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VAULT-ASSOCIATE-002 · Question #35

Which of the following is a reason to rekey a Vault cluster? (Choose two.)

The correct answer is A. A keyholder joins or leaves the organization D. A compliance mandate to rotate the master key at a regular interval. Rekeying a Vault cluster is necessary when keyholders change or when organizational compliance mandates the regular rotation of the master key.

Submitted by rachelw· Apr 18, 2026Administer Vault

Question

Which of the following is a reason to rekey a Vault cluster? (Choose two.)

Options

  • AA keyholder joins or leaves the organization
  • BAdding additional Vault nodes to a cluster
  • CThe rook token is lost
  • DA compliance mandate to rotate the master key at a regular interval
  • EUpgrading Vault Community Edition to Vault Enterprise

How the community answered

(49 responses)
  • A
    88% (43)
  • B
    4% (2)
  • C
    2% (1)
  • E
    6% (3)

Why each option

Rekeying a Vault cluster is necessary when keyholders change or when organizational compliance mandates the regular rotation of the master key.

AA keyholder joins or leaves the organizationCorrect

When a keyholder leaves or joins the organization, it is a critical security practice to rekey the Vault cluster to ensure that the unseal key shares are updated and properly distributed among the current trusted individuals.

BAdding additional Vault nodes to a cluster

Adding additional Vault nodes to a cluster does not inherently require a rekey operation, as new nodes can join and be unsealed using the existing master key and unseal shares.

CThe rook token is lost

The root token is an access token; if it is lost, it can be regenerated, but its loss does not necessitate rekeying the master key or unseal keys of the cluster itself.

DA compliance mandate to rotate the master key at a regular intervalCorrect

Many regulatory and security compliance mandates require the regular rotation of cryptographic keys, including Vault's master key, to mitigate risks associated with long-term key exposure, necessitating a rekey operation.

EUpgrading Vault Community Edition to Vault Enterprise

Upgrading Vault from Community Edition to Enterprise is a software upgrade that does not typically require a rekey of the underlying master key or unseal keys.

Concept tested: Vault rekeying scenarios

Source: https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/docs/concepts/rekey

Topics

#Rekeying#Master Key Rotation#Security Best Practices#Compliance

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