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All glossary terms

Credentials & security

Credential rotation

Credential rotation is the replacement of a credential with a new value and the retirement of the previous one. It can reduce the period during which an exposed or stale credential remains usable, provided every dependent service is updated and the old value is actually revoked.

Also known as secret rotation.

Why it matters in practice

Rotation requires coordination across secret storage, applications, integrations, and any fallback path. A process should account for failed updates and verify which credential remains accepted. Rotation frequency alone is not a security guarantee; scope, monitoring, access controls, and incident response still matter.

Example

An operator stores a replacement API key, updates the service binding, checks the test request, and then revokes the superseded key.

Educational note

This definition is general information, not legal advice. It may omit facts that matter to a specific situation and does not establish or guarantee compliance.