Tips on how to retailer keys in env information?

Utilizing the Surroundings in Vapor 4

Identical to many fashionable server facet frameworks, your Vapor primarily based backend software can load a file referred to as .env. It’s doable to retailer key-value primarily based (secret) configuration values inside this file. While you run the app, one of many following file will probably be loaded, primarily based on the present atmosphere:

• Manufacturing (.env)
• Improvement (.env.improvement)
• Testing (.env.testing)

While you execute your exams the .env.testing file will probably be used. For those who begin the app utilizing the serve Vapor command you can too change the atmosphere utilizing the --env or -e flag. The out there choices are manufacturing and improvement, and the corresponding .env file will probably be loaded. It’s doable to create a customized atmosphere, you’ll be able to learn extra about this within the official Vapor docs. The .env file normally incorporates one key and worth per line, now the issue begins if you need to retailer a multiline secret key within the file. So what can we do about this? 🤔

Base64 encoded secret keys

Sure, we will encode the key key utilizing a base64 encoding. No, I do not need to copy my secrets and techniques into an on-line base64 encoder, as a result of there’s a fairly easy shell command that I can use.

echo "<my-secret-key>" | base64

For those who do not like unix instructions, we will at all times put collectively slightly Swift script and use an extension on the String kind to encode keys. Simply save the snippet from under right into a base64.swift file, put your key into the important thing part, give the file some executable permission & run it utilizing the chmod o+x && ./base64.swift one-liner command and voilá…

#! /usr/bin/swift

import Basis

extension String {

    func base64Encoded() -> String? {
        return information(utilizing: .utf8)?.base64EncodedString()
    }
}

let key = """
    <my-secret-key-comes-here>
"""

print(key.base64Encoded()!)

You possibly can copy & paste the encoded worth of the key key into your individual .env.* file, change the asterix image together with your present atmosphere after all, earlier than you do it. 🙈

//e.g. .env.improvement
SECRET_KEY="<base64-encoded-secret-key>"

Now we simply should decode this key someway, earlier than we will begin utilizing it…

Decoding the key key

You possibly can implement a base64 decoder as a String extension with only a few strains of Swift code.

import Basis

extension String {

    func base64Decoded() -> String? {
        guard let information = Knowledge(base64Encoded: self) else { return nil }
        return String(information: information, encoding: .utf8)
    }
}

Now in my initiatives I like to increase the Surroundings object and place all my customized variables there as static constants, this manner I can entry them in a extremely handy approach, plus if one thing goes mistaken (normally once I do not re-create the .env file after a git reset or I haven’t got all of the variables current within the dotenv file) the app will crash due to the pressured unwraps, and I will know for positive that one thing is mistaken with my atmosphere. It is a crash for my very own security. 💥

import Vapor

extension Surroundings {
    static let secretKey = Self.get("SECRET_KEY")!.base64Decoded()!
}


Surroundings.secretKey

I feel this strategy could be very helpful. After all you must place the .env.* sample into your .gitignore file, in any other case in the event you place some secrets and techniques into the dotenv file and also you push that into the distant… nicely, everybody else will know your keys, passwords, and so on. You do not need that, proper? ⚠️

Be at liberty to make use of this methodology when you need to implement a Sign up With Apple workflow, or a Apple Push Notification service (APNs). In these instances you may undoubtedly should cross one ore extra secret keys to your Vapor primarily based backend software. That is it for now, thanks for studying.