VSTS build definition has the option to create a secret variable. How secret is that variable? Is it safe to store the user credentials which is specific to a set of users? Can other users (who are not authorized to do it) can decrypt that variable?
I came across this article.
Assuming users have build modification access then is it possible to decrypt the variable?
Variables stored are as secure as the agent that runs the build and the integrity of your build definition.
Like you said, if a user can modify the Build Definition and has access to the secret they can pass it to a PowerShell or a Curl task etc. Or if the user can take control over a Build Task's script they can iterate all available secrets (build tasks are considered trusted by the Build System).
Consider that everyone who has write-access over the work directories of the agent can access all secrets that are available to the Build Definitions that execute on the build agent. They can change the scripts used by Build Tasks and thus gain the same level of trust. Any build that runs after this change and until a new version of the task is pushed to the agent will be compromised in this scenario. In theory can every build definition "infect" the _tasks folder of the agent as well. Best way to protect against this is to use the Hosted Pool or to regularly reset your agent's VMs.
YAML build definitions combined with Pull-Requests give you more control over the Change/approval process of build definitions.
Using a Variable Library you can reduce the number of people who can add secret variables to their Build Definition.
You must secure the Agent Pools and the Variable Libraries/Build Definitions in such ways that only limited and trusted users can access these resources. Optionally use single-use passwords that expire after a short time or temporarily grant these permissions.
Remember that all changes to Build Definitions and Variable Libraries and Scripts in the Git Repository are tracked.
The alternate ways to get access to the secrets do not apply to Azure DevOps as none have access to the Application Tier in Azure and access is strictly monitored by Microsoft.
Related
I'm facing the challenge to use the same resource (VM in my company) for all my dev environment. That means that multiple apps will be deployed there.
I have:
https://dev.azure.com/mycompany/project1 with a Pipeline as Code for CI/CD & environment called D-Stage
https://dev.azure.com/mycompany/project2 with a Pipeline as Code for CI/CD & environment called D-Stage
Since I can’t use Deployment group, each time I register the VM as a Resource of each project’s pipeline, if I don’t change the registration name, one reg replace another and the last registration is the only one that has connection to the VM.
On the other side if I create a new registration I get a new azure agent per project.
What should be the right way to handle the scenarios since Deployment Group is not supported in YAML files?
If we want to add multiple resources in a VM environment, and the resources refer to the same VM, we need to modify the agent name in the registration script, otherwise the resource with the same agent name will replace the previously registered resource.
By modifying the agent name(--agent $env:COMPUTERNAME) in the registration script, we can register multiple agents in a VM environment:
For a public repository, in github actions, assume my action runs on a compute in azure. I am confused on how i can protect the azure auth details if the CI pipeline has to run in azure.
Lets say to use this action, i have to use a secret and i set an environment variable's value to be the secret - have I not lost the point of having a secret? A malicious user can send a PR that prints the value of the environment variable :
user_password: {{secret.USER_PASSWORD}}
User code:
print(os.environment['user_password'])
The malicious user does not have to guess since the workflow is public and he knows which env var has the secret.
Where am i wrong?
GitHub, like other CI providers, redacts most secrets from the logs. It considers a variety of formats and tries to scrub them. However, in general, you should be careful to avoid printing them to the logs because no system is foolproof and not every possible encoding can be considered.
If you're worried about forked repositories trying to access your secrets, they can't; that's specifically not allowed for the reason you describe. So if someone opens a PR against your repository, they won't be able to access the secrets unless the branch is in your repository (in which case, don't grant that person write access to your repo). It's presumed that you'll perform basic code review to catch any malicious code before merging, so a bad actor won't be able to run any code with the secrets for your repository.
In general, though, using environment variables as a way to pass secrets to programs is a best practice, assuming the running system and programs are trusted. Other users on the system cannot see the environment, and in a CI system the system and programs are assumed to be trusted.
When does a Deployment Group stop working due to expiration or regeneration of the Personal Access Token (PAT) that it was configured with?
If I regenerate the PAT, do I need to update the deployed agents, e.g. reconfigure them with the new PAT?
What happens if I just edit the PAT, update the Expiration date, but don't do anything else, e.g. do not regenerate the PAT or do any changes at the configured deployment agent? Will it stop it from expiring and the configured deployment agent still work?
We have Azure DevOps pipeline, along with a deployment group configured to install the solution to one server.
We have a service account, which we use have generated a PAT and used that token to configure the Deployment Group.
I have tried to regenerate the token, which gave me a new PAT. I have not tried to configure the server with the new PAT. However, deployments still seem to work just fine hours from regenerating the PAT.
What is the proper way to update the PAT so that it does not expire and my deployment agents do not stop working?
From the official Microsoft docs:
To register an agent, you need to be a member of the administrator
role in the agent pool. The identity of agent pool administrator is
needed only at the time of registration and is not persisted on the
agent, and is not used in any subsequent communication between the
agent and Azure Pipelines or TFS. In addition, you must be a local
administrator on the server in order to configure the agent.
Your
agent can authenticate to Azure Pipelines or TFS using one of the
following methods: Personal Access Token (PAT): Generate and use a PAT
to connect an agent with Azure Pipelines or TFS 2017 and newer. PAT is
the only scheme that works with Azure Pipelines. Also, as explained
above, this PAT is used only at the time of registering the agent, and
not for subsequent communication.
So, if you remove or re-generate the PAT the agents will keep working without any issues.
You can do two things:
You can Edit token and change expiration date, this is the easiest way
You can Regenerate token, this will create new token, and you will have to:
2.1. Write down your agent user capabilites, name, service user account etc.! Because once you remove the configuration this information will be lost
2.2 Remove agent's configuration (in agent's folder), run ".\config.cmd remove"
2.3 Configure agent with new PAT (in agent's folder), run ".\config.cmd"
I have a console app in dotnet core. I use appsettings.Development.josn and appsettings.Staging.json for dev and staging environment but for the production environment i use the UserSecrets. I have two problem when the app is running on production env it does not create UserSecrets in the %Appdata%/Microsoft so I have to make it manually and then it starts to work.
Another part of my question is this:
today I found out that microsoft wrote here
The Secret Manager tool is used only in development. You can safeguard Azure test and production secrets with the Microsoft Azure Key Vault configuration provider. See Azure Key Vault configuration provider for more information.
I dont have Azure. What can I use in production if I am not supposed to use the UserSecrets.
While environment variables are one of the most used options in web development and The Twelve Factor App documents states: "Store config in the environment" there are some reasons why this may not be the best approach:
the environment is implicitly available to the process and it's hard to track access. As a result, for example, you may face with situation when your error report will contain your secrets
The whole environment is passed down to child processes (if not explicitly filtered). So your secret keys are implicitly made available to any 3rd-party tools that may be used.
All this are one of the reasons why products like Vault become popular nowadays.
So, yes, you may use environment variables, but be aware)
For storing secure data in your app, if you're using Azure, So Azure KeyValut is your answer, you can see Azure Microsoft Azure Key Valut,
In case you're using K8S, you can store it on CSI driver
Or system OS environment variables
I have a case where the RunDeck scripts do need some credentials in order to run. Obviously we do not want to store these in the job definitions because these are visible and also stored in SCM.
While I was able to use the Key Storage vault to put these secrets in, I was not able to find a way to access them from the job itself.
Rundeck 2.6.2 (released 2015-12-02) allows you to specify key storage secrets as default values for secure job options. See Secure Options using Key Storage