0
  }
}

Read secret version

This endpoint retrieves the secret at the specified location. The metadata fields created_time, deletion_time, destroyed, and version are version specific. The custom_metadata field is part of the secret's key metadata and is included in the response whether or not the calling token has read access to the associated metadata endpoint.

Method
Path

GET

/:secret-mount-path/data/:path?version=:version-number

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to read, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to read. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • version (int: 0) - Specifies the version to return. If not set the latest version is returned.

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/data/my-secret?version=2

Sample response

{
  "data": {
    "data": {
      "foo": "bar"
    },
    "metadata": {
      "created_time": "2018-03-22T02:24:06.945319214Z",
      "custom_metadata": {
        "owner": "jdoe",
        "mission_critical": "false"
      },
      "deletion_time": "",
      "destroyed": false,
      "version": 2
    }
  }
}

Create/Update secret

This endpoint creates a new version of a secret at the specified location. If the value does not yet exist, the calling token must have an ACL policy granting the create capability. If the value already exists, the calling token must have an ACL policy granting the update capability.

Method
Path

POST

/:secret-mount-path/data/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to update, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to update. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • options (Map: <optional>) – An object that holds option settings.

    • cas (int: <optional>) - This flag is required if cas_required is set to true on either the secret or the engine's config. If not set the write will be allowed. In order for a write to be successful, cas must be set to the current version of the secret. If set to 0 a write will only be allowed if the key doesn't exist as unset keys do not have any version information. Also remember that soft deletes do not remove any underlying version data from storage. In order to write to a soft deleted key, the cas parameter must match the key's current version.

  • data (Map: <required>) – The contents of the data map will be stored and returned on read.

Sample payload

{
  "options": {
    "cas": 0
  },
  "data": {
    "foo": "bar",
    "zip": "zap"
  }
}

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request POST \
    --data @payload.json \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/data/my-secret

Sample response

{
  "data": {
    "created_time": "2018-03-22T02:36:43.986212308Z",
    "custom_metadata": {
      "owner": "jdoe",
      "mission_critical": "false"
    },
    "deletion_time": "",
    "destroyed": false,
    "version": 1
  }
}

Patch secret

This endpoint provides the ability to patch an existing secret at the specified location. The secret must neither be deleted nor destroyed. The calling token must have an ACL policy granting the patch capability. Currently, only JSON merge patch is supported and must be specified using a Content-Type header value of application/merge-patch+json. A new version will be created upon successfully applying a patch with the provided data.

Method
Path

PATCH

/:secret-mount-path/data/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to patch, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to patch. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • options (Map: <optional>) – An object that holds option settings.

    • cas (int: <optional>) - This flag is required if cas_required is set to true on either the secret or the engine's config. In order for a write to be successful, cas must be set to the current version of the secret. A patch operation must be attempted on an existing key, thus the provided cas value must be greater than 0.

  • data (Map: <required>) – The contents of the data map will be applied as a partial update to the existing entry via a JSON merge patch to the existing entry.

Sample payload

{
  "options": {
    "cas": 1
  },
  "data": {
    "foo": "a",
    "bar": {
      "baz": "b"
    }
  }
}

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --header "Content-Type: application/merge-patch+json"
    --request PATCH \
    --data @payload.json \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/data/my-secret

Sample response

{
  "data": {
    "created_time": "2021-09-10T15:26:08.684999Z",
    "custom_metadata": {
      "owner": "jdoe",
      "mission_critical": "false"
    },
    "deletion_time": "",
    "destroyed": false,
    "version": 2
  }
}

Read secret subkeys

This endpoint provides the subkeys within a secret entry that exists at the requested path. The secret entry at this path will be retrieved and stripped of all data by replacing underlying values of leaf keys (i.e. non-map keys or map keys with no underlying subkeys) with null.

Method
Path

GET

/:secret-mount-path/subkeys/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to read, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to read. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • version (int: 0) - Specifies the version to return. If not set the latest version is returned.

  • depth (int: 0) - Specifies the deepest nesting level to provide in the output. The default value 0 will not impose any limit. If non-zero, keys that reside at the specified depth value will be artificially treated as leaves and will thus be null even if further underlying subkeys exist.

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/subkeys/my-secret?version=1

Sample secret data

{
  "foo": "abc",
  "bar": {
    "baz": "def"
  },
  "quux": {}
}

Sample response

{
  "subkeys": {
    "foo": null,
    "bar": {
      "baz": null
    },
    "quux": null
  },
  "metadata": {
    "created_time": "2021-12-14T20:28:00.773477Z",
    "custom_metadata": null,
    "deletion_time": "",
    "destroyed": false,
    "version": 1
  }
}

Delete latest version of secret

This endpoint issues a soft delete of the secret's latest version at the specified location. This marks the version as deleted and will stop it from being returned from reads, but the underlying data will not be removed. A delete can be undone using the undelete path.

Method
Path

DELETE

/:secret-mount-path/data/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to delete, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to delete. This is specified as part of the URL.

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request DELETE \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/data/my-secret

Delete secret versions

This endpoint issues a soft delete of the specified versions of the secret. This marks the versions as deleted and will stop them from being returned from reads, but the underlying data will not be removed. A delete can be undone using the undelete path.

Method
Path

POST

/:secret-mount-path/delete/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to delete, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to delete. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • versions ([]int: <required>) - The versions to be deleted. The versioned data will not be deleted, but it will no longer be returned in normal get requests.

Sample payload

{
  "versions": [1, 2]
}

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request POST \
    --data @payload.json \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/delete/my-secret

Undelete secret versions

Undeletes the data for the provided version and path in the key-value store. This restores the data, allowing it to be returned on get requests.

Method
Path

POST

/:secret-mount-path/undelete/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to undelete, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to undelete. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • versions ([]int: <required>) - The versions to undelete. The versions will be restored and their data will be returned on normal get requests.

Sample payload

{
  "versions": [1, 2]
}

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request POST \
    --data @payload.json \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/undelete/my-secret

Destroy secret versions

Permanently removes the specified version data for the provided key and version numbers from the key-value store.

Method
Path

PUT

/:secret-mount-path/destroy/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to destroy, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to destroy. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • versions ([]int: <required>) - The versions to destroy. Their data will be permanently deleted.

Sample payload

{
  "versions": [1, 2]
}

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request PUT \
    --data @payload.json \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/destroy/my-secret

List secrets

This endpoint returns a list of key names at the specified location. Folders are suffixed with /. The input must be a folder; list on a file will not return a value. Note that no policy-based filtering is performed on keys; do not encode sensitive information in key names. The values themselves are not accessible via this command.

To list secrets for KV v2, a user must have a policy granting them the list capability on this /metadata/ path - even if all the rest of their interactions with the KV v2 are via the /data/ APIs. Access to at least list the /metadata/ path should typically also be granted.

Method
Path

LIST

/:secret-mount-path/metadata/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to list, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secrets to list. This is specified as part of the URL.

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request LIST \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/metadata/my-secret

Sample response

The example below shows output for a query path of secret/ when there are secrets at secret/foo and secret/foo/bar; note the difference in the two entries.

{
  "data": {
    "keys": ["foo", "foo/"]
  }
}

Read secret metadata

This endpoint retrieves the metadata and versions for the secret at the specified path. Metadata is version-agnostic.

Method
Path

GET

/:secret-mount-path/metadata/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to read, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to read. This is specified as part of the URL.

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/metadata/my-secret

Sample response

{
  "data": {
    "cas_required": false,
    "created_time": "2018-03-22T02:24:06.945319214Z",
    "current_version": 3,
    "delete_version_after": "3h25m19s",
    "max_versions": 0,
    "oldest_version": 0,
    "updated_time": "2018-03-22T02:36:43.986212308Z",
    "custom_metadata": {
      "foo": "abc",
      "bar": "123",
      "baz": "5c07d823-3810-48f6-a147-4c06b5219e84"
    },
    "versions": {
      "1": {
        "created_time": "2018-03-22T02:24:06.945319214Z",
        "deletion_time": "",
        "destroyed": false
      },
      "2": {
        "created_time": "2018-03-22T02:36:33.954880664Z",
        "deletion_time": "",
        "destroyed": false
      },
      "3": {
        "created_time": "2018-03-22T02:36:43.986212308Z",
        "deletion_time": "",
        "destroyed": false
      }
    }
  }
}

Create/Update metadata

This endpoint creates or updates the metadata of a secret at the specified location. It does not create a new version.

Method
Path

POST

/:secret-mount-path/metadata/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to update, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to update. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • max_versions (int: 0) – The number of versions to keep per key. If not set, the backend’s configured max version is used. Once a key has more than the configured allowed versions, the oldest version will be permanently deleted.

  • cas_required (bool: false) – If true, the key will require the cas parameter to be set on all write requests. If false, the backend’s configuration will be used.

  • delete_version_after (string:"0s") – Set the delete_version_after value to a duration to specify the deletion_time for all new versions written to this key. If not set, the backend's delete_version_after will be used. If the value is greater than the backend's delete_version_after, the backend's delete_version_after will be used. Accepts duration format strings.

  • custom_metadata (map<string|string>: nil) - A map of arbitrary string to string valued user-provided metadata meant to describe the secret.

Sample payload

{
  "max_versions": 5,
  "cas_required": false,
  "delete_version_after": "3h25m19s",
  "custom_metadata": {
    "foo": "abc",
    "bar": "123",
    "baz": "5c07d823-3810-48f6-a147-4c06b5219e84"
  }
}

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request POST \
    --data @payload.json \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/metadata/my-secret

Patch metadata

This endpoint patches an existing metadata entry of a secret at the specified location. The calling token must have an ACL policy granting the patch capability. Currently, only JSON merge patch is supported and must be specified using a Content-Type header value of application/merge-patch+json. It does not create a new version.

Method
Path

PATCH

/:secret-mount-path/metadata/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to patch, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to patch. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • max_versions (int: 0) – The number of versions to keep per key. If not set, the backend’s configured max version is used. Once a key has more than the configured allowed versions, the oldest version will be permanently deleted.

  • cas_required (bool: false) – If true, the key will require the cas parameter to be set on all write requests. If false, the backend’s configuration will be used.

  • delete_version_after (string:"0s") – Set the delete_version_after value to a duration to specify the deletion_time for all new versions written to this key. If not set, the backend's delete_version_after will be used. If the value is greater than the backend's delete_version_after, the backend's delete_version_after will be used. Accepts duration format strings.

  • custom_metadata (map<string|string>: nil) - A map of arbitrary string to string valued user-provided metadata meant to describe the secret.

Sample payload

{
  "max_versions": 5,
  "custom_metadata": {
    "bar": "123"
  }
}

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --header "Content-Type: application/merge-patch+json"
    --request PATCH \
    --data @payload.json \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/metadata/my-secret

Delete metadata and all versions

This endpoint permanently deletes the key metadata and all version data for the specified key. All version history will be removed.

Method
Path

DELETE

/:secret-mount-path/metadata/:path

Parameters

  • secret-mount-path (string: <required>) - The path to the KV mount containing the secret to delete, such as secret. This is specified as part of the URL.

  • path (string: <required>) – Specifies the path of the secret to delete. This is specified as part of the URL.

Sample request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request DELETE \
    https://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/secret/metadata/my-secret
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