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VAULT-ASSOCIATE-002 · Question #4

The following three policies exist in Vault. What do these policies allow an organization to do? app.hcl callcenter.hcl rewrap.hcl

The correct answer is A. Separates permissions allowed on actions associated with the transit secret engine. The existence of app.hcl, callcenter.hcl, and rewrap.hcl policies suggests an organization is implementing granular control and separation of concerns for various actions related to secrets, likely with the transit secret engine.

Submitted by fatema_kw· Apr 18, 2026Understand Vault Concepts

Question

The following three policies exist in Vault. What do these policies allow an organization to do? app.hcl callcenter.hcl rewrap.hcl

Options

  • ASeparates permissions allowed on actions associated with the transit secret engine
  • BNothing, as the minimum permissions to perform useful tasks are not present
  • CEncrypt decrypt, and rewrap data using the transit engine all in one policy
  • DCreate a transit encryption key for encrypting, decrypting, and rewrapping encrypted data

How the community answered

(29 responses)
  • A
    93% (27)
  • B
    3% (1)
  • C
    3% (1)

Why each option

The existence of `app.hcl`, `callcenter.hcl`, and `rewrap.hcl` policies suggests an organization is implementing granular control and separation of concerns for various actions related to secrets, likely with the transit secret engine.

ASeparates permissions allowed on actions associated with the transit secret engineCorrect

The segregation of policies into `app.hcl`, `callcenter.hcl`, and `rewrap.hcl` indicates a strategy to define distinct sets of permissions for different applications, user groups (like a call center), or specific operations (such as rewrapping data). This approach is commonly used to apply the principle of least privilege and establish fine-grained access control within Vault, particularly for sophisticated secret engines like Transit.

BNothing, as the minimum permissions to perform useful tasks are not present

Without seeing the content of the policies, it's incorrect to assume they lack minimum permissions; the question asks what they *allow* based on their existence and common naming practices.

CEncrypt decrypt, and rewrap data using the transit engine all in one policy

While these policies might allow encryption, decryption, and rewrapping, the existence of *three separate* policies strongly suggests that these actions are *not* all combined into one policy, but rather separated for granular control.

DCreate a transit encryption key for encrypting, decrypting, and rewrapping encrypted data

Creating a transit encryption key is an administrative action often managed by specific roles; these policies, based on their names, are more likely to define permissions for *using* existing keys or performing data operations rather than key creation.

Concept tested: Policy structure and granular access control

Source: https://www.vaultproject.io/docs/concepts/policies

Topics

#Vault Policies#Transit Secret Engine#Permissions#Access Control

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