Credential Rotation

Rotate API Credentials Without Breaking Services

Long-lived API credentials create an awkward security trade-off. Keeping one credential forever avoids deployment work, but extends the useful lifetime of any copy that is exposed. Replacing it abruptly reduces that lifetime, but can also break every client that still uses the old value. The practical solution is not simply to “rotate more often.” It is to design the authentication system so a credential can be introduced, adopted, verified, and retired without requiring one perfectly synchronized change.