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The instructions on this page explain how plain text passwords in configuration files can be encrypted using the secure vault implementation that is built into WSO2 products. Note that you can customize the default secure vault configurations in the product by implementing a new secret repository, call back handler etc. Read more about the Secure Vault implementation in WSO2 products.

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Encrypting passwords manually

This manual process of encrypting elements in configuration files is particularly important can be used for encrypting any password in a configuration file. However, if you want to encrypt any elements that cannot use an xpath to use an xpath to specify the location . In in a configuration file, you must use manual encryption. It is not possible to use the automated process explained before, we updated the cipher-tool.properties file using an xpath. However, we cannot use xpath notations for certain configuration files. For example, consider the sample jndi.properties file shown below. This file is used in WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (WSO2 ESB) for the purpose of connecting to a message broker. You can read more about this functionality from here.

As shown below, this file contains a password value (admin), which is the password used when WSO2 ESB connects to a message broker. To encrypt this password, you must manually encrypt the entire Queue Connection Factory value (amqp://admin:admin@clientID/carbon?brokerlist).

# register some connection factories
# connectionfactory.[jndiname] = [ConnectionURL]
connectionfactory.QueueConnectionFactory = amqp://admin:admin@clientID/carbon?brokerlist

# register some queues in JNDI using the form
# queue.[jndiName] = [physicalName]
queue.MyQueue = example.MyQueue

# register some topics in JNDI using the form
# topic.[jndiName] = [physicalName]
topic.MyTopic = example.MyTopic

Follow the steps given below.

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encryption process if an xpath is not specified for the element.

# LOGEVENT is set to be a LogEventAppender using a PatternLayout to send logs to LOGEVENT 
log4j.appender.LOGEVENT=org.wso2.carbon.logging.service.appender.LogEventAppender
log4j.appender.LOGEVENT.url=tcp://localhost:7611
log4j.appender.LOGEVENT.layout=org.wso2.carbon.utils.logging.TenantAwarePatternLayout
log4j.appender.LOGEVENT.columnList=%T,%S,%A,%d,%c,%p,%m,%I,%Stacktrace
log4j.appender.LOGEVENT.userName=admin
log4j.appender.LOGEVENT.password=admin
log4j.appender.LOGEVENT.processingLimit=1000
log4j.appender.LOGEVENT.maxTolerableConsecutiveFailure=20

Since we cannot use the automated process to encrypt the admin password shown above, follow the steps given below to encrypt it manually.

1. Download and install a WSO2 product.
2. Open a command prompt and navigate to the <PRODUCT_HOME>/bin folder.

3. Enable You must first enable the Cipher Tool tool for WSO2 ESB the product by executing the following command:

   Code Block
   sh ciphertool.sh -Dconfigure

4. Now, you can start encrypting the admin password manually. Execute the Cipher Tool tool using the following command:

   Code Block
   sh ciphertool.sh

5. You will be asked to enter the primary key password, which is by default 'wso2carbon'. Enter the password and proceed.

6. You will now be asked to enter the plain text password that you want to encrypt. Enter the following element as the password and proceed:

   Code Block
   Enter Plain Text Value :amqp://admin:admin@clientID/carbon?brokerlistadmin

   Info
   Note that in certain configuration files, the password that requires encryption may not be specified as a single value as it is in the log4j.properties file. For example, the jndi.properties file used in WSO2 ESB contains the password in the connection URL. In such cases, you need to encrypt the entire connection URL as explained here.

7. You will receive the encrypted value as shown below. For example:

   Code Block
   Encrypted value is: gaMpTzAccMScaHllsZLXspm1i4HLI0M/srL5pB8jyknRKQ2zT7NuCvt1+qEkElRLgwlrohz3lkuE0KFuapXrCSs5pxfGMOLn4/k7dNs2SlwbsG8C++/ ZfUuft1Sl6cqvDRM55fQwzCPfybl713HvKu3oDaJ9VKgSbvHlQj6zqzg=

8. Open the cipher-text.properties file, stored in the <ESB<PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf/security folder.

9. Add the encrypted password against the secret alias as shown below.

   Code Block
   connectionfactory.QueueConnectionFactorylog4j.appender.LOGEVENT.password=cpw74SGeBNgAVpryqj5/xshSyW5BDW9d1UW0xMZ DxVeoa6RjyA1JRHutZ4SfzfSgSzy2GQJ/2jQIw70IeT5EQEAR8XLGaqlsE5IlNoe9dhyLiPXEPRGq4k/BgUQD YiBg0nU7wRsR8YXrvf+ak8ulX2yGv0Sf8=

10. Now, open the jndithe log4j.properties file, stored in the <ESB<PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf folder and replace the plain text element with the alias of the encrypted value as shown below.

    Code Block
    # LOGEVENT is set to be a LogEventAppender using a PatternLayout to send logs to LOGEVENT .... log4j.appender.LOGEVENT.password=secretAlias:log4j.appender.LOGEVENT.password ....

# register some connection factories
# connectionfactory.[jndiname] = [ConnectionURL]
connectionfactory.QueueConnectionFactory

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 = amqp://admin:admin@clientID/carbon?brokerlist

# register some queues in JNDI using the form
# queue.[jndiName] = [physicalName]
queue.MyQueue = example.MyQueue

# register some topics in JNDI using the form
# topic.[jndiName] = [physicalName]
topic.MyTopic = example.MyTopic

Changing encrypted passwords

To change any password which we have encrypted already, follow the below steps:

1. Be sure to shut down the server.

2. Open a command prompt and go to the <PRODUCT_HOME>/bin directory, where we have stored the ciphertool.sh script.

3. Execute the following command:

   Code Block
   ./ciphertool.sh -Dchange

4. It will prompt for the primary keystore password. Enter the keystore password (which is "wso2carbon" for the default keystore).

5. The alias values of all the passwords that you encrypted will now be shown in a numbered list. 

6. The system will then prompt you to select the alias of the password which you want to change. Enter the list number of the password alias.

7. The system will then prompt you (twice) to enter the new password. Enter your new password.

8. The password should now be changed and encrypted.

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