Snowflake database secrets engine

Snowflake is one of the supported plugins for the database secrets engine. This plugin generates database credentials dynamically based on configured roles for Snowflake-hosted databases and supports Static Roles.

See the database secrets engine docs for more information about setting up the database secrets engine.

The Snowflake database secrets engine uses gosnowflake.

Capabilities

Plugin Name	Root Credential Rotation	Dynamic Roles	Static Roles	Username Customization	Credential Types
`snowflake-database-plugin`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (1.8+)	password, rsa_private_key

Setup

Enable the database secrets engine if it is not already enabled:
```
$ vault secrets enable database
Success! Enabled the database secrets engine at: database/
```
By default, the secrets engine will enable at the name of the engine. To enable the secrets engine at a different path, use the -path argument.
Configure Vault with the proper plugin and connection information:
```
$ vault write database/config/my-snowflake-database \
    plugin_name=snowflake-database-plugin \
    allowed_roles="my-role" \
    connection_url="{{username}}:{{password}}@ecxxxx.west-us-1.azure/db_name" \
    username="vaultuser" \
    password="vaultpass"
```
A properly formatted data source name (DSN) needs to be provided during configuration of the database. This DSN is typically formatted with the following options:
```
{{username}}:{{password}}@account/db_name
```
{{username}} and {{password}} will typically be used as is during configuration. The special formatting is replaced by the username and password options passed to the configuration for initial connection.
account is your Snowflake account identifier. You can find out more about this value by reading the server section of this document.
db_name is the name of a database in your Snowflake instance.
Note: The user being utilized should have ACCOUNT_ADMIN privileges, and should be different from the root user you were provided when making your Snowflake account. This allows you to rotate the root credentials and still be able to access your account.

Usage

After the secrets engine is configured, configure dynamic and static roles to enable generating credentials.

Dynamic roles

Password credentials

Configure a role that creates new Snowflake users with password credentials:

$ vault write database/roles/my-password-role \
    db_name=my-snowflake-database \
    creation_statements="CREATE USER {{name}} PASSWORD = '{{password}}'
        DAYS_TO_EXPIRY = {{expiration}} DEFAULT_ROLE=myrole;
        GRANT ROLE myrole TO USER {{name}};" \
    default_ttl="1h" \
    max_ttl="24h"
Success! Data written to: database/roles/my-password-role

Generate a new credential by reading from the /creds endpoint with the name of the role:

$ vault read database/creds/my-password-role
Key                Value
---                -----
lease_id           database/creds/my-password-role/2f6a614c-4aa2-7b19-24b9-ad944a8d4de6
lease_duration     1h
lease_renewable    true
password           SsnoaA-8Tv4t34f41baD
username           v_root_my_password_role_fU0jqEy4wMNoAY2h60yd_1610561532

Key pair credentials

Configure a role that creates new Snowflake users with key pair credentials:

$ vault write database/roles/my-keypair-role \
    db_name=my-snowflake-database \
    creation_statements="CREATE USER {{name}} RSA_PUBLIC_KEY='{{public_key}}'
      DAYS_TO_EXPIRY = {{expiration}} DEFAULT_ROLE=myrole;
      GRANT ROLE myrole TO USER {{name}};" \
    credential_type="rsa_private_key" \
    credential_config=key_bits=2048 \
    default_ttl="1h" \
    max_ttl="24h"
Success! Data written to: database/roles/my-keypair-role

Generate a new credential by reading from the /creds endpoint with the name of the role:

$ vault read database/creds/my-keypair-role
Key                Value
---                -----
lease_id           database/creds/my-keypair-role/2f6a614c-4aa2-7b19-24b9-ad944a8d4de6
lease_duration     1h
lease_renewable    true
rsa_private_key    -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
                   ...
                   -----END PRIVATE KEY-----
username           v_token_my_keypair_role_n20WjS9U3LWTlBWn4Wbh_1654718170

You can directly use the PEM-encoded rsa_private_key value to establish a connection to Snowflake. See connection options for a list of clients and instructions for establishing a connection using key pair authentication.

Static roles

Password credentials

Configure a static role that rotates the password credential for an existing Snowflake user.

$ vault write database/static-roles/my-password-role \
    db_name=my-snowflake-database \
    username="snowflake_existing_user" \
    rotation_period="24h" \
    rotation_statements="ALTER USER {{name}} SET PASSWORD = '{{password}}'"
Success! Data written to: database/static-roles/my-password-role

Retrieve the current password credential from the /static-creds endpoint:

$ vault read database/static-creds/my-password-role
Key                    Value
---                    -----
last_vault_rotation    2020-08-07T16:50:48.393354+01:00
password               Z4-KH8F-VK5VJc0hSkXQ
rotation_period        24h
ttl                    23h59m39s
username               my-existing-couchbase-user

Key pair credentials

Configure a static role that rotates the key pair credential for an existing Snowflake user:

$ vault write database/static-roles/my-keypair-role \
    db_name=my-snowflake-database \
    username="snowflake_existing_user" \
    rotation_period="24h" \
    rotation_statements="ALTER USER {{name}} SET RSA_PUBLIC_KEY='{{public_key}}'" \
    credential_type="rsa_private_key" \
    credential_config=key_bits=2048
Success! Data written to: database/static-roles/my-keypair-role

Retrieve the current key pair credential from the /static-creds endpoint:

$ vault read database/static-creds/my-keypair-role
Key                    Value
---                    -----
last_vault_rotation    2022-06-08T13:13:02.355928-07:00
rotation_period        24h
rsa_private_key        -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
                       ...
                       -----END PRIVATE KEY-----
ttl                    23h59m55s
username               snowflake_existing_user

Key pair authentication

Snowflake supports using key pair authentication for enhanced authentication security as an alternative to username and password authentication. The Snowflake database plugin can be used to manage key pair credentials for Snowflake users by using the rsa_private_key credential_type.

See the usage section for examples using both dynamic and static roles.

API

The full list of configurable options can be seen in the Snowflake database plugin API page.

For more information on the database secrets engine's HTTP API please see the Database secrets engine API page.