Conjur

Conjur manages managing secrets and controlling non-human access across diverse tool stacks, applications, containers, and cloud environments. At its core, Conjur employs a robust secrets management system that integrates granular Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and security best practices to secure access to critical infrastructure and data.

Technically, Conjur operates by managing secrets through a centralized platform that uses security policy as code, written in .yml files and stored in source control. This approach ensures transparency and collaboration in security requirements. When a containerized application or other non-human identity requests access to a resource, Conjur authenticates the request using native attributes of the container and then distributes the secret if the request is authorized within the defined RBAC policy. Conjur provides various interfaces for interaction, including HTTPS web services, client libraries for languages like Ruby, Python, and Java, and a command-line interface, allowing integration with existing tools and applications.

Operationally, Conjur captures all authentication and access events in an immutable audit trail, providing comprehensive visibility and compliance reporting through its API. The Secretless Broker capability further enhances security by isolating secrets from the application layer, preventing applications from handling or leaking secrets. This architecture reduces the application attack surface and simplifies development by abstracting secrets management from the DevOps workflow.

Key considerations include the need for careful management of the master data key used for encrypting the database and the potential complexity of integrating Conjur with multiple tools and cloud environments, which can require custom scripts and connectors. However, Conjur's policy-as-code approach and support for various integration methods help mitigate these complexities and ensure consistent security policy enforcement across the organization.