# Protecting the AWX SECRET\_KEY

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/protecting-the-awx-secret-key/8007>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** aap, awx\
**Created:** [August 20, 2024, 7:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/protecting-the-awx-secret-key/8007 "2024-08-20T19:48:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrianO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f04885/32.png) [@BrianO](https://forum.ansible.com/u/BrianO)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2024, 7:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/protecting-the-awx-secret-key/8007/1 "2024-08-20T19:48:31Z")

</div>

Hello All,

I’m curious how others are safeguarding the “SECRET\_KEY”, either in AWX or AAP beyond the default of having it in a permissions-restricted plaintext file.

The docs mention that the file can be replaced with python code to retrieve the secret but leaves the details up to the imagination of the reader. Is anyone doing anything interesting with that?

Thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![konstruktoid](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/konstruktoid/32/10207_2.png) [@konstruktoid](https://forum.ansible.com/u/konstruktoid)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 5:50am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/protecting-the-awx-secret-key/8007/2 "2024-08-22T05:50:33Z")

</div>

I’d look at Ansible Vault for smaller setups (few users) and Hashicorp Vault for any other.