How to configure and use secret environment variables in Power Platform

Using Environment Variables in Power Platform environments is important for several reasons. However, sometimes you need to make some secret values, such as passwords or secrets, available to your Flows and Apps. It might not be suitable, to write those values in plain text as a normal environment variable.

In such cases, you can use Azure Key Vault, to securely and secretly store your values and access them as environment variable from Power Platform.

Table of Contents

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:30 Use secret environment variable
• 2:50 Microsoft.PowerPlatform provider not registered
• 3:25 Setup Azure for secret env. variables
• 3:30 Register Microsoft.PowerPlatform as a provider
• 4:35 Grant read access for the user in Key Vault
• 6:20 Grant get access to secrets for Dataverse principal
• 9:10 Create secret env. variable
• 9:50 Use secret env. variable in a cloud flow
• 12:50 Secure secret env. variable inside a cloud flow
• 14:05 Wrap up!

Helpful links

• Microsoft Documentation for Azure Key Vault
• Microsoft Documentation for Environment Variables

More about this topic

• Video by Dhruvin Shah how to use environment variables in PowerApps: Consume Environment Variable in PowerApps
• Shane Young explains how to use environment variables to make your Power App which uses SharePoint data more portable: SharePoint Environment Variables for Power Apps and Automate Solutions

Azure Key Vault

Azure Key Vault is a cloud service provided by Microsoft Azure that allows you to store, manage, and secure keys, secrets, and certificates. It is designed to protect sensitive information, such as keys and secrets, from unauthorized access, and to provide a secure and centralized location for storing and managing this information.

You can use Key Vault to store secrets such as passwords, connection strings, and other sensitive information, as well as cryptographic keys and X509 certificates. Key Vault makes it easy to securely manage these secrets and keys, and helps you meet compliance requirements by providing auditing and tracking capabilities. It also allows you to rotate secrets and keys on a regular basis, which is a best practice for improving the security of your applications and services.