Ensure the Expiration Date is set for Key Vault Secrets

Overview

Ensure that all Secrets in Azure Key Vaults have an expiration date set.

Rationale

The Azure Key Vault enables users to store and keep secrets within the Microsoft Azure environment. Secrets in the Azure Key Vault are octet sequences with a maximum size of 25k bytes each. The exp (expiration date) attribute identifies the expiration time on or after which the secret MUST NOT be used. By default, secrets never expire. It is thus recommended that secrets be rotated in the key vault and an explicit expiration time for all secrets be set. This ensures that the secrets cannot be used beyond their assigned lifetimes.

Impact

Secrets cannot be used beyond their assigned expiry times. Therefore, they need to be rotated periodically wherever they are used.

Default Value

By default, secrets do not expire.

References

Remediation guidance

From Azure Console

Open the secret using the Open in Azure button.
For each Secret, select Yes for Enabled
For each Secret, check Set expiration date and set an appropriate expiration date
Select Apply

Using Azure Command Line Interface

Use the command below to set the expiration date for secrets.

az keyvault secret set-attributes --name <secretName> --vault-name <vaultName> --expires

Using Azure PowerShell

Set-AzKeyVaultSecretAttribute -VaultName <vaultName> -Name <secretName> -Expires <dateTime>

Service-wide remediation

Recommended when many resources are affected: fix the platform baseline first so new resources inherit the secure setting, then remediate the existing flagged resources in batches.

Azure

Use management group or subscription Azure Policy assignments, remediation tasks where supported, landing-zone standards, and IaC modules so drift is prevented at scale.

Operational rollout

Fix the baseline first at the account, subscription, project, cluster, or tenant scope that owns this control.
Remediate the currently affected resources in batches, starting with internet-exposed and production assets.
Re-scan and track approved exceptions with an owner and expiry date.

Query logic

These are the stored checks tied to this control.

Azure Key Vault secrets without expiration date

Connectors

Microsoft Azure

Covered asset types

KMSSecret

Expected check: eq []

{
  kmsSecrets(where: { expires: "0000-01-01T00:00:00.000Z" }) {
    ...AssetFragment
  }
}