Secure Your Access with KeyMan — Features & Benefits

KeyMan: The Ultimate Guide to Managing Digital Keys—

Digital keys are the backbone of modern access control — from SSH keys that let administrators into servers, to API keys that connect services, to cryptographic keys that secure sensitive data. As infrastructure grows more distributed and services multiply, managing those keys safely and efficiently becomes critical. This guide explains why key management matters, how KeyMan (the product) helps, and practical steps and best practices to secure digital keys across your organization.

What is KeyMan?

KeyMan is a key management solution designed to centralize the lifecycle of digital keys and secrets: generation, storage, rotation, distribution, use auditing, and secure deletion. It supports multiple key types (symmetric, asymmetric, API tokens, SSH keys, and certificates) and integrates with CI/CD pipelines, cloud providers, and identity systems to reduce manual work and human error.

Why effective key management matters

Human error and stale keys are common causes of breaches. An exposed or permanently valid key is an easy route for attackers.
Scale: as the number of services grows, manual key handling becomes unmanageable.
Compliance: many regulations require auditable controls over keys and secrets.
Availability: properly managed keys reduce the risk of accidental lockouts or key loss.
Least privilege and separation of duties require fine-grained control and monitoring of who can access which keys and when.

Core features of KeyMan

Centralized key vault: secure, encrypted storage for all key types.
Key generation: create strong keys with configurable algorithms and key lengths.
Role-based access control (RBAC): grant access based on roles, not ad-hoc sharing.
Automated rotation: schedule rotations to meet security policies without service disruption.
Secrets injection: integrate with containers, VMs, and serverless platforms to inject secrets at runtime, avoiding baked-in credentials.
Audit logging: full trails of who created, accessed, rotated, or deleted keys.
Multi-cloud and hybrid support: integrate with AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, GCP KMS, and on-prem HSMs.
High-availability and disaster recovery: replicate vaults with secure key escrow and recovery workflows.
Policy engine: enforce expiration, reuse prevention, algorithm minimums, and permitted usage contexts.
CLI and API: for automation, scripting, and CI/CD integration.
Certificate lifecycle management: issue, renew, and revoke TLS certificates automatically.

How KeyMan works (high-level architecture)

Client applications and administrators authenticate to KeyMan using strong multi-factor methods (OAuth/OIDC, client certificates, or hardware tokens).
Requests for keys or secrets are authorized via RBAC and policy checks.
Keys are either generated inside KeyMan (never exported in plaintext) or imported and wrapped with a master key stored in an HSM or cloud KMS.
When a service needs a secret, KeyMan issues a short-lived credential or injects the secret at runtime; long-term keys are wrapped and served only when allowed.
All actions are logged to an immutable audit store and can be forwarded to SIEMs for monitoring and alerting.

Deployment models

SaaS: hosted KeyMan managed by the vendor — quick to start, with built-in high availability.
Self-hosted: run KeyMan inside your environment for full control — better for regulated industries.
Hybrid: central SaaS control plane with local agents and HSMs for sensitive key material.

Best practices for using KeyMan

Use short-lived credentials whenever possible. Short lifetimes limit exposure if a secret is leaked.
Never hard-code secrets in source code or container images. Use secrets injection at runtime.
Enforce RBAC and least privilege. Assign roles scoped to projects/environments.
Enable MFA for all administrative access.
Automate rotation and use canary rollouts to test changes.
Monitor and alert on abnormal access patterns (large export requests, unusual rotation failures).
Integrate key management with CI/CD: pipeline agents should fetch ephemeral secrets from KeyMan during builds/deploys.
Use hardware-backed keys (HSM or cloud KMS) for root/master keys.
Maintain an incident playbook for leaked keys: identify usage, rotate affected keys, and audit access.
Regularly review and prune unused keys and stale credentials.

Example workflows

SSH access for administrators

Admin authenticates to KeyMan with MFA.
KeyMan issues a short-lived SSH certificate signed by a private CA stored in an HSM.
Admin uses the certificate to access servers; servers verify certificate against the CA.
Certificate expires automatically — no need to revoke.

CI/CD pipeline secrets

CI pipeline authenticates to KeyMan using an ephemeral machine identity.
KeyMan injects API keys and database credentials as environment variables only during the build step.
After completion, KeyMan revokes the ephemeral identity so credentials cannot be reused.

Certificate issuance for services

Service requests a TLS certificate via KeyMan’s API.
KeyMan generates a keypair, signs a certificate using an internal CA (or requests a CA-issued cert), and sets automatic renewal.
When renewal succeeds, KeyMan seamlessly updates the service without downtime.

Security considerations and mitigations

Protect the root/master key: store it in an HSM or cloud KMS and limit access to a small set of operators with strong audits.
Secure the control plane: encrypt network traffic, use mutual TLS for agent-to-control communications.
Immutable audit logs: forward logs to write-once storage or an external SIEM to prevent tampering.
Defense in depth: use network segmentation, endpoint protection, and regular vulnerability scanning.
Test recovery: periodically simulate HSM loss and rehearse key recovery & failover.

Policies and compliance

KeyMan can help meet requirements in frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and GDPR by providing:

Audit trails and access controls (for SOC 2).
Documented key lifecycle procedures and cryptographic controls (ISO 27001).
Proper encryption and key rotation for cardholder data (PCI DSS).
Minimization of stored personal data in cleartext and access logs (GDPR).

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

Treating KeyMan as a “set-and-forget” service. Mitigate: monitor usage and alerts actively.
Over-permissive roles and shared accounts. Mitigate: enforce RBAC and unique identities.
Not testing rotation. Mitigate: include rotation in CI/CD tests and staging environments.
Storing unencrypted backups of keys. Mitigate: encrypt backups and store master keys separately.

Migration checklist (moving from ad-hoc secrets to KeyMan)

Inventory existing keys, API tokens, and certificates.
Classify by sensitivity and usage patterns.
Plan phased migration by environment (dev → staging → prod).
Implement KeyMan agents/integrations for runtime injection.
Rotate or re-issue keys during migration to ensure provenance.
Update CI/CD pipelines and configuration management to fetch secrets from KeyMan.
Monitor access and fix failing integrations.
Decommission old key stores once confident.

Operational metrics to track

Number of active keys by type and environment.
Rate of key rotation and failures.
Number of access denials due to policy.
Time-to-rotate after a suspected compromise.
Number of unused keys removed per quarter.
Audit log integrity checks and alert counts.

When to use which deployment model

Startups and small teams: SaaS for fast setup and lower operational burden.
Regulated enterprises: Self-hosted with HSMs for full control and compliance.
Large organizations with global footprint: Hybrid to balance control and scalability.

Conclusion

KeyMan centralizes and operationalizes digital key lifecycles to reduce human error, improve compliance, and make secure automation practical. By adopting KeyMan and following best practices—short-lived credentials, RBAC, hardware-backed root keys, and integration with CI/CD—you can significantly lower the risk surface created by unmanaged keys and secrets.