Access a secret version

This topic describes how to access a secret version. Accessing a secret version returns the secret contents and additional metadata about the secret version. When you access a secret version, you specify its version-id or alias if assigned. You can also access the latest version of a secret by specifying "latest" as the version.

Important: To use Secret Manager with workloads running on Compute Engine or Google Kubernetes Engine, the underlying instance or node must have the cloud-platform OAuth scope. See accessing the Secret Manager API for more information.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to access a secret version, ask your administrator to grant you the Secret Manager Secret Accessor (roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor) IAM role on a secret. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access.

You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.

Access a secret version

Console

1. Go to the Secret Manager page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to the Secret Manager page

2. On the Secret Manager page, click on the Name of a secret.

3. On the Secret details page, in the Versions table, locate a secret version to access.

4. In the Actions column, click View more.

5. Click View secret value from the menu.

6. You will see dialog that shows the secret version value. Click Done to finish.

gcloud

To use Secret Manager on the command line, first Install or upgrade to version 378.0.0 or higher of the Google Cloud CLI. On Compute Engine or GKE, you must authenticate with the cloud-platform scope.

Cloud SDK versions prior to 306.0.0 logged the secret material in your home directory. Please upgrade or set core/disable_file_logging to true.

Access a secret version:

$ gcloud secrets versions access version-id --secret="secret-id"

Accessing a binary secret version:

Cloud SDK formats the output as UTF-8 which can corrupt binary secrets.

To write raw bytes to a file use --out-file flag:

$ gcloud secrets versions access version-id --secret="secret-id" --out-file="path/to/secret"

To get the raw bytes, have Cloud SDK print the response as base64-encoded and decode:

$ gcloud secrets versions access version-id --secret="secret-id" --format='get(payload.data)' | tr '_-' '/+' | base64 -d

C#

To run this code, first set up a C# development environment and install the Secret Manager C# SDK. On Compute Engine or GKE, you must authenticate with the cloud-platform scope.

using System;
using Google.Cloud.SecretManager.V1;

public class AccessSecretVersionSample
{
    public String AccessSecretVersion(
      string projectId = "my-project", string secretId = "my-secret", string secretVersionId = "123")
    {
        // Create the client.
        SecretManagerServiceClient client = SecretManagerServiceClient.Create();

        // Build the resource name.
        SecretVersionName secretVersionName = new SecretVersionName(projectId, secretId, secretVersionId);

        // Call the API.
        AccessSecretVersionResponse result = client.AccessSecretVersion(secretVersionName);

        // Convert the payload to a string. Payloads are bytes by default.
        String payload = result.Payload.Data.ToStringUtf8();
        return payload;
    }
}

Go

To run this code, first set up a Go development environment and install the Secret Manager Go SDK. On Compute Engine or GKE, you must authenticate with the cloud-platform scope.

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"hash/crc32"
	"io"

	secretmanager "cloud.google.com/go/secretmanager/apiv1"
	"cloud.google.com/go/secretmanager/apiv1/secretmanagerpb"
)

// accessSecretVersion accesses the payload for the given secret version if one
// exists. The version can be a version number as a string (e.g. "5") or an
// alias (e.g. "latest").
func accessSecretVersion(w io.Writer, name string) error {
	// name := "projects/my-project/secrets/my-secret/versions/5"
	// name := "projects/my-project/secrets/my-secret/versions/latest"

	// Create the client.
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := secretmanager.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to create secretmanager client: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	// Build the request.
	req := &secretmanagerpb.AccessSecretVersionRequest{
		Name: name,
	}

	// Call the API.
	result, err := client.AccessSecretVersion(ctx, req)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to access secret version: %w", err)
	}

	// Verify the data checksum.
	crc32c := crc32.MakeTable(crc32.Castagnoli)
	checksum := int64(crc32.Checksum(result.Payload.Data, crc32c))
	if checksum != *result.Payload.DataCrc32C {
		return fmt.Errorf("Data corruption detected.")
	}

	// WARNING: Do not print the secret in a production environment - this snippet
	// is showing how to access the secret material.
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Plaintext: %s\n", string(result.Payload.Data))
	return nil
}

Java

To run this code, first set up a Java development environment and install the Secret Manager Java SDK. On Compute Engine or GKE, you must authenticate with the cloud-platform scope.

import com.google.cloud.secretmanager.v1.AccessSecretVersionResponse;
import com.google.cloud.secretmanager.v1.SecretManagerServiceClient;
import com.google.cloud.secretmanager.v1.SecretVersionName;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.zip.CRC32C;
import java.util.zip.Checksum;

public class AccessSecretVersion {

  public static void accessSecretVersion() throws IOException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String projectId = "your-project-id";
    String secretId = "your-secret-id";
    String versionId = "your-version-id";
    accessSecretVersion(projectId, secretId, versionId);
  }

  // Access the payload for the given secret version if one exists. The version
  // can be a version number as a string (e.g. "5") or an alias (e.g. "latest").
  public static void accessSecretVersion(String projectId, String secretId, String versionId)
      throws IOException {
    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
    // once, and can be reused for multiple requests. After completing all of your requests, call
    // the "close" method on the client to safely clean up any remaining background resources.
    try (SecretManagerServiceClient client = SecretManagerServiceClient.create()) {
      SecretVersionName secretVersionName = SecretVersionName.of(projectId, secretId, versionId);

      // Access the secret version.
      AccessSecretVersionResponse response = client.accessSecretVersion(secretVersionName);

      // Verify checksum. The used library is available in Java 9+.
      // If using Java 8, you may use the following:
      // https://github.com/google/guava/blob/e62d6a0456420d295089a9c319b7593a3eae4a83/guava/src/com/google/common/hash/Hashing.java#L395
      byte[] data = response.getPayload().getData().toByteArray();
      Checksum checksum = new CRC32C();
      checksum.update(data, 0, data.length);
      if (response.getPayload().getDataCrc32C() != checksum.getValue()) {
        System.out.printf("Data corruption detected.");
        return;
      }

      // Print the secret payload.
      //
      // WARNING: Do not print the secret in a production environment - this
      // snippet is showing how to access the secret material.
      String payload = response.getPayload().getData().toStringUtf8();
      System.out.printf("Plaintext: %s\n", payload);
    }
  }
}

Node.js

To run this code, first set up a Node.js development environment and install the Secret Manager Node.js SDK. On Compute Engine or GKE, you must authenticate with the cloud-platform scope.

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment these variables before running the sample.
 */
// const name = 'projects/my-project/secrets/my-secret/versions/5';
// const name = 'projects/my-project/secrets/my-secret/versions/latest';

// Imports the Secret Manager library
const {SecretManagerServiceClient} = require('@google-cloud/secret-manager');

// Instantiates a client
const client = new SecretManagerServiceClient();

async function accessSecretVersion() {
  const [version] = await client.accessSecretVersion({
    name: name,
  });

  // Extract the payload as a string.
  const payload = version.payload.data.toString();

  // WARNING: Do not print the secret in a production environment - this
  // snippet is showing how to access the secret material.
  console.info(`Payload: ${payload}`);
}

accessSecretVersion();

PHP

To run this code, first learn about using PHP on Google Cloud and install the Secret Manager PHP SDK. On Compute Engine or GKE, you must authenticate with the cloud-platform scope.

// Import the Secret Manager client library.
use Google\Cloud\SecretManager\V1\Client\SecretManagerServiceClient;
use Google\Cloud\SecretManager\V1\AccessSecretVersionRequest;

/**
 * @param string $projectId Your Google Cloud Project ID (e.g. 'my-project')
 * @param string $secretId  Your secret ID (e.g. 'my-secret')
 * @param string $versionId Your version ID (e.g. 'latest' or '5');
 */
function access_secret_version(string $projectId, string $secretId, string $versionId): void
{
    // Create the Secret Manager client.
    $client = new SecretManagerServiceClient();

    // Build the resource name of the secret version.
    $name = $client->secretVersionName($projectId, $secretId, $versionId);

    // Build the request.
    $request = AccessSecretVersionRequest::build($name);

    // Access the secret version.
    $response = $client->accessSecretVersion($request);

    // Print the secret payload.
    //
    // WARNING: Do not print the secret in a production environment - this
    // snippet is showing how to access the secret material.
    $payload = $response->getPayload()->getData();
    printf('Plaintext: %s', $payload);
}

Python

To run this code, first set up a Python development environment and install the Secret Manager Python SDK. On Compute Engine or GKE, you must authenticate with the cloud-platform scope.

from google.cloud import secretmanager
import google_crc32c


def access_secret_version(
    project_id: str, secret_id: str, version_id: str
) -> secretmanager.AccessSecretVersionResponse:
    """
    Access the payload for the given secret version if one exists. The version
    can be a version number as a string (e.g. "5") or an alias (e.g. "latest").
    """

    # Create the Secret Manager client.
    client = secretmanager.SecretManagerServiceClient()

    # Build the resource name of the secret version.
    name = f"projects/{project_id}/secrets/{secret_id}/versions/{version_id}"

    # Access the secret version.
    response = client.access_secret_version(request={"name": name})

    # Verify payload checksum.
    crc32c = google_crc32c.Checksum()
    crc32c.update(response.payload.data)
    if response.payload.data_crc32c != int(crc32c.hexdigest(), 16):
        print("Data corruption detected.")
        return response

    # Print the secret payload.
    #
    # WARNING: Do not print the secret in a production environment - this
    # snippet is showing how to access the secret material.
    payload = response.payload.data.decode("UTF-8")
    print(f"Plaintext: {payload}")

Ruby

To run this code, first set up a Ruby development environment and install the Secret Manager Ruby SDK. On Compute Engine or GKE, you must authenticate with the cloud-platform scope.

# project_id = "YOUR-GOOGLE-CLOUD-PROJECT"  # (e.g. "my-project")
# secret_id  = "YOUR-SECRET-ID"             # (e.g. "my-secret")
# version_id = "YOUR-VERSION"               # (e.g. "5" or "latest")

# Require the Secret Manager client library.
require "google/cloud/secret_manager"

# Create a Secret Manager client.
client = Google::Cloud::SecretManager.secret_manager_service

# Build the resource name of the secret version.
name = client.secret_version_path(
  project:        project_id,
  secret:         secret_id,
  secret_version: version_id
)

# Access the secret version.
version = client.access_secret_version name: name

# Print the secret payload.
#
# WARNING: Do not print the secret in a production environment - this
# snippet is showing how to access the secret material.
payload = version.payload.data
puts "Plaintext: #{payload}"

API

These examples use curl to demonstrate using the API. You can generate access tokens with gcloud auth print-access-token. On Compute Engine or GKE, you must authenticate with the cloud-platform scope.

$ curl "https://secretmanager.googleapis.com/v1/projects/project-id/secrets/secret-id/versions/version-id:access" \
    --request "GET" \
    --header "authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
    --header "content-type: application/json"

The response payload.data is the base64-encoded contents of the secret version. Here is an example of extracting the secret using the jq tool:

$ curl "https://secretmanager.googleapis.com/v1/projects/project-id/secrets/secret-id/versions/version-id:access" \
    --request "GET" \
    --header "authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
    --header "content-type: application/json" \
    | jq -r ".payload.data" | base64 --decode

Resource consistency

In Secret Manager, adding a secret version and then immediately accessing that secret version by version number is a strongly consistent operation.

Note: This doesn't apply when you access a secret version using aliases or latest.

Other operations within Secret Manager are eventually consistent. Eventually consistent operations typically converge within minutes, but may take a few hours.

Propagating IAM permissions is eventually consistent. This means granting or revoking access to secrets may not take effect immediately. For more information, see Access change propagation.

What's next

• Learn how to assign an alias to a secret version.
• Learn how to disable a secret version.
• Learn how to destroy a secret version.