Using Credential Store to securely store authentication, connection and other parameters

Introduction

The Credential Store (CS) allows sensitive data to be encrypted and stored securely and independently of the application(s) such as YADE and the JobScheduler YADE JITL Jobs that use this data. Access to the CS is only possible with access methods such as a key file and/or password.
The CS requires the use of a .kdbx database and the installation of a kdbx-compatible user interface such as "KeePass 2" or "KeePass-X".
The advantage of using a CS is that the CS stores sensitive information such as credentials in a standardized, secure and fully encrypted database and sensitive authentication information is not exposed in use. Applications access the CS database by using password, encryption-key file or a combination of both.
The CS can be used to securely store information of parameters, database connection URLs, private key files and other sensitive data.

Scope

This article describes the use of the Credential Store with the YADE Client.

A description of the use of the Credential Store with the YADE JITL job can be found in the Jobs JADEJob & JADE4DMZJob article.

Configuration Procedure

The examples presented in this article are based on the simple file transfer example described in the The YADE Client Command Line Interface - Tutorial 1 - Getting Started article. The tutorial describes the configuration required to download a number of files from a online server provided by the SOS GmbH and save these files on the user's local file system. Using this server means that users can get a working example up and running with a minimum of effort. A simplified version of the configuration used in the tutorial (only specifying FTP) is available as a download: sos-berlin_demo_2_local.xml. Instructions for installing and configuring the YADE Client can be found in the YADE - Tutorials article.

The configuration provided in the download file will cause six files in the root server folder to be copied to a local /jade_demo/transfer_receive folder, generating the target folder in the user's home or profile directory if required and permissions are available. The files will be transferred by FTP and authentication for the server (user name and password) is specified in the download file.

The example described in this article uses

Installing the Credential Store and configuring the database

KeePass 2 has been used in the current article to implement the Credential Store database. The installation of and use of KeePass is described on the KeePass Web Site.

Feature Availability

FEATURE AVAILABILITY STARTING FROM RELEASE 1.12.2

The Credential Store has to use a .kdbx database to be able to access all Credential Store features.

Secure, compliant and password-free use of the Credential Store requires the YADE Client in version 1.12.2 or newer.

Database Configuration

Credential Store databases are stored as a file on the file system.

For the examples described in the current article the following database was configured (on a Windows system):

Path: %USERPROFILE%\jade_demo\keepass\demo_cred_store.kdbx
Master Password: sos

In addition a Master Key file (not used in the example below) can be generated using the Files/Change Master Key KeePass menu option and then selecting the Show expert options checkbox (shown greyed out in the following screenshot).

Adding an Entry to the Credential Store

The following screenshot shows that two Groups have been configured for the current example, named "demo" and "ftp", along with the Entry "demo_on_test.sos-berlin.com". Entries are added using the Edit / Add Entry menu item.

The following information can be retrieved from standard KeePass CS fields:

Title: Target server name or IP address. < TO REWORK
User name: The user identification of a user who is authenticated for the operation.
Password: Assigned password for a user account or passphrase for a private key.
URL: The IP address of the target server.
Notes: This block can be used to specify additional parameters for the file transfer. The syntax ... < TO REWORK
File Attachment & Custom Fields: Files such as PGP or SSH private keys can be stored as attachments. A first attachment is added as an attachment and further attachments are added using my_custom_field parameters
YADE will retrieve the contents of an attached file at run-time - intermediate or temporary files are not created when reading attachments. Note that attachments are specified in the KeePass GUI via the Advanced Edit Entry tab.

The next screenshot shows the configuration of the example Entry in the CS:

The following information was specified for the example in the database:

Database: demo_database
Group: ftp
Title: demo_on_test.sos-berlin.com
User name: demo
Password: demo
URL: test.sos-berlin.com (Alternatively, the IP address could have been specified here.)

Integrating the Credential Store in a File Transfer Configuration

The use of the Credential Store is specified in YADE Client file transfer configuration files, which are written in XML. We recommend using the SOS XML Editor to edit these files. Instructions for downloading, installing and using the XML Editor are linked from this page.

In the remainder of the current article, it is assumed that readers have made themselves familiar with the organization of the YADE Client file transfer configurations into Profiles and Fragments. This is described in The YADE Client Command Line Interface - Tutorial 1 - Getting Started article mentioned above.

The following example uses the XML configuration from and adds the necessary configuration elements required to replace the "standard" authentication elements with elements stored in the Credential Store.

The following XML configuration elements are required to specify the use of the Credential Store:

A CredentialStoreFragments element at the same level in the XML hierarchy as the Protocol Fragments elements.
- This element can have one or more child Credential Store Fragment elements (described below).
A CredentialStoreFragment element that is referenced from the ProtocolFragment. This Fragment specifies the location of and authentication required for the Credential Store.
- Password, key file and combined password/key file authentication methods are possible.
A CredentialStoreFragmentRef element as a child element of the Protocol Fragment element - in the current example this is the FTPFragment.
The values of the connection and authentication elements are modified to refer to elements stored within the Credential Store.

Addressing the Credential Store

Parameters stored in a Credential Store database Entry can be addressed addressed in the CredentialStoreFragment XML element as follows:

The CSEntryPath element is used to specify the path in the Credential Store database to the Credential Store Entry. In the example this is set to:
- demo/ftp/demo_on_test.sos-berlin.com
  Where demo and ftp are (optional) Group names, as specified above, and demo_on_test.sos-berlin.com is the Title of the Entry.

The Credential Store Entry parameters are addressed using the following syntax:

cs://@parameter_name, where the parameter_name is the name of the relevant parameter specified for the Entry.

The following parameters are set in the Credential Store in the current example:

Hostname: cs://@url (where @url specifies the URL element stored in the database )
Account: cs://@user (where @user specifies the User name element stored in the database)
Password: cs://@password (where @password specifies the Password element stored in the database)

Note that a full list of parameters is described in the Adding an Entry to the Credential Store section above.

Alternative Syntax

Note also that although the CSEntryPath element is a required element, it can be left empty and that fully specified paths can be used for each parameter. For example, the Password could be specified using:

cs://demo/ftp/demo_on_test.sos-berlin.com@password

Configuration in the XML Editor

The parts of the XML configuration relevant to the use of the Credential Store are shown in the following screenshot of the configuration for the current example, with parameter values highlighted in yellow:

Running the YADE Client with the Credential Store

The use of the Credential Store is contained within the settings file and is not exposed when calling the YADE Client. For example, on Windows systems, the YADE Client is called for the current example using:

Call on Windows systems

C:\Program Files\sos-berlin.com\jade\client\bin>jade.cmd -settings="%USERPROFILE%\jade_demo\sos-berlin_demo_2_local_cs.xml" -profile="ftp_server_2_local_cs"

The following listing shows the output produced by the example configuration. Note that the problem that occurred with the transfer of one of the files has nothing to do with the use of the Credential Store.

Output

C:\Program Files\sos-berlin.com\jade\client\bin>jade.cmd -settings="%USERPROFILE%\jade_demo\sos-berlin_demo_2_local_cs.xml" -profile="ftp_server_2_local_cs"

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+                       START  : JADE.CMD                         +
+                       -----------------                         +
+ DATE     : 18.04.2018 15:32:45,54
+ HOSTNAME : JS-PC
+ USER     : aa
+ CALL     : C:\Program Files\sos-berlin.com\jade\client\bin\jade.cmd -settings="C:\Users\aa\jade_demo\sos-berlin_demo_2_local_cs.xml" -profile="ftp_server_2_local_cs"
+                                                                 +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

main INFO  15:32:49,319   (SOSDataExchangeEngineMain.java:76) ::Execute SOSDataExchange - Kommandozeilenprogram startet ....
main INFO  15:32:49,709   (SOSDataExchangeEngine.java:536) ::showBanner
************************************************************************
*                                                                      *
*                     YADE - Managed File Transfer                     *
*                     -----www.sos-berlin.com-----                     *
*                                                                      *
************************************************************************
  Version                 = 1.12.3-SNAPSHOT (2018-04-15 23:09, revision f156fa1144fe219789e9bf2ad1d3a4b52a68cd24) Copyright 2003-2018 SOS GmbH Berlin
  Date                    = 2018-04-18 15:32:49
  SettingsFile            = C:\Users\aa\jade_demo\sos-berlin_demo_2_local_cs.xml
  Profile                 = ftp_server_2_local_cs
  Operation               = copy
  Transactional           = false

  +------------Source------------
  | Protocol              = ftp
  | Host                  = test.sos-berlin.com
  | IP                    = 93.157.51.161
  | User                  = demo
  | Password              = ***
  | Passive               = false
  | TransferMode          = binary
  | Directory             = ./
  | FileSpec              = .*
  | ErrorWhenNoFilesFound = true
  | Recursive             = false
  | Remove                = false

  +------------Target------------
  | Protocol              = local
  | Host                  = JS-PC
  | IP                    = 192.11.0.85
  | Directory             = C:\Users\aa\jade_demo\transfer_receive/
  | OverwriteFiles        = true


main INFO  15:32:49,803   (SOSVfsFtpBaseClass.java:242) ::doConnect SOSVfs_D_0102: Verbunden mit Rechner 'test.sos-berlin.com' ³ber Port-Nummer '21'.
main INFO  15:32:49,866   (SOSVfsFtpBaseClass.java:958) ::login (demo@test.sos-berlin.com:21) SOSVfs_D_133: Benutzer 'demo' eingeloggt.
main INFO  15:32:49,928   (SOSVfsFtpBaseClass.java:1295) ::transferMode SOSVfs_D_123: Antwort des FTP-Servers ['binary']: '200 Type set to I'.
main INFO  15:32:50,272   (SOSDataExchangeEngine.java:897) ::setInfo 6 files found for regexp '.*'.
main ERROR 15:32:51,131   (SOSFileListEntry.java:1150) ::run SOSVfs_E_229: Fehler. Daten³bertragung nicht m÷glich. Grund: com.sos.JSHelper.Exceptions.JobSchedulerException: unable to get inputstream for file './test_5.txt'
main ERROR 15:32:51,131   (SOSDataExchangeEngine.java:1140) ::transfer SOSDataExchangeEngine.TRANSFER_ABORTED
main INFO  15:32:51,131   (SOSFileList.java:464) ::rollback Rollback aborted files.
main INFO  15:32:51,147   (SOSDataExchangeEngine.java:359) ::showResult
*************************************************************************
 Ausf³hrungsstatus                 = Fehlerhaft.
 Erfolgreiche ▄bertragungen        = 5
 ▄bersprungene ▄bertragungen       = 0
 Fehlgeschlagene ▄bertragungen     = 1
 letzter aufgetretener Fehler      = unable to get inputstream for file './test_5.txt'

*************************************************************************
main ERROR 15:32:51,147   (SOSDataExchangeEngineMain.java:81) ::Execute Execute: Fehler aufgetreten: unable to get inputstream for file './test_5.txt', Programm wird mit Exit-Code 99 beendet.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+                        END   : JADE.CMD                         +
+                        ----------------                         +
+ DATE     : 18.04.2018 15:32:51,20
+ HOSTNAME : JS-PC
+ USER     : aa
+ CALL     : C:\Program Files\sos-berlin.com\jade\client\bin\jade.cmd -settings="C:\Users\aa\jade_demo\sos-berlin_demo_2_local_cs.xml" -profile="ftp_server_2_local_cs"
+ EXIT     : 99
+                                                                 +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

As with all YADE jobs, the number of successful file transfers can be seen in the log file.

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