Configuration is an important aspect of determining an application’s behavior. Settings files often include sensitive information like passwords and API keys. In this course, we will look at how to protect that sensitive information while the app is being developed and when it is in production.
Azure’s App Configuration Service allows you to manage access to settings data and we will see how to use it within a .Net application. We will look at using Azure Key Vault in conjunction with App Configuration Service, and how to access Azure Key Vault directly from your application and from apps running in a container within a Kubernetes cluster.
Next, we look at the idea of shifting left security testing within your development process, and how we can automate security testing as part of implementing a compliant development process. Much of this will involve using extensions from the Azure marketplace within your DevOps build pipeline.
This course contains numerous demonstrations from the Azure platform so that you can get a first-hand look at the topics we will be covering. If you have any feedback relating to this course, please contact us at support@cloudacademy.com.
Learning Objectives
- Learn about app configuration
- Run and deploy apps with the Azure App Configuration service
- Use Azure Key Vault to store secrets and certificates
- Access Key Vault directly from your apps, including those running within a Kubernetes cluster
- Create a compliant development process by integrating code analyzers, branch policies, quality gates, open-source library scanning, and automated penetration into a build pipeline
Intended Audience
- Intermediate-level developers, DevOps engineers, and product managers
- Anyone interested in learning how to implement secure app configurations and development pipelines
Prerequisites
To get the most out of this course, you should have some pre-existing knowledge of software development and of using Microsoft Azure.
Before we move on, let's have a look at a few simple command line interface key vault commands. First of all, let's list our current key vaults with az keyvault list. With the key vault name, we can list it secrets with az keyvault secret list using the vault name parameter. The az keyvault secret show command will display the secret's value. We can see darkorchid from the earlier demo.
Now, I'll create a secret with the secret set command. The secret name is MI5 and it is only valid for the month of June using the not-before and expires parameters. If I go and look in the portal, I can see the newly created secret as you'd expect. Let's create another version of that secret, which is only valid for the month of July, but is currently disabled.
Going back to the portal, we can see this new version with the new ID and sure enough, the status is disabled. I'll copy the unique ID and use it with the set attributes command to enable the secret. Finally, I'll delete the MI5 secret.
Hallam is a software architect with over 20 years experience across a wide range of industries. He began his software career as a Delphi/Interbase disciple but changed his allegiance to Microsoft with its deep and broad ecosystem. While Hallam has designed and crafted custom software utilizing web, mobile and desktop technologies, good quality reliable data is the key to a successful solution. The challenge of quickly turning data into useful information for digestion by humans and machines has led Hallam to specialize in database design and process automation. Showing customers how leverage new technology to change and improve their business processes is one of the key drivers keeping Hallam coming back to the keyboard.