Credentials and lockers in the Credential Vault - The Credential Vault securely stores sensitive information, such as passwords, account numbers, and social security numbers, in credentials and lockers for use in automation tasks. It facilitates role-based access for users of a Control Room and ensures that sensitive values are not stored in bots or on devices.

The Credential Vault consists of two main features: credentials and lockers.

Credentials

A credential holds the sensitive information in attributes. An attribute can have a value that is standard for all users or it can accept a user-input value. For example, an Email credential can hold three attributes: host name (standard value), username (user input), and password (user input).

By default, all users can create, manage, and use their own credentials. A user is granted access to another user's credentials by receiving access to a locker that holds the credential. If the credential requires a user-input value, it appears in the CREDENTIAL REQUESTS tab.

A credential must be assigned to a locker to be used for building and running a bot.

Lockers

A locker specifies which users can view, modify, or access the credentials. For example, a human resources (HR) locker can hold Email, Database, and Training website credentials and allow only specific employees of the HR department to use the credentials in their bots.

A user with either the AAE_Locker Admin role or a user-created role with the Manage my credentials and lockers permission configures lockers, adds credentials, and grants access to other users.

Best practices

• Each credential should contain a single password used for authentication to a specific system.
• A credential might have additional attributes, such as user name or host name, depending on what the authentication process requires.
• Segregate credentials based on application and data confidentiality. Credentials for applications that process highly confidential data should have the fewest consumers, while credentials for lower-confidentiality applications can have more.
• Lockers are created to hold credentials that are related to a specific business purpose or class of application based on confidentiality.

Benefits of using the Credential Vault

Apart from providing a secure and centralized location for storing credentials, using the Credential Vault also:

• Minimizes credential fraud.
• Strengthens security.
• Helps businesses meet credential management compliance standards.
• Offers increased automation opportunities with secure data applications.