CyberArk SECRET-SEN - CyberArk Sentry Secrets Manager

The most likely cause for this issue is A. The application ID or Application Provider does not have the correct permissions on the safe. The CyberArk Central Credential Provider (CCP) is a web service that enables applications to retrieve secrets from the CyberArk Vault using REST API calls. The CCP requires an application ID or an Application Provider to authenticate and authorize the application before returning the requested secret. The application ID or Application Provider must have the Retrieve and List permissions on the safe where the secret is stored, otherwise the CCP will not be able to find the matching secret and will return an error.

To resolve this issue, you should verify that the application ID or Application Provider has the correct permissions on the safe, and that the safe name and object name are correctly specified in the REST API call. You can use the CyberArk Privileged Access Security Web Access (PVWA) or the PrivateArk Client to check and modify the permissions on the safe. You can also use the CyberArk REST API Tester or a tool like Postman to test the REST API call and see the response from the CCP. For more information, refer to the following resources:

Credential Providers - Centralized Credential Management | CyberArk, Section “Central Credential Provider”

Credential Provider - CyberArk, Section “Using the Credential Provider”

How to Build Your Secrets Management REST API’s into Postman, Section “How to Build Your Secrets Management REST API’s into Postman”

According to the CyberArk Sentry Secrets Manager documentation, JWT-based authentication is the recommended method for authenticating Kubernetes pods with Conjur. JWT-based authentication uses JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) that are issued by the Kubernetes API server and signed by its private key. The JWTs contain the pod’s namespace and service account as identity characteristics, which are verified by Conjur against a policy that defines the allowed namespaces and service accounts. JWT-based authentication is fast, scalable, and secure, as it does not require any additional certificates, secrets, or sidecars to be deployed on the pods. JWT-based authentication also supports rotation and revocation of the Kubernetes API server’s private key, which enhances the security and resilience of the authentication process.

Certificate-based authentication is another method for authenticating Kubernetes pods with Conjur, but it is not the best option for performance. Certificate-based authentication uses X.509 certificates that are generated by a Conjur CA service and injected into the pods as Kubernetes secrets. The certificates contain the pod’s namespace and service account as identity characteristics, which are verified by Conjur against a policy that defines the allowed namespaces and service accounts. Certificate-based authentication is secure and reliable, but it requires more resources and steps to generate, inject, and manage the certificates and secrets. Certificate-based authentication also does not support rotation and revocation of the certificates, which may pose a security risk if the certificates are compromised or expired.

API key authentication and Connect (OIDC) authentication are not valid methods for authenticating Kubernetes pods with Conjur. API key authentication is used for authenticating hosts, users, and applications that have a Conjur identity and an API key. Connect (OIDC) authentication is used for authenticating users and applications that have an OpenID Connect identity and a token. These methods are not suitable for Kubernetes pods, as they do not use the pod’s namespace and service account as identity characteristics, and they require additional secrets or tokens to be stored and managed on the pods. References: = JWT Authenticator | CyberArk Docs; Certificate Authenticator | CyberArk Docs; API Key Authenticator | CyberArk Docs; Connect Authenticator | CyberArk Docs

Create an authenticator policy for each authenticator and then load the policy to Conjur.

Add each authenticator to conjur.yml using this format: .

Execute evoke configuration apply.

Comprehensive Explanation: Authenticators are plugins that enable Conjur to authenticate requests from different types of clients, such as Kubernetes, Azure, or LDAP. To configure authenticators, you need to follow these steps:

Create an authenticator policy for each authenticator and then load the policy to Conjur. This step defines the authenticator as a resource in Conjur and grants permissions to the users or hosts that can use it. You can use the policy templates provided by Conjur for each authenticator type, or create your own custom policy. For more information, see Define Authenticator Policy.

Add each authenticator to conjur.yml using this format: . This step enables the authenticator service on the Conjur server and specifies the service ID that identifies the authenticator instance. The service ID must match the one used in the policy. For more information, see Enable Authenticators.

Execute evoke configuration apply. This step applies the changes made to the conjur.yml file and restarts the Conjur service. This is necessary for the authenticator configuration to take effect. For more information, see Apply Configuration Changes.

References: The steps to configure authenticators are explained in detail in the Configure Authenticators section of the CyberArk Conjur Enterprise documentation. The image in the question is taken from the same source.

 Dual accounts is a password management method that uses two accounts with identical privileges to access a system, database, or application. One account is active and the other is inactive at any given time. The active account remains untouched during password rotation, while the inactive account has its password changed after a grace period. This way, the application can always use the active account without experiencing any delays or errors due to password expiration or change. The advantage of using dual accounts is that it ensures business continuity and seamless access to the target resource, especially for high load and critical applications. References: Manage Dual Accounts, Configure dual accounts

B. Review the log file ‘CreateEnv.log’ and investigate any error messages it contains.

This is the best option because the CreateEnv.log file records the steps and results of creating the CP environment in the Vault during the installation. The CP environment includes the safe, the provider user, the application user, and the application identity. If any errors occurred when creating the CP environment, they will be logged in this file and may indicate a problem with the Vault connection, the credential file, the permissions, or the configuration. Reviewing the log file can help to identify and resolve the root cause of the errors and ensure the CP environment is properly set up.

Continuing configuring the application to use the CP without further action is not a good option because it may lead to unexpected or inconsistent behavior of the CP or the application. The errors that occurred when creating the CP environment may affect the security, availability, or integrity of the credentials or the application. Ignoring the errors may also make it harder to troubleshoot or fix them later.

Running setup.exe again and selecting ‘Recreate Vault Environment’ is not a good option because it may overwrite or delete the existing CP environment and cause more errors or conflicts. Recreating the Vault environment should only be done after reviewing the log file and understanding the cause of the errors. Moreover, recreating the Vault environment may require more privileges than creating it for the first time, as some objects may be already in use or locked.

Reviewing the PVWA logs to determine which REST API call used during the installation failed is not a good option because it may not provide enough information or context to understand or resolve the errors. The PVWA logs may show the HTTP status codes or messages of the REST API calls, but they may not show the details or parameters of the calls or the responses. The PVWA logs may also contain other unrelated or irrelevant entries that may confuse or distract from the errors. The CreateEnv.log file is a more specific and reliable source of information for the errors that occurred when creating the CP environment.

The cause of the issue is A. The certificate based on the Follower DNS name is not present on the Leader. This means that the Leader does not have a certificate file that matches the Follower DNS name used in the seed request, and therefore cannot generate a valid seed file for the Follower. This results in a 500 error in the Seed Fetcher container log. To resolve the issue, you need to import a certificate with the Follower DNS name as the subject alt name on the Leader, and create a copy of the certificate file with a name that matches the Follower DNS name used in the seed request1.

 The most maintenance-free way to ensure a Conjur host’s access reflects any changes made to accounts in a safe in the CyberArk vault is to grant the consumers group/role created by the Synchronizer for the Safe to the host. This means that the host will inherit the read and execute permissions on all the secrets in the Safe from the consumers group/role, and will automatically get access to any new or updated secrets in the Safe without requiring any manual intervention or policy changes. The consumers group/role is created by the Vault Conjur Synchronizer, which is a service that synchronizes secrets between the CyberArk vault and Conjur. The Synchronizer creates a policy branch for each Safe in Conjur, and assigns the consumers group/role to have read and execute permissions on all the secrets in the Safe. The Synchronizer also creates a delegation policy for each Safe, which allows the Safe admins to grant permissions to other users, hosts, groups, or layers12.

The other options are not the most maintenance-free ways to ensure a Conjur host’s access reflects any changes made to accounts in a safe in the CyberArk vault. Writing an automation script to update and load the host’s policy using PATCH/update may work, but it requires additional effort and maintenance to ensure the script is always running and up to date with the changes in the Safe. Using yami anchor [&] and wildcard (*) syntax to maintain its list of permission grants may simplify the policy writing, but it still requires manual editing and loading of the policy whenever a new secret is added or removed from the Safe. Using PVWA to add the Conjur host ID as a member of the Safe may not be possible or advisable, as the PVWA is designed for managing human users and not Conjur hosts, and it may not have the necessary integration or authorization to do so3. References: =

Vault Conjur Synchronizer 1, Synchronizer Policy Structure

Grant permissions on secrets 2, Grant role permissions on all secrets in a Safe

Privileged Access Manager - Self-Hosted 3, Privileged Web Access (PVWA)

= According to the CyberArk Sentry Secrets Manager documentation, the replace method is used to overwrite an existing policy branch with a new policy file. This method is suitable for making changes to the existing resources, such as modifying their annotations, permissions, or attributes. The replace method preserves the existing data and secrets associated with the resources, but removes any resources that are not defined in the new policy file. Therefore, to change the annotations for authentication of a Conjur host, the replace method is the best option.

The append method is used to add new resources or data to an existing policy branch, without affecting the existing resources. This method is suitable for creating new hosts, groups, variables, or secrets, but not for modifying the existing ones. The append method will ignore any changes to the existing resources, such as annotations, and will only load the new resources or data.

The delete method is used to remove resources or data from an existing policy branch, without affecting the other resources. This method is suitable for deleting hosts, groups, variables, or secrets, but not for modifying them. The delete method will remove any resources or data that are defined in the policy file, and will ignore any resources or data that are not defined in the policy file.

The update method is used to modify the data or secrets associated with existing resources, without affecting the resources themselves. This method is suitable for changing the values of variables or secrets, but not for changing the annotations, permissions, or attributes of the resources. The update method will only load the data or secrets that are defined in the policy file, and will ignore any resources or data that are not defined in the policy file. References: = Annotation reference | CyberArk Docs; Policy load modes | CyberArk Docs; Policy - docs.cyberark.com