Encrypt/Decrypt Configuration - Python Microservices (2024)

Configuration

When you work in multiple environments: local, dev, testing, production... you must set critical configuration in yourvariables, such as:

config.yml, for local propose:

pyms: config: DEBUG: true TESTING: true APPLICATION_ROOT : "" SECRET_KEY: "gjr39dkjn344_!67#" SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI: mysql+mysqlconnector://user_of_db:user_of_db@localhost/my_schema

config_pro.yml, for production environment:

pyms: config: DEBUG: true TESTING: true APPLICATION_ROOT : "" SECRET_KEY: "gjr39dkjn344_!67#" SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI: mysql+mysqlconnector://important_user:****@localhost/my_schema

We strongly recommend this way of encrypting/decrypting your configuration, but if you don't want a vendor locking option, or you don't have the resources to use these methods, we provide a way to encrypt and decrypt your variables.

1. Generate a key

PyMS has a command line option to create a key file. This key is created with AES.You can run the next command in the terminal:

pyms create-key

Then, type a password and it will create a file called key.key. This file contains a unique key. If you loose this fileand re-run the create command, the key hash will be different and your code encrypted with this key won't be able to be decrypted.

Store this key in a secure site, and DO NOT COMMIT it to your repository.

2. Add your key to your environment

Move your key, for example, to mv key.key /home/my_user/keys/myproject.key

then, store the key in a environment variable with:

export PYMS_KEY_FILE=/home/my_user/keys/myproject.key

3. Encrypt your information and store it in config

Do you remember the example file config_pro.yml? Now you can encrypt and decrypt the information, you can run the commandpyms encrypt [string] to generate a crypt string, for example:

pyms encrypt 'mysql+mysqlconnector://important_user:****@localhost/my_schema'>> Encrypted OK: b'gAAAAABeSwBJv43hnGAWZOY50QjBX6uGLxUb3Q6fcUhMxKspIVIco8qwwZvxRg930uRlsd47isroXzkdRRnb4-x2dsQMp0dln8Pm2ySHH7TryLbQYEFbSh8RQK7zor-hX6gB-JY3uQD3IMtiVKx9AF95D6U4ydT-OA=='

And store this string in your config_pro.yml:

pyms: crypt: method: "fernet" config: DEBUG: true TESTING: true APPLICATION_ROOT : "" SECRET_KEY: "gjr39dkjn344_!67#" ENC_SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI: gAAAAABeSwBJv43hnGAWZOY50QjBX6uGLxUb3Q6fcUhMxKspIVIco8qwwZvxRg930uRlsd47isroXzkdRRnb4-x2dsQMp0dln8Pm2ySHH7TryLbQYEFbSh8RQK7zor-hX6gB-JY3uQD3IMtiVKx9AF95D6U4ydT-OA==

Do you see the difference between ENC_SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI and SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI? In the next step youcan find the answer

4. Decrypt from your config file

Pyms knows if a variable is encrypted if this var start with the prefix enc_ or ENC_. PyMS searches for your key filein the PYMS_KEY_FILE env variable and decrypts this value to store it in the same variable without the enc_ prefix, for example,

ENC_SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI: gAAAAABeSwBJv43hnGAWZOY50QjBX6uGLxUb3Q6fcUhMxKspIVIco8qwwZvxRg930uRlsd47isroXzkdRRnb4-x2dsQMp0dln8Pm2ySHH7TryLbQYEFbSh8RQK7zor-hX6gB-JY3uQD3IMtiVKx9AF95D6U4ydT-OA==

Will be stored as

SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI: mysql+mysqlconnector://user_of_db:user_of_db@localhost/my_schema

And you can access this var with current_app.config["SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI"]

1. Configure AWS

Pyms knows if a variable is encrypted if this var start with the prefix enc_ or ENC_. PyMS uses boto3 andaws cli to decrypt this value and store it in the same variable without the enc_ prefix.

First, configure aws your aws account credentials:

aws configure

2. Encrypt with KMS

Cypher a string with this command:

aws kms encrypt --key-id alias/prueba-avara --plaintext "mysql+mysqlconnector://important_user:****@localhost/my_schema" --query CiphertextBlob --output text>> AQICAHiALhLQv4eW8jqUccFSnkyDkBAWLAm97Lr2qmdItkUCIAF+P4u/uqzu8KRT74PsnQXhAAAAoDCBnQYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIGPMIGMAgEAMIGGBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDPo+k3ZxoI9XVKtHgQIBEIBZmp7UUVjNWd6qKrLVK8oBNczY0CfLH6iAZE3UK5Ofs4+nZFi0PL3SEW8M15VgTpQoC/b0YxDPHjF0V6NHUJcWirSAqKkP5Sz5eSTk91FTuiwDpvYQ2q9aY6w=

3. Decrypt from your config file

And put this string in your config_pro.yml:

pyms: crypt: method: "aws_kms" key_id: "alias/your-kms-key" config: DEBUG: true TESTING: true APPLICATION_ROOT : "" SECRET_KEY: "gjr39dkjn344_!67#" ENC_SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI: "AQICAHiALhLQv4eW8jqUccFSnkyDkBAWLAm97Lr2qmdItkUCIAF+P4u/uqzu8KRT74PsnQXhAAAAoDCBnQYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIGPMIGMAgEAMIGGBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDPo+k3ZxoI9XVKtHgQIBEIBZmp7UUVjNWd6qKrLVK8oBNczY0CfLH6iAZE3UK5Ofs4+nZFi0PL3SEW8M15VgTpQoC/b0YxDPHjF0V6NHUJcWirSAqKkP5Sz5eSTk91FTuiwDpvYQ2q9aY6w="

At this moment, PyMS not support Google KMS encryption, this issue is in TODO