API Key Rotation for AI Services using Doppler

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

API key rotation is a security best practice that involves regularly changing the API keys you use to interact with services. It can mitigate the risk of old or potentially compromised keys being used without your knowledge. By using Pulumi with Doppler, a secrets management platform, we can automate API key rotation for AI services or any other services requiring regular key rotation for enhanced security.

In the context of Pulumi, "rotation" generally means creating a new key, updating relevant services to use the new key, and then eventually deactivating the old key. We do not directly rotate keys, since rotation usually requires creating and managing multiple versions of a key.

In our program, we will define Doppler secrets for your AI services which will be used as environment variables for an application or service. Here's how it can be set up in Pulumi:

1. We will initialize a Doppler project and configuration.
2. Next, we set up an environment to store our API keys as secrets.
3. We then create a secret to store the API key.
4. Finally, we will export the Doppler secret reference. In a real-world scenario, you would use this reference in your application or service that requires the API key for authentication.

Here's what the basic structure of our Pulumi program will look like in Python:

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_doppler as doppler

# Create a new Doppler project.
project = doppler.Project("ai-services-project",
                          name="ai-services")

# Create a new configuration within the Doppler project.
config = doppler.Config("ai-services-config",
                        name="development",
                        project=project.name)

# Create a new environment within the Doppler project.
environment = doppler.Environment("ai-services-environment",
                                  name="development",
                                  project=project.name)

# Create a new secret within the Doppler environment.
# NOTE: For the `value`, you should provide the actual API key from the AI service provider.
api_key_secret = doppler.Secret("api-key-secret",
                                name="AI_SERVICE_API_KEY",
                                value="your_actual_api_key_here",
                                project=project.name,
                                config=config.name)

# Export the Doppler secret reference for use in other resources or outputs.
pulumi.export("apiKeySecretRef", api_key_secret.id)
```

### Explanation

- **Doppler Project**: Think of a Doppler project like a container for your environments, configs, and secrets that relate to a particular application or service.
- **Doppler Config**: Configurations within a project are typically set up per environment (e.g., development, staging, production) and will store keys and values that are environment specific.
- **Doppler Environment**: Environments are used to scope access controls and secrets within a Doppler project.
- **Doppler Secret**: This is the actual API key stored as a secret. It will be encrypted and accessed by your application at runtime.

The exported `apiKeySecretRef` is the Doppler-generated ID of the secret which can then be used in your services to access the API key.

Remember to replace `"your_actual_api_key_here"` with the actual key you received from the AI service provider. Careful management of these secrets is crucial to maintain system security.

In practice, you will also manage the lifecycle of keys (i.e., creation, deployment, and deactivation) possibly with more sophisticated routines that include time-based rotation policies and automated updates of services with new keys.

Please note that setting up Doppler and corresponding secrets management requires careful handling and understanding of secrets, and you should ensure you have proper authorization and understanding before running such operations.