python-secrets 18.11.1

Python CLI for managing secrets (passwords, API keys, etc)

Python CLI for managing secrets (passwords, API keys, etc)

Version: 18.11.1

• Free software: Apache 2.0 License

• Documentation: https://python_secrets.readthedocs.org.

Features

• Uses the openstack/cliff command line framework for a robust and full-featured CLI. It is easy to add new commands and features!

• Supports a “drop-in” model for defining variables in a modular manner (something like the python-update-dotdee program), supporting simplified bulk setting or generating variables as needed.

• Like python-update-dotdee, produces a single master .yml file for use by programs like Ansible (e.g. ansible-playbook playbook.yml -e @"$(python_secrets secrets path)")

• Support multiple simultaneous sets of secrets (environments) for flexibility and scalability in multi-environment deployments and to support different use cases or different combinations of secrets.

• List the groups of variables (and how many secrets in each group).

• Describe secrets by their variable name, type (e.g., password, uuid4, random_base64) and an optional description that will be used to prompt for values when setting string variables.

• Allow manual entry of values, or automatic generation of secrets according to their type.

• Manually set string variables based on the output of simple commands. This allows interfacing with external programs for obtaining secrets, such as Vault by Hashicorp.

• Generate unique values for variables, or use a single value per type to simplify use of secrets in access control of services while supporting a “break-glass” process to quickly regenerate secrets when needed.

• Show the variables and their unredacted values (or redacted them to maintain secrecy during demonstrations or in documentation).

• Export the variables (optionally with a specific prefix string) to the environment and run a command that inherits them (e.g., to pass variables to terraform for provisioning cloud instances).

• Output the variables and values in multiple different formats (CSV, JSON, YAML) for use in shell scripts, etc. using cliff features.

• Send secrets to other users on demand using GPG encrypted email to protect the secrets while in transit and while at rest in users’ email inboxes.

• Makes it easy to store temporary files (e.g., the output from Jinja template rendering) that may contain secrets outside of the source repo directory in an environment-specific tmp/ directory.

Note

Due to the use of the Python secrets module, which was introduced in Python 3.6, only Python versions >= 3.6 can be used.

Limitations

• Secrets are stored in unencrypted form in the environments directories. Permissions are set to limit access, but this is not an “encrypt data data at rest” solution like Vault by Hashicorp.

• Does not handle secure distributed access for users on remote systems. You must use something like Vault by Hashicorp or libfuse/sshfs for secure (realtime) distributed access.

• Does not handle secure distribution of newly generated secrets out to distributed systems that need them. You will need to use a program like Ansible and related playbooks for pushing out and changing secrets (or for retrieving backups). Look at the D2 Ansible playbooks (https://github.com/davedittrich/ansible-dims-playbooks) for example playbooks for doing these tasks.

• Does not clean up the environment-specific tmp/ directories. (You need to handle that in code, but at least they are less likely to end up in a Git commit.)

Installation

Install using the pip module of Python 3.6 (or greater):

$ python3 -V
$ Python 3.6.6
$ python3 -m pip install python_secrets

Usage

Commands (and subcommands) generally follow the model set by the OpenStackClient for its Command Structure. The general structure of a command is:

$ psec [<global-options>] <object-1> <action> [<object-2>] [<command-arguments>]

Note

When originally written, python_secrets was the primary command name. That is a little unwieldy to type, so a shorter script name psec was also included. You can use either name. In this README.rst file, both names may be used interchangably (but the shorter name is easier to type).

The actions are things like list, show, generate, set, etc.

Note

A proof-of-concept for using python_secrets in an open source project to eliminate default passwords and keep secrets out of the source code repository directory can be found here:

https://davedittrich.github.io/goSecure/documentation.html

Getting help

To get help information on command arguments and options, use the help command or --help option flag:

$ psec help
usage: psec [--version] [-v | -q] [--log-file LOG_FILE] [-h] [--debug]
            [-d <secrets-basedir>] [-e <environment>] [-s <secrets-file>]
            [-P <prefix>] [-E] [--init]

Python secrets management app

optional arguments:
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -v, --verbose         Increase verbosity of output. Can be repeated.
  -q, --quiet           Suppress output except warnings and errors.
  --log-file LOG_FILE   Specify a file to log output. Disabled by default.
  -h, --help            Show help message and exit.
  --debug               Show tracebacks on errors.
  -d <secrets-basedir>, --secrets-basedir <secrets-basedir>
                        Root directory for holding secrets (Env:
                        D2_SECRETS_BASEDIR; default: /Users/dittrich/.secrets)
  -e <environment>, --environment <environment>
                        Deployment environment selector (Env: D2_ENVIRONMENT;
                        default: python_secrets)
  -s <secrets-file>, --secrets-file <secrets-file>
                        Secrets file (default: secrets.yml)
  -P <prefix>, --env-var-prefix <prefix>
                        Prefix string for environment variables (default:
                        None)
  -E, --export-env-vars
                        Export secrets as environment variables (default:
                        False)
  --init                Initialize directory for holding secrets.

Commands:
  complete       print bash completion command (cliff)
  environments create  Create environment(s)
  environments default  Manage default environment via file in cwd
  environments list  List the current environments
  environments path  Return path to files and directories for environment
  environments tree  Output tree listing of files/directories in environment
  groups create  Create a secrets descriptions group
  groups list    Show a list of secrets groups.
  groups path    Return path to secrets descriptions (groups) directory
  groups show    Show a list of secrets in a group.
  help           print detailed help for another command (cliff)
  run            Run a command using exported secrets
  secrets describe  Describe supported secret types
  secrets generate  Generate values for secrets
  secrets get    Get value associated with a secret
  secrets path   Return path to secrets file
  secrets send   Send secrets using GPG encrypted email.
  secrets set    Set values manually for secrets
  secrets show   List the contents of the secrets file or definitions
  template       Template file(s)
  utils myip     Get current internet routable source address.
  utils tfoutput  Retrieve current 'terraform output' results.

Help is also available for individual commands, showing their unique command line options and arguments. You can get this command-level help output by using help command or command --help, like this:

$ psec help utils myip
usage: psec utils myip [-h] [-C]

Get current internet routable source address.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit
  -C, --cidr  Express IP address as CIDR block (default: False)

$ psec template --help
usage: psec template [-h] [--check-defined] [source] [dest]

Template file(s)

positional arguments:
  source           input Jinja2 template source
  dest             templated output destination ('-' for stdout)

optional arguments:
  -h, --help       show this help message and exit
  --check-defined  Just check for undefined variables

Directories and files

There are three file system concepts that are important to understand regarding secrets storage:

1. The root directory for secrets storage;

2. The environment for organizing a set of secrets and secret group descriptions;

3. The secrets file and group descriptions.

Root directory

By default, python_secrets expects a root directory in the current user’s home directory. Unless you over-ride the name of this directory, it defaults to .secrets on Linux and secrets on Windows. The ability to change the location is supported to allow this directory to be placed on an exported file share, in a common location for use by a group on a workstation, or to move the contents to a different partition with more disk space.

The first time you use python_secrets, there will likely be no directory:

$ tree ~/.secrets
/Users/dittrich/.secrets [error opening dir]

0 directories, 0 files

Note

The root directory will be created automatically for you the first time you create an environment.

Environments

Environments are sub-directories within the root secrets directory. You can just create the directory structure without any files. You create one environment per set of unique secrets that you need to manage. This could be one for open source Program A, one for Program B, etc., or it could be one for development, one for testing, one for production, etc. (or any combination).

The command environments create creates an environment. Since this program is designed to support multiple environments, a name for the new environment is required. The name of the environment can be provided explicitly, or it can be inferred from the base name of the current working directory:

$ pwd
/Users/dittrich/git/python_secrets
$ python_secrets environments create
environment directory /Users/dittrich/.secrets/python_secrets created
$ tree ~/.secrets
/Users/dittrich/.secrets
└── python_secrets
    └── secrets.d

2 directories, 0 files

Let’s say we want to create empty environments for the three deployments (development, testing, and production). The names can be assigned explicitly by (a) giving an argument on the command line, (b) using the -e or --environment command line flag, or (c) by setting the environment variable D2_ENVIRONMENT:

$ python_secrets environments create development
environment directory /Users/dittrich/.secrets/development created

$ python_secrets --environment testing environments create
environment directory /Users/dittrich/.secrets/testing created

$ D2_ENVIRONMENT=production python_secrets environments create
environment directory /Users/dittrich/.secrets/production created

$ tree ~/.secrets
/Users/dittrich/.secrets
├── development
│   └── secrets.d
├── production
│   └── secrets.d
├── python_secrets
│   └── secrets.d
└── testing
    └── secrets.d

8 directories, 0 files

If you want to create more than one environment at once, you will have to specify all of the names on the command line as arguments:

$ psec environments create development testing production
environment directory /Users/dittrich/.secrets/development created
environment directory /Users/dittrich/.secrets/testing created
environment directory /Users/dittrich/.secrets/production created

If you are using one source repository for building multiple deployments, of course you can’t rely on the basename of the directory for all deployments. The default environment can be set, shown, or unset, using the environments default command.

$ psec environments default --help
usage: psec environments default [-h] [--unset-default] [environment]

Manage default environment via file in cwd

positional arguments:
  environment

optional arguments:
  -h, --help       show this help message and exit
  --unset-default  Unset localized environment default

If no default is explicitly set, the default that would be applied is returned:

$ cd ~/git/python_secrets
$ psec environments default
default environment is "python_secrets"

You can get a list of all available environments at any time, including which one would be the default used by sub-commands:

$ psec environments list
+-------------+---------+
| Environment | Default |
+-------------+---------+
| development | No      |
| testing     | No      |
| production  | No      |
+-------------+---------+

The following shows setting and unsetting the default:

$ psec environments default testing
default environment set to "testing"
$ psec environments default
testing
$ psec environments list
+-------------+---------+
| Environment | Default |
+-------------+---------+
| development | No      |
| testing     | Yes     |
| production  | No      |
+-------------+---------+
$ psec environments default --unset-default
default environment unset

The environment directories are useable for storing all secrets and sensitive files (e.g., backups of certificates, databases, etc.) associated with an environment.

For convenience, there is a command environments tree that produces output similar to the Unix tree command:

$ psec -e d2 environments tree
/Users/dittrich/.secrets/d2
├── backups
│   ├── black.secretsmgmt.tk
│   │   ├── letsencrypt_2018-04-06T23:36:58PDT.tgz
│   │   └── letsencrypt_2018-04-25T16:32:20PDT.tgz
│   ├── green.secretsmgmt.tk
│   │   ├── letsencrypt_2018-04-06T23:45:49PDT.tgz
│   │   └── letsencrypt_2018-04-25T16:32:20PDT.tgz
│   ├── purple.secretsmgmt.tk
│   │   ├── letsencrypt_2018-04-25T16:32:20PDT.tgz
│   │   ├── trident_2018-01-31T23:38:48PST.tar.bz2
│   │   └── trident_2018-02-04T20:05:33PST.tar.bz2
│   └── red.secretsmgmt.tk
│       ├── letsencrypt_2018-04-06T23:45:49PDT.tgz
│       └── letsencrypt_2018-04-25T16:32:20PDT.tgz
├── dittrich.asc
├── keys
│   └── opendkim
│       └── secretsmgmt.tk
│           ├── 201801.private
│           ├── 201801.txt
│           ├── 201802.private
│           └── 201802.txt
├── secrets.d
│   ├── ca.yml
│   ├── consul.yml
│   ├── jenkins.yml
│   ├── rabbitmq.yml
│   ├── trident.yml
│   ├── vncserver.yml
│   └── zookeper.yml
├── secrets.yml
└── vault_password.txt

To just see the directory structure and not files, add the --no-files option:

$ psec -e d2 environments tree --no-files
/Users/dittrich/.secrets/d2
├── backups
│   ├── black.secretsmgmt.tk
│   ├── green.secretsmgmt.tk
│   ├── purple.secretsmgmt.tk
│   └── red.secretsmgmt.tk
├── keys
│   └── opendkim
│       └── secretsmgmt.tk
└── secrets.d

Secrets and group descriptions

The environment directories just created are all empty. Secrets are stored in a YML file (.yml) within the environment’s directory, and group descriptions are stored in a drop-in directory with the same base name, but with an extention of .d instead of .yml (following the Linux drop-in configuration style directories used by programs like rsyslog, dnsmasq, etc.)

The default secrets file name is secrets.yml, which means the default descriptions directory would be named secrets.d.

You can define environment variables to point to the root directory in which a set of different environments can be configured at one time, to define the current environment, and to change the name of the secrets file to something else.

$ env | grep ^D2_
D2_SECRETS_DIR=/Users/dittrich/.secrets
D2_ENVIRONMENT=do

Each environment is in turn rooted in a directory with the environment’s symbolic name (e.g., do for DigitalOcean in this example, and goSecure for the GitHub davedittrich/goSecure VPN project.)

$ tree -L 1 ~/.secrets
/Users/dittrich/.secrets
├── do
└── goSecure

3 directories, 0 files

Each set of secrets for a given service or purpose is described in its own file.

.
├── secrets.d
│   ├── ca.yml
│   ├── consul.yml
│   ├── jenkins.yml
│   ├── rabbitmq.yml
│   ├── trident.yml
│   ├── vncserver.yml
│   └── zookeper.yml
└── secrets.yml

You can see one of the descriptions files from the template in this repository using cat secrets/secrets.d/myapp.yml:

---

- Variable: myapp_pi_password
  Type: password
  Prompt: 'Password for myapp "pi" user account'
  Export: DEMO_pi_password

- Variable: myapp_app_password
  Type: password
  Prompt: 'Password for myapp web app'
  Export: DEMO_app_password

- Variable: myapp_client_psk
  Type: string
  Prompt: 'Pre-shared key for myapp client WiFi AP'
  Export: DEMO_client_ssid

- Variable: myapp_client_ssid
  Type: string
  Prompt: 'SSID for myapp client WiFi AP'
  Export: DEMO_client_ssid

# vim: ft=ansible :

The python_secrets program uses the openstack/cliff command line interface framework, which supports multiple output formats. The default format the table format, which makes for nice clean output. (Other formats will be described later.)

The groups can be listed using the groups list command:

$ psec groups list
+---------+-------+
| Group   | Items |
+---------+-------+
| jenkins |     1 |
| myapp   |     4 |
| trident |     2 |
+---------+-------+

The variables in one or more groups can be shown with the groups show command:

$ psec groups show trident myapp
+---------+-----------------------+
| Group   | Variable              |
+---------+-----------------------+
| trident | trident_sysadmin_pass |
| trident | trident_db_pass       |
| myapp   | myapp_pi_password     |
| myapp   | myapp_app_password    |
| myapp   | myapp_client_psk      |
| myapp   | myapp_client_ssid     |
+---------+-----------------------+

When integrating a new open source tool or project, you can create a new group and clone its secrets descriptions. This does not copy any values, just the descriptions, allowing the current environment to manage its own values.

$ psec groups create newgroup --clone-from ~/git/goSecure/secrets/secrets.d/gosecure.yml
created new group "newgroup"
$ psec groups list
new password variable "gosecure_pi_password" is not defined
new password variable "gosecure_app_password" is not defined
new string variable "gosecure_client_psk" is not defined
new string variable "gosecure_client_ssid" is not defined
new string variable "gosecure_vpn_client_id" is not defined
new token_hex variable "gosecure_vpn_client_psk" is not defined
new string variable "gosecure_pi_pubkey" is not defined
new string variable "gosecure_pi_locale" is not defined
new string variable "gosecure_pi_timezone" is not defined
new string variable "gosecure_pi_wifi_country" is not defined
new string variable "gosecure_pi_keyboard_model" is not defined
new string variable "gosecure_pi_keyboard_layout" is not defined
+----------+-------+
| Group    | Items |
+----------+-------+
| jenkins  |     1 |
| myapp    |     4 |
| newgroup |    12 |
| trident  |     2 |
+----------+-------+

Showing Secrets

To examine the secrets, use the secrets show command:

$ psec secrets show
+------------------------+----------+-------------------+----------+
| Variable               | Type     | Export            | Value    |
+------------------------+----------+-------------------+----------+
| jenkins_admin_password | password | None              | REDACTED |
| myapp_app_password     | password | DEMO_app_password | REDACTED |
| myapp_client_psk       | string   | DEMO_client_ssid  | REDACTED |
| myapp_client_ssid      | string   | DEMO_client_ssid  | REDACTED |
| myapp_pi_password      | password | DEMO_pi_password  | REDACTED |
| trident_db_pass        | password | None              | REDACTED |
| trident_sysadmin_pass  | password | None              | REDACTED |
+------------------------+----------+-------------------+----------+

By default, the values of secrets are redacted when output. To show the values in clear text in the terminal output, add the --no-redact flag:

$ psec secrets show --no-redact
+------------------------+----------+-------------------+------------------------------+
| Variable               | Type     | Export            | Value                        |
+------------------------+----------+-------------------+------------------------------+
| jenkins_admin_password | password | None              | fetch outsider awning maroon |
| myapp_app_password     | password | DEMO_app_password | fetch outsider awning maroon |
| myapp_client_psk       | string   | DEMO_client_ssid  | PSK                          |
| myapp_client_ssid      | string   | DEMO_client_ssid  | SSID                         |
| myapp_pi_password      | password | DEMO_pi_password  | fetch outsider awning maroon |
| trident_db_pass        | password | None              | fetch outsider awning maroon |
| trident_sysadmin_pass  | password | None              | fetch outsider awning maroon |
+------------------------+----------+-------------------+------------------------------+

If you don’t care about redaction and want to turn it off and save the dozen keystrokes it takes to type `` –no-redact``, you can export the environment variable D2_NO_REDACT set to (case-insensitive) “true”, “1”, or “yes”. Anything else leaves the default the same. We’ll do this now for later examples.

$ export D2_NO_REDACT=true

The default is also to show all secrets. If you only want to process a subset of secrets, you have two ways to do this.

1. Specify the variables you want to show on the command line as arguments:

   $ psec secrets show rabbitmq_default_user_pass rabbitmq_admin_user_pass
   +----------------------------+----------+--------------------------------------+
   | Variable                   | Type     | Value                                |
   +----------------------------+----------+--------------------------------------+
   | rabbitmq_default_user_pass | password | handheld angrily letdown frisk       |
   | rabbitmq_admin_user_pass   | password | handheld angrily letdown frisk       |
   +----------------------------+----------+--------------------------------------+

2. Use the --group flag and specify the group(s) you want to show as command line arguments:

   $ psec secrets show --group jenkins trident
   +----------------------------+----------+--------------------------------------+
   | Variable                   | Type     | Value                                |
   +----------------------------+----------+--------------------------------------+
   | jenkins_admin_password     | password | handheld angrily letdown frisk       |
   | trident_db_pass            | password | handheld angrily letdown frisk       |
   | trident_sysadmin_pass      | password | handheld angrily letdown frisk       |
   +----------------------------+----------+--------------------------------------+

Describing Secrets and Secret Types

To describe the secrets in the select environment, use the secrets describe command:

$ psec secrets describe
+----------------------------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
| Variable                   | Type     | Prompt                                  |
+----------------------------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
| google_oauth_client_id     | string   | Google OAuth2 client id                 |
| google_oauth_client_secret | string   | Google OAuth2 client secret             |
| google_oauth_refresh_token | string   | Google OAuth2 refresh token             |
| google_oauth_username      | None     | google_oauth_username                   |
| jenkins_admin_password     | password | Password for Jenkins "admin" account    |
| myapp_app_password         | password | Password for myapp web app              |
| myapp_client_psk           | string   | Pre-shared key for myapp client WiFi AP |
| myapp_client_ssid          | string   | SSID for myapp client WiFi AP           |
| myapp_pi_password          | password | Password for myapp "pi" user account    |
| trident_db_pass            | password | Password for Trident postgres database  |
| trident_sysadmin_pass      | password | Password for Trident sysadmin account   |
+----------------------------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
$ psec secrets describe --group trident
+-----------------------+----------+----------------------------------------+
| Variable              | Type     | Prompt                                 |
+-----------------------+----------+----------------------------------------+
| trident_db_pass       | password | Password for Trident postgres database |
| trident_sysadmin_pass | password | Password for Trident sysadmin account  |
+-----------------------+----------+----------------------------------------+

To get a description of the available secret types, add the --types flag.

$ psec secrets describe --types
+------------------+----------------------------------+
| Type             | Description                      |
+------------------+----------------------------------+
| password         | Simple (xkcd) password string    |
| string           | Simple string                    |
| crypt_6          | crypt() SHA512 ("$6$")           |
| token_hex        | Hexadecimal token                |
| token_urlsafe    | URL-safe token                   |
| consul_key       | 16-byte BASE64 token             |
| sha1_digest      | DIGEST-SHA1 (user:pass) digest   |
| sha256_digest    | DIGEST-SHA256 (user:pass) digest |
| zookeeper_digest | DIGEST-SHA1 (user:pass) digest   |
| uuid4            | UUID4 token                      |
| random_base64    | Random BASE64 token              |
+------------------+----------------------------------+

Note

The type string is for secrets that are managed by another entity that you must obtain and use to access some remote service (e.g., the pre-shared key for someone’s WiFi network, or an API key for accessing a cloud service provider’s platform). All other types are structured secret types that you generate for configuring services.

Generating and Setting variables

Secrets are generated using the secrets generate command and are set manually using the secrets set command.

$ psec help secrets generate
usage: psec secrets generate [-h] [-U] [args [args ...]]

Generate values for secrets

positional arguments:
  args

optional arguments:
  -h, --help    show this help message and exit
  -U, --unique  Generate unique values for each type of secret (default:
                False)

..

$ psec secrets set --help
usage: psec secrets set [-h] [--undefined] [args [args ...]]

Set values manually for secrets

positional arguments:
  args

optional arguments:
  -h, --help   show this help message and exit
  --undefined  Set values for undefined variables (default: False)

To regenerate all of the non-string secrets at once, using the same value for each type of secret to simplify things, use the secrets generate command:

$ psec secrets generate
$ psec secrets show --column Variable --column Value
+----------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Variable                   | Value                                |
+----------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| trident_db_pass            | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| consul_key                 | zQvSe0kdf0Xarbhb80XULQ==             |
| jenkins_admin_password     | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| rabbitmq_default_user_pass | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| rabbitmq_admin_user_pass   | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| trident_sysadmin_pass      | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| vncserver_password         | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| zookeeper_uuid4            | 769a77ad-b06f-4018-857e-23f970c777c2 |
+----------------------------+--------------------------------------+

You can set one or more variables manually using secrets set and specifying the variable and value in the form variable=value:

$ psec secrets set trident_db_pass="rural coffee purple sedan"
$ psec secrets show --column Variable --column Value
+----------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Variable                   | Value                                |
+----------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| trident_db_pass            | rural coffee purple sedan            |
| ca_rootca_password         | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| consul_key                 | zQvSe0kdf0Xarbhb80XULQ==             |
| jenkins_admin_password     | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| rabbitmq_default_user_pass | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| rabbitmq_admin_user_pass   | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| trident_sysadmin_pass      | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| vncserver_password         | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| zookeeper_uuid4            | 769a77ad-b06f-4018-857e-23f970c777c2 |
+----------------------------+--------------------------------------+

Caution!

Note in the example above that the command argument is trident_db_pass="rural coffee purple sedan" and not trident_db_pass='rural coffee purple sedan'. When using the variable=value form of the secrets set command with a value that contains spaces, you must quote the value with the double-quote character (") as opposed to the single-quote (apostrophe, or ') character. The Bash shell (and possibly other shells) will not properly parse the command line and the resulting sys.argv argument vector will be incorrectly set as seen here:

_sys.argv[1:] = {list} <class 'list'>: ['--debug', 'secrets', 'set', 'trident_db_password=rural coffee purple sedan']
 0 = {str} '--debug'
 1 = {str} 'secrets'
 2 = {str} 'set'
 3 = {str} 'trident_db_password=rural coffee purple sedan'
 __len__ = {int} 4


_sys.argv[1:] = {list} <class 'list'>: ['--debug', 'secrets', 'set', "trident_db_password='rural", 'coffee', 'purple', "sedan'"]
 0 = {str} '--debug'
 1 = {str} 'secrets'
 2 = {str} 'set'
 3 = {str} 'trident_db_password=\\'rural'
 4 = {str} 'coffee'
 5 = {str} 'purple'
 6 = {str} 'sedan\\''
 __len__ = {int} 7

Or you can generate one or more variables in a similar manner by adding them to the command line as arguments to secrets generate:

$ psec secrets generate rabbitmq_default_user_pass rabbitmq_admin_user_pass
$ psec secrets show --column Variable --column Value
+----------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Variable                   | Value                                |
+----------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| trident_db_pass            | rural coffee purple sedan            |
| ca_rootca_password         | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| consul_key                 | zQvSe0kdf0Xarbhb80XULQ==             |
| jenkins_admin_password     | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| rabbitmq_default_user_pass | embezzle xerox excess skydiver       |
| rabbitmq_admin_user_pass   | embezzle xerox excess skydiver       |
| trident_sysadmin_pass      | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| vncserver_password         | gargle earlobe eggplant kissable     |
| zookeeper_uuid4            | 769a77ad-b06f-4018-857e-23f970c777c2 |
+----------------------------+--------------------------------------+

A set of secrets for an open source project can be bootstrapped using the following steps:

1. Create a template secrets environment directory that contains just the secrets definitions. This example uses the template found in the davedittrich/goSecure repository (directory https://github.com/davedittrich/goSecure/tree/master/secrets).

2. Use this template to clone a secrets environment, which will initially be empty:

   $ psec environments create test --clone-from ~/git/goSecure/secrets
   new password variable "gosecure_app_password" is not defined
   new string variable "gosecure_client_ssid" is not defined
   new string variable "gosecure_client_ssid" is not defined
   new string variable "gosecure_client_psk" is not defined
   new password variable "gosecure_pi_password" is not defined
   new string variable "gosecure_pi_pubkey" is not defined
   environment directory /Users/dittrich/.secrets/test created

   Note

   If you ever want to suppress messages about new variables, etc., just add the -q flag:

   $ psec -q environments create test --clone-from ~/git/goSecure/secrets
   $

   $ psec -e test secrets show --no-redact --fit-width
   +-----------------------+----------+-------+
   | Variable              | Type     | Value |
   +-----------------------+----------+-------+
   | gosecure_app_password | password | None  |
   | gosecure_client_ssid  | string   | None  |
   | gosecure_client_psk   | string   | None  |
   | gosecure_pi_password  | password | None  |
   | gosecure_pi_pubkey    | string   | None  |
   +-----------------------+----------+-------+

3. First, generate all secrets whose type is not string:

   $ psec -e test secrets generate
   new password variable "gosecure_app_password" is not defined
   new string variable "gosecure_client_ssid" is not defined
   new string variable "gosecure_client_ssid" is not defined
   new string variable "gosecure_client_psk" is not defined
   new password variable "gosecure_pi_password" is not defined
   new string variable "gosecure_pi_pubkey" is not defined
   
   $ psec -e test secrets show --no-redact --fit-width
   +-----------------------+----------+------------------------------+
   | Variable              | Type     | Value                        |
   +-----------------------+----------+------------------------------+
   | gosecure_app_password | password | brunt outclass alike turbine |
   | gosecure_client_psk   | string   | None                         |
   | gosecure_client_ssid  | string   | None                         |
   | gosecure_pi_password  | password | brunt outclass alike turbine |
   | gosecure_pi_pubkey    | string   | None                         |
   +-----------------------+----------+------------------------------+

4. Finally, manually set the remaining string type variables:

   $ psec -e test secrets set --undefined
   new string variable "gosecure_client_psk" is not defined
   new string variable "gosecure_client_ssid" is not defined
   new string variable "gosecure_pi_pubkey" is not defined
   Pre-shared key for goSecure client WiFi AP? [None]: atjhK5AlsQMw3Zh
   SSID for goSecure client WiFi AP? [None]: YourWiFiSSID
   SSH public key for accessing "pi" account? [None]: @~/.ssh/new_rsa.pub
   
   $ psec -e test secrets show --no-redact --fit-width
   +-----------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Variable              | Type     | Value                                                                                    |
   +-----------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   | gosecure_app_password | password | brunt outclass alike turbine                                                             |
   | gosecure_client_psk   | string   | atjhK5AlsQMw3Zh
   | gosecure_client_ssid  | string   | YourWiFiSSID                                                                             |
   | gosecure_pi_password  | password | brunt outclass alike turbine                                                             |
   | gosecure_pi_pubkey    | string   | ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQC+qUIucrPvRkTmY0tgxr9ac/VtBUHhYHfOdDVpU99AcryLMWiU |
   |                       |          | uQ2/NVikfOfPo5mt9YTQyqRbeBzKlNgbHnsxh0AZatjhK5AlsQMw3ZhZUcLYZbt7szuQy8ineN0potlCJoVaMSOb |
   |                       |          | 9htf9gAPvzwxUnHxg35jPCzAXYAi3Erc6y338+CL0XxQvCogXOA+MwH7wZGgdT3WpupLG/7HAr/3KJEQQk1FlS2m |
   |                       |          | Rd+WuewnLbKkqBP21N+48ccq6XhEhAmlzzr9SENw5DMmrvMAYIYkoTwUeD3Qx4YebjFkCxZw+w7AafEFn0Kz6vCX |
   |                       |          | 4mp/6ZF/Ko+o04HM2sVr6wtCu2dB dittrich@localhost                                          |
   +-----------------------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Note

If you don’t want to see the warnings about new variables that are not defined, simply add the -q flag.

$ psec -q secrets generate
$ psec -q secrets set --undefined
Pre-shared key for goSecure client WiFi AP? [None]:

You are now ready to compile your software, or build your project!

There is also a mechanism to run simple commands (i.e., basic arguments with no special inline command substitution or variable expansion features of shells like bash) and use the resulting output as the value.

For this example, let’s assume an environment that requires a CIDR notation address for ingres access control (e.g., when using Amazon Web Services to allow control of instances from your remote laptop).

$ psec -e xgt secrets set aws_cidr_allowed=""
$ psec -e secrets show --no-redact aws_cidr_allowed
+------------------+--------+-------+
| Variable         | Type   | Value |
+------------------+--------+-------+
| aws_cidr_allowed | string |       |
+------------------+--------+-------+

The python_secrets program has a utility feature that will return the current routable IP source address as an IP address, or using CIDR notation. The variable can be set in one of two ways:

1. Via (non-interactive) inline command subtitution from the terminal shell:

   $ psec -e xgt secrets set aws_cidr_allowed="$(psec utils myip --cidr)"

2. Interactively when prompted using simple command line form:

   $ psec -e xgt secrets set aws_cidr_allowed
   aws_cidr_allowed? []: !psec utils myip --cidr

The variable now contains the output of the specified program:

$ psec secrets show --no-redact aws_cidr_allowed
+------------------+--------+------------------+
| Variable         | Type   | Value            |
+------------------+--------+------------------+
| aws_cidr_allowed | string | 93.184.216.34/32 |
+------------------+--------+------------------+

Note

If you work from behind a static NAT firewall, this IP address will likely not change very often (if at all). If you are using a mobile device that is assigned differing DHCP addresses depending on location, the IP address may change fairly regularly and the initial AWS Security Group setting will begin to block access to your cloud instances. Programs like terraform can refresh their state, allowing you to simply reset the variable used to create the Security Group and re-apply the plan to regenerate the AWS Security Group and re-enable your remote access.

Sharing secrets

The python_secrets program has a mechanism for sharing secrets with others using GPG encrypted email messages for securing secrets in transit and at rest in users’ inboxes. Email is sent using Google’s OAuth2 authenticated SMTP services.

Note

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has a Surveillance Self-Defense Guide that includes guides on How to Use PGP for Linux and other operating systems. Follow their instructions if you are new to PGP/GPG.

The command is secrets send.

$ psec secrets send --help
usage: psec secrets send [-h] [-T] [--test-smtp] [-H SMTP_HOST]
                         [-U SMTP_USERNAME] [-F SMTP_SENDER] [-S SMTP_SUBJECT]
                         [args [args ...]]

Send secrets using GPG encrypted email. Arguments are [e-mail]
and/or VARIABLE references.

positional arguments:
  args

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -T, --refresh-token   Refresh Google API Oauth2 token and exit (default:
                        False)
  --test-smtp           Test Oauth2 SMTP authentication and exit (default:
                        False)
  -H SMTP_HOST, --smtp-host SMTP_HOST
                        SMTP host (default: localhost)
  -U SMTP_USERNAME, --smtp-username SMTP_USERNAME
                        SMTP authentication username (default: None)
  -F SMTP_SENDER, --from SMTP_SENDER
                        Sender address (default: 'noreply@nowhere')
  -S SMTP_SUBJECT, --subject SMTP_SUBJECT
                        Subject line (default: 'For Your Information')

Any arguments (args) that contain the @ symbol are assumed to be email addresses while the rest are assumed to be the names of secrets variables to be sent.

All recipients must have GPG public keys in your keyring. An exception is thrown if no GPG key is associated with the recipient(s) email addresses.

$ psec secrets send [e-mail] myapp_app_password
Setting homedir to '/Users/dittrich/.gnupg'

Initialised settings:
binary: /usr/local/bin/gpg
binary version: 1.4.11\ncfg:pubkey:1;2;3;16;17\ncfg:cipher:2;3;4;7;8;9;10;11;12;13\ncfg:ciphername:3DES;CAST5;BLOWFISH;AES;AES192;AES256;TWOFISH;CAMELLIA128;CAMELLIA192;CAMELLIA256\ncfg:digest:1;2;3;8;9;10;11\ncfg:digestname:MD5;SHA1;RIPEMD160;SHA256;SHA384;SHA512;SHA224\ncfg:compress:0;1;2;3\n'
homedir: /Users/dittrich/.gnupg
ignore_homedir_permissions: False
keyring: /Users/dittrich/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
secring: /Users/dittrich/.gnupg/secring.gpg
default_preference_list: SHA512 SHA384 SHA256 AES256 CAMELLIA256 TWOFISH AES192 ZLIB ZIP Uncompressed
keyserver: hkp://wwwkeys.pgp.net
options: None
verbose: False
use_agent: False

Creating the trustdb is only available with GnuPG>=2.x
sent encrypted secrets to [e-mail]

Use -q to produce no extraneous output.

$ psec -q secrets send [e-mail] myapp_app_password

The resulting email looks like this:

Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2018 22:04:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: [e-mail]
X-Google-Original-From: noreply@nowhere
Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="===============6413073026511107073=="
MIME-Version: 1.0
Subject: For Your Information
To: [e-mail]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--===============6413073026511107073==
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="===============2830935289665347054=="
MIME-Version: 1.0

--===============2830935289665347054==
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
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--===============2830935289665347054==
Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

VGhlIGZvbGxvd2luZyBzZWNyZXQgaXMgYmVpbmcgc2hhcmVkIHdpdGggeW91OgoKbXlhcHBfYXBw
X3Bhc3N3b3JkPWJydW50IG91dGNsYXNzIGFsaWtlIHR1cmJpbmU=

--===============2830935289665347054==--

--===============6413073026511107073==--

Decrypted, it looks like this:

Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2018 22:04:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: [e-mail]
Subject: For Your Information
To: [e-mail]

The following secret is being shared with you:

myapp_app_password=brunt outclass alike turbine

--
Sent using python_secrets version 18.11.1
https://pypi.org/project/python-secrets/
https://github.com/davedittrich/python_secrets

A group of secrets required for Google’s OAuth 2.0 Mechanism is provided and must be set according to Google’s instructions. See also:

• https://github.com/google/gmail-oauth2-tools/wiki/OAuth2DotPyRunThrough

• http://blog.macuyiko.com/post/2016/how-to-send-html-mails-with-oauth2-and-gmail-in-python.html

• https://developers.google.com/api-client-library/python/guide/aaa_oauth

• https://github.com/google/gmail-oauth2-tools/blob/master/python/oauth2.py

• https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/OAuth2

$ psec groups show oauth
+-------+----------------------------+
| Group | Variable                   |
+-------+----------------------------+
| oauth | google_oauth_client_id     |
| oauth | google_oauth_client_secret |
| oauth | google_oauth_refresh_token |
+-------+----------------------------+

Processing templates

Outputting structured information for use in other scripts

Once secrets are created and stored, they will eventually need to be accessed in order to use them in program execution. This can be done by passing the .yml secrets file itself to a program, or by outputting the variables in other formats like CSV, JSON, or as environment type variables.

Passing the secrets file by path

One way to do this is to take advantage of command line options like Ansible’s --extra-vars and passing it a path to the .yml secrets file. (See Passing Variables On The Command Line). You can do that like this.

Let’s assume we want to use consul_key variable to configure Consul using Ansible. Here is the variable as stored:

$ psec secrets show consul_key
+------------+------------+--------------------------+
| Variable   | Type       | Value                    |
+------------+------------+--------------------------+
| consul_key | consul_key | GVLKCRqXqm0rxo0b4/ligQ== |
+------------+------------+--------------------------+

Using Ansible’s debug module, we can verify that this variable is not set by any previously loaded Ansible inventory:

$ ansible -i localhost, -m debug -a 'var=consul_key' localhost
localhost | SUCCESS => {
    "consul_key": "VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!"
}

In order for Ansible to set the consul_key variable outside of any pre-defined inventory files, we need to pass a file path to the --extra-vars option. The path can be obtained using the psec secrets path command:

$ psec secrets path
/Users/dittrich/.secrets/python_secrets/secrets.yml

It is possible to run this command in an in-line command expansion operation in Bash. Ansible expects the file path passed to -extra-vars to start with an @ character, so the command line to use would look like this:

$ ansible -i localhost, -e @"$(psec secrets path)" -m debug -a 'var=consul_key' localhost
localhost | SUCCESS => {
    "consul_key": "GVLKCRqXqm0rxo0b4/ligQ=="
}

Ansible now has the value and can use it in templating configuration files, or so forth.

Other programs like Hashicorp terraform look for environment variables that begin with TF_VAR_ and use them to set terraform variables for use in modules. To prove we are running in a sub-shell, we will first change the shell prompt.

$ PS1="test> "
test> psec -e test --export-env-vars --env-var-prefix="TEST_" run bash
$ env | grep '^TEST_'
TEST_gosecure_pi_pubkey=ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQC+qUIucrPvRkTmY0tgxr9ac/VtBUHhYHfOdDVpU99AcryLMWiU [...]
TEST_gosecure_client_psk=atjhK5AlsQMw3Zh
TEST_gosecure_client_ssid=YourWiFiSSID
TEST_gosecure_pi_password=brunt outclass alike turbine
TEST_gosecure_app_password=brunt outclass alike turbine
$ exit
test>

Outputting Variables in Other Formats

The openstack/cliff framework also supports multiple output formats that help with accessing and using the secrets in applications or service configuration using Ansible. For example, CSV output (with header) can be produced like this:

$ psec secrets show -f csv --column Variable --column Value
"Variable","Value"
"trident_db_pass","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"ca_rootca_password","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"consul_key","zQvSe0kdf0Xarbhb80XULQ=="
"jenkins_admin_password","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"rabbitmq_default_user_pass","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"rabbitmq_admin_user_pass","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"trident_sysadmin_pass","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"vncserver_password","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"zookeeper_uuid4","769a77ad-b06f-4018-857e-23f970c777c2"

Or you can produce JSON and have structured data for consumption by other programs.

$ psec secrets show -f json --column Variable --column Value
[
  {
    "Variable": "trident_db_pass",
    "Value": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
  },
  {
    "Variable": "ca_rootca_password",
    "Value": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
  },
  {
    "Variable": "consul_key",
    "Value": "zQvSe0kdf0Xarbhb80XULQ=="
  },
  {
    "Variable": "jenkins_admin_password",
    "Value": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
  },
  {
    "Variable": "rabbitmq_default_user_pass",
    "Value": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
  },
  {
    "Variable": "rabbitmq_admin_user_pass",
    "Value": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
  },
  {
    "Variable": "trident_sysadmin_pass",
    "Value": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
  },
  {
    "Variable": "vncserver_password",
    "Value": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
  },
  {
    "Variable": "zookeeper_uuid4",
    "Value": "769a77ad-b06f-4018-857e-23f970c777c2"
  }
]

The JSON can be manipulated, filtered, and restructured using a program like jq, for example:

$ psec secrets show -f json --column Variable --column Value |
> jq -r '.[] | { (.Variable): .Value } '
{
  "trident_db_pass": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
}
{
  "ca_rootca_password": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
}
{
  "consul_key": "zQvSe0kdf0Xarbhb80XULQ=="
}
{
  "jenkins_admin_password": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
}
{
  "rabbitmq_default_user_pass": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
}
{
  "rabbitmq_admin_user_pass": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
}
{
  "trident_sysadmin_pass": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
}
{
  "vncserver_password": "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
}
{
  "zookeeper_uuid4": "769a77ad-b06f-4018-857e-23f970c777c2"
}

$ psec secrets show -f json --column Variable --column Value |
> jq -r '.[] | [ (.Variable), .Value ] '
[
  "trident_db_pass",
  "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
]
[
  "ca_rootca_password",
  "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
]
[
  "consul_key",
  "zQvSe0kdf0Xarbhb80XULQ=="
]
[
  "jenkins_admin_password",
  "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
]
[
  "rabbitmq_default_user_pass",
  "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
]
[
  "rabbitmq_admin_user_pass",
  "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
]
[
  "trident_sysadmin_pass",
  "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
]
[
  "vncserver_password",
  "gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
]
[
  "zookeeper_uuid4",
  "769a77ad-b06f-4018-857e-23f970c777c2"
]

$ psec secrets show -f json --column Variable --column Value |
> jq -r '.[] | [ (.Variable), .Value ] |@sh'
'trident_db_pass' 'gargle earlobe eggplant kissable'
'ca_rootca_password' 'gargle earlobe eggplant kissable'
'consul_key' 'zQvSe0kdf0Xarbhb80XULQ=='
'jenkins_admin_password' 'gargle earlobe eggplant kissable'
'rabbitmq_default_user_pass' 'gargle earlobe eggplant kissable'
'rabbitmq_admin_user_pass' 'gargle earlobe eggplant kissable'
'trident_sysadmin_pass' 'gargle earlobe eggplant kissable'
'vncserver_password' 'gargle earlobe eggplant kissable'
'zookeeper_uuid4' '769a77ad-b06f-4018-857e-23f970c777c2'

$ psec secrets show -f json --column Variable --column Value |
> jq -r '.[] | [ (.Variable), .Value ] |@csv'
"trident_db_pass","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"ca_rootca_password","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"consul_key","zQvSe0kdf0Xarbhb80XULQ=="
"jenkins_admin_password","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"rabbitmq_default_user_pass","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"rabbitmq_admin_user_pass","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"trident_sysadmin_pass","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"vncserver_password","gargle earlobe eggplant kissable"
"zookeeper_uuid4","769a77ad-b06f-4018-857e-23f970c777c2"

Python Security

Last, but certainly not least, take the time to read up on Python Security and understand the types and sources of security vulnerabilities related to Python programs. Keep these ideas in mind when using and/or modifying this program.

Bugs, Enhancements, and Future Work

Feature requests (and of course bug reports) are highly encouraged. You can do that by opening an issue on GitHub. Better yet, make a pull request with your own fix or feature. (Check there to see if one may already exist.)

If you want to help, there are some things that are on the “to do” list. These are tracked on this repository’s GitHub Projects page.

General or more elaborate potential enhancements are listed here:

• Increase test coverage (test driven development is a good thing)

• The Mantl project (GitHub mantl/mantl) employs a security-setup script that takes care of setting secrets (and non-secret related variables) in a monolithic manner. It has specific command line options, specific secret generation functions, and specific data structures for each of the component subsystems used by mantl/mantl. This method is not modular or extensible, and the security-setup script is not generalized such that it can be used by any other project. These limitations are primary motivators for writing python_secrets, which could eventually replace security-setup.

  At this point, the Mantl security.yml file can be read in and values can be manually set, as seen here:

  $ python_secrets -d ~/git/mantl --secrets-file security.yml secrets show -f yaml
  secrets descriptions directory not found
  - Value: admin:password
    Variable: chronos_http_credentials
  - Value: chronos
    Variable: chronos_principal
  - Value: S0JMz5z8oxQGQXMyZjwE0ZCmu4zeJV4oWDUrdc25MBLx
    Variable: chronos_secret
  - Value: 88821cbe-c004-4cff-9f91-2bc36cd347dc
    Variable: consul_acl_agent_token
  - Value: f9acbe14-28d3-4d06-a1c9-c617da5ebb4e
    Variable: consul_acl_mantl_api_token
  - Value: de54ae85-8226-4146-959f-8926b0b8ee55
    Variable: consul_acl_marathon_token
  - Value: dfc9b244-5140-41ad-b93a-ac5c2451fb95
    Variable: consul_acl_master_token
  - Value: e149b50f-cb5c-4efe-be96-26a52efdc715
    Variable: consul_acl_secure_token
  - Value: 719f2328-6446-4647-adf6-310013bac636
    Variable: consul_acl_vault_token
  - Value: Z0niD1jeiTkx7xaoewJm2A==
    Variable: consul_gossip_key
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_chronos_auth
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_chronos_iptables
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_chronos_ssl
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_consul_auth
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_consul_ssl
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_mantl_api_auth
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_mantlui_auth
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_mantlui_ssl
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_marathon_auth
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_marathon_iptables
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_marathon_ssl
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_mesos_auth
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_mesos_follower_auth
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_mesos_framework_auth
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_mesos_iptables
  - Value: true
    Variable: do_mesos_ssl
  - Value: false
    Variable: do_private_docker_registry
  - Value: mantl-api
    Variable: mantl_api_principal
  - Value: Se4R9nRy8WTAgmU9diJyIPwLYsBU+V1yBxTQumiOriK+
    Variable: mantl_api_secret
  - Value: admin:password
    Variable: marathon_http_credentials
  - Value: marathon
    Variable: marathon_principal
  - Value: +Y5bvIsWliFvcWgbXGWa8kwT6Qf3etogQJe+cK+IV2hX
    Variable: marathon_secret
  - Value:
    - principal: marathon
      secret: +Y5bvIsWliFvcWgbXGWa8kwT6Qf3etogQJe+cK+IV2hX
    - principal: chronos
      secret: S0JMz5z8oxQGQXMyZjwE0ZCmu4zeJV4oWDUrdc25MBLx
    - principal: mantl-api
      secret: Se4R9nRy8WTAgmU9diJyIPwLYsBU+V1yBxTQumiOriK+
    Variable: mesos_credentials
  - Value: follower
    Variable: mesos_follower_principal
  - Value: Q53uAa2mNM0UNe2RUjrX6k7QvK6ojjH1gHXYLcm3Lmfr
    Variable: mesos_follower_secret
  - Value: password
    Variable: nginx_admin_password
  - Value: true
    Variable: security_enabled
  - Value: chronos
    Variable: zk_chronos_user
  - Value: JWPO11z4lU5qeilZ
    Variable: zk_chronos_user_secret
  - Value: hsr+R6YQBAOXoY84a8ne8bU0opg=
    Variable: zk_chronos_user_secret_digest
  - Value: marathon
    Variable: zk_marathon_user
  - Value: UBh77ok2svQAqWox
    Variable: zk_marathon_user_secret
  - Value: mo2mQGXcsc21zB4wYD18jn+Csks=
    Variable: zk_marathon_user_secret_digest
  - Value: mesos
    Variable: zk_mesos_user
  - Value: L3t9FEMsXehqeBvl
    Variable: zk_mesos_user_secret
  - Value: bHYvGteRBxou4jqJ8XWAYmOmzxs=
    Variable: zk_mesos_user_secret_digest
  - Value: super
    Variable: zk_super_user
  - Value: 2DyL/n/GLi3Q0pa75z9OjODGZKC1RCaEiKNV1ZXo1Wpk
    Variable: zk_super_user_secret
  $ python_secrets -d ~/git/mantl --secrets-file security.yml secrets show -f csv | grep nginx_admin_password
  secrets descriptions directory not found
  "nginx_admin_password","password"
  $ python_secrets -d ~/git/mantl --secrets-file security.yml secrets set nginx_admin_password=newpassword
  secrets descriptions directory not found
  $ python_secrets -d ~/git/mantl --secrets-file security.yml secrets show -f csv | grep nginx_admin_password
  secrets descriptions directory not found
  "nginx_admin_password","newpassword"

  There are a few things that can be done to use python_secrets as a replacement for the security-setup script. These include:

  • Produce secrets descriptions in a security.d directory.

  • Remove the variables that are not secrets requiring regeneration for rotation or “break-glass” procedures (e.g., like chronos_principal, which is a userID value, and do_mesos_auth, which is a boolean flag).

  • Break down more complex data structures (specifically, the mesos_credentials list of dictionaries with keys principal and secret). These could instead be discrete variables like marathon_secret (which appears to be the secret associated with the invariant “variable” marathon_principal).

  Note

  Alternatively, these kind of variables could be supported by defining a type invariant or string and prompting the user to provide a new value (using any current value as the default).

History

18.11.0 (2018-11-09)

Added

• Add “–type” option to “secrets describe”

• Improve visibility into default environment

• Add screencasts to documenation

• Add RST checks to ensure PyPi documentation works

• Add feedback about minimum Python version

• Add --json output to environments path

• Add reference to proof-of-concept using goSecure fork

Changed

• The “secrets describe” command now describes variables and types

• Allow secrets set to set any type (not just string)

18.9.0 (2018-09-27)

Added

• Switched to calendar version numbering

• Finish GPG encrypted email delivery of secrets

• groups create command

• Improve error handling consistency when no environment exists

0.16.0 (2018-09-12)

Added

• Use attribute maps instead of lookup loops

• Add Prompt attribute in descriptions for better UX when setting variables

• Note new undefined variables when adding groups or environments create --clone-from

• When exporting vars, also export PYTHON_SECRETS_ENVIRONMENT w/environment name

• Add reference to Python Security coding information

• environments tree command

• environments path command with features supporting Ansible Lookup Plugin

• secrets get command

• groups path command

• environments default command

0.14.0 (2018-08-30)

Added

• Option to export secrets as environment variables (with optional prefix)

• Can now set secrets (any specified or all undefined) via command line

• utils myip command returns routable IP address (with CIDR option)

• run command allows running commands with exported environment variables

Changed

• Renamed template comamnd to utils tfoutput

Removed

• Dropped support for Python 3.4, 3.5, since secrets module only in Python >= 3.6

0.10.0 (2018-08-23)

Added

• New string type for manually set secrets

• secrets path command provides path to secrets .yml file

• template command (Jinja templating)

• Default environment to basename of cwd

• Clone environment from skeleton directory in repo

0.9.1 (2018-08-19)

Added

• secrets describe command

• environments create command

• environments list command

• Expand secrets types and generation methods

• Add initial feature for sending secrets via email using Google OAuth2 SMTP

Removed

• Drop Python 2.7 support (at least for now…)

Security

• Add six for securing input call

0.8.0 (2018-05-11)

(TBD)

0.4.0 (2018-05-01)

(TBD)

0.3.6 (2018-04-29)

(TBD)

0.3.0 (2018-04-27)

• First release on PyPI.