🔑 A Vault-Agnostic Future for Secrets Management

Static vaults don’t break breaches—they just slow them down. True protection hinges on eliminating standing secrets, enforcing context-aware policy, and automating every step of the credential lifecycle.

To learn more about vaults, contact us at info@adaptive.live

Why Traditional Vault-Centric Models Fall Short

1. Exposure at Retrieval – The instant a credential is fetched it can be copied, cached, or committed to source control. Attackers need only a single leak to pivot.
2. Multi-Vault Fragmentation – Most enterprises juggle multiple vaults (AWS, HashiCorp, CyberArk, home-grown). Each has its own RBAC model, MFA settings, and audit logs, creating blind spots and inconsistent security posture.
3. Operational Drag – Teams burn time writing custom scripts for rotation and stitching together logs for audits, slowing DevOps velocity.
4. Legacy Dependencies – Long-lived Active Directory service accounts power critical workflows but rarely integrate cleanly with modern Zero Trust controls.
5. Rotation ≠ Real-Time Defense – Shorter rotation windows reduce exposure time but don’t stop misuse in between rotations.

Pain Points in Modern Environments

Why RBAC-Only Vaults Can’t Deliver Zero Trust

Static role maps answer who, but ignore when, where, and under what risk conditions a secret is used. They lack:

• Real-time context evaluation (device posture, geolocation, time-of-day)
• Step-up controls (on-demand MFA, admin approval workflows)
• Uniform policy enforcement across heterogeneous vaults

Result: a patchwork of “access granted/denied” decisions that adversaries can game.

Enter Adaptive: Vault-Agnostic Governance

4.1 Consolidated Policy & Audit

• Plug in AWS, Azure, GCP, HashiCorp, CyberArk, on-prem vaults—no migration required.
• Define one policy engine; enforce everywhere.
• Produce a single, chronologically ordered audit trail ready for SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001 attestation.

4.2 Secretless Access

• Humans and machines never see a password or key.
• Adaptive brokers ephemeral, just-in-time credentials injected at session start and revoked at session end.
• Works for interactive sessions (CLI, desktop) and automated workflows (CI/CD, Terraform, Kubernetes).

4.3 Context-Aware Controls

• Require MFA for high-risk actions, geo-fence access, or tighten permissions during off-hours.
• Enforce least-privilege dynamically—grant once, expire automatically.

4.4 Automated Active Directory Rotation

• Store AD service-account secrets in any vault.
• Rotate on schedule or event trigger, with zero downtime.
• Map usage to individual users, not shared accounts.

4.5 DevOps-Friendly Secret Injection

• Replace hard-coded secrets in pipelines with on-the-fly credential brokering.
• Prevent leaks in logs, containers, and IaC templates.
• Accelerate delivery without compromising security.

Business Outcomes

Next Steps

1. Run a Secret Discovery Scan – Quantify hidden credentials across repos, pipelines, and endpoints.
2. Map Vault Inventory – Document every secrets store and its policy gaps.
3. Pilot Secretless Workflows – Start with a high-value AD account or CI/CD pipeline.
4. Consolidate Policy – Centralize MFA, network controls, and approval logic.
5. Automate Evidence Collection – Connect audit feeds to your GRC platform for real-time compliance posture.

Ready to see it in action?

Get a demo of Adaptive's Vault and experience vault-agnostic, Zero Trust secrets governance—no rip-and-replace required.