Encrypting Passwords with Cipher Tool
The instructions on this page explains 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.
The default keystore that is shipped with your WSO2 product (i.e. wso2carbon.jks) is assumed to be the keystore used for encrypting plain text passwords.
See the following topics:
Encrypting the passwords
Follow the steps given below.
- Open the
cipher-text.properties
andcipher-tool.properties
files from the<PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf/security/
directory. Now, you must update the
cipher-text.properties
file and thecipher-tool.properties
files with information on the configuration files and the passwords that you want to encrypt. By default, these two files are already configured with the most common passwords that should be encrypted as follows:If there are other passwords from configuration files that you want to encrypt, you can add the details to these files. For example, in WSO2 Storage Server, you will want to configure the "root" password in the
rss-config.xml
file.Add the following to the
cipher-tool.properties
file:#rss-config.xml passwords #RSSConfiguration.DEFAULT.WSO2RSS1.Password=rss-config.xml//RSSConfiguration/Environments/Environment[Name='DEFAULT']/RSSInstances/RSSInstance[Name='WSO2RSS1']/DataSourceConfiguration/Definition/Password,true
Add the following to the
cipher-text.properties
file:#rss-config.xml passwords #RSSConfiguration.DEFAULT.WSO2RSS1.Password=[root]
Open a command prompt and go to the
<PRODUCT_HOME>/bin
directory, where theciphertool.sh
script is stored.Run the
ciphertool.sh
script using the command prompt as shown below../ciphertool.sh -Dconfigure
The Cipher Tool reads the alias values and their corresponding plain text passwords from the
cipher-text.properties
file. Shown below is an example of an alias and the corresponding plain text password (in square brackets):UserManager.AdminUser.Password=[admin]
If a password is not specified in the
cipher-text.properties
file for an alias, the user needs to provide it through the command-line. Check whether the alias is a known password alias in Carbon configurations. If the tool modifies the configuration element and file, you must replace the configuration element with the alias name. Define a Secret Callback in the configuration file and add proper name spaces for defining the Secure Vault.When the above command is executed, the following message is prompted: "[Please Enter Primary KeyStore Password of Carbon Server : ]". Enter the keystore password (which is "wso2carbon" for the default keystore). If the script execution completed successfully, you will see the following message: "Secret Configurations are written to the property file successfully".
- Now, to verify the password encryption:
- Open the
cipher-text.properties
file and see that the plain text passwords are replaced by a cipher value. Open the relevant configuration files (e.g., rss-config.xml file) and see that the passwords are encrypted.
Open the
secret-conf.properties
file stored in the<PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf/security/
folder and see that the default configurations are changed.
- Open the
If you have encrypted passwords as explained above, note that these passwords have to be decrypted again for the server to be usable. That is, the passwords have to be resolved by a system administrator during server startup. See the related topics for more information.
Changing encrypted passwords
To change any password which we have encrypted already, follow the below steps:
Be sure to shut down the server.
Open a command prompt and go to the
<PRODUCT_HOME>/bin
directory, where we have stored theciphertool.sh
script.Execute the following command:
./ciphertool.sh -Dchange
It will prompt for the primary keystore password. Enter the keystore password (which is "wso2carbon" for the default keystore).
The alias values of all the passwords that you encrypted will now be shown in a numbered list.
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.
The system will then prompt you (twice) to enter the new password. Enter your new password.
The password should now be changed and encrypted.
Related Topics
- The Resolving Passwords topic explains how encrypted passwords are resolved.
- Read about the Secure Vault implementation in WSO2 products.