What are the difference between the KMS and secret manager in GCP?

Question

I am wondering if you please help me out with the following question. What are the differences between the KMS and the secret manager in GCP? Thank you in advance. https://cloud.google.com/secret-manager/docs/ HB

Deli

Answer 1

Cloud KMS encrypts data and returns the encrypted ciphertext. Cloud KMS does not store the secret, only the keys to encrypt/decrypt.

Secret Manager actually stores the secret material. Secret Manager also keeps a history (versions) of secret material. All data in Secret Manager is encrypted. By default, it is encrypted with a Google-managed key. You can actually use Cloud KMS to encrypt Secret Manager secrets (this is called "CMEK"), in which case the user controls the keys.

Flyboat

I would like to add that they address two completely different concerns. Cloud KMS is a tool that allows users to generate, rotate, use, destroy their keys, that then can be used with other services / applications (eg: GCS) easily. Secret manager is a tool that allows you to store secrets outside your application - it's important for a good cloud-first design of your system. – Assessment

Answer 2

Cloud KMS is designed as a cryptographic oracle system: nobody, including yourself, can get the keys out: this means they're locked inside the system and you don't have to worry in practice about them leaking. The tradeoff is that the only thing you can do with those keys is encrypt, decrypt, and other cryptographic operations: useful for protecting data, or even for encrypting secrets, but if you have a database password or something else which you want to keep secret, but then actually be able to use or send elsewhere, you have to store the encrypted version, then use Cloud KMS to decrypt it.

When you do have configuration info like a database password, where your software actually needs the secret, not cryptographic operations, then Secret Manager is designed for that use case. The tradeoff is that if you get a copy of the secret out, it's harder to keep it from leaking and be certain it's controlled.

Thanks for using GCP!

Jacie