How to prevent sensitive variable values from logging? - install4j

Using the action "Set a variable" for sensitive data like passwords or something else logs the values to the logfile. Is there a way to prevent this behavior for this kind of variables? We are using install4j version 6.0.4. I also tried to create a custom action but setting the variable with context.setVariable(...) has the same effect and produce a log entry like Variable changed: my.password=abc123[class java.lang.String]. We need to avoid this log entries.

You can call
context.registerHiddenVariable("variableName")
for those variables.
In 6.1, for pre-defined installer variables, the configuration panel has a "Sesitive information, do not write values to the log file" check box.

Related

How to trigger RegenerateUserEnvironment forcibly

I'm currently having trouble applying logon script(powershell) on windows servers.
The logon script has the line to set user environment variables but the variables don't look like being applying immediately from the result of set command on command prompts.
I've been looking at the behavior through process monitor while logging on to the new session.
And finally I have found the newly created variables need to be associated with RegenerateUserEnvironment function on shell32.dll.
I'm able to look at the correct result of set command after RegenerateUserEnvironment is called.
So I was wondering whether we had a way to trigger RegenerateUserEnvironment function and it needs to be executed on powershell.
Can you shed some light on this?
Best Regards,
Haewon

Azure DevOps - Can we reuse the value of a key in the same variable group?

I have lots of URL values and their keys. But there is no way to batch import the variables and the "value" controls are also not text boxes in the Variables Group page to perform chrome browser extensions assisted find and replace.
If this is possible, what is the syntax to refer to the key?
As in, I have a variable App.URL : www.contoso.com.
I am using the key to substitute value in my next variable like this Login.URL : $(App.URL)\Login and this doesn't work.
GitHub link : https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/vsts-docs/issues/3902#issuecomment-489694654
This isn't currently available, not sure if it will be. Can you create a task early in your pipeline that sets the variables you need in subsequent tasks/steps? This gives you more control as you can store the script along with your source. You could then use a pipeline variable for the environment you're in and let your script use that to set values appropriately.
See Set variables in scripts in the MS docs.
If it's not possible to re-architect your app to concatenate the url strings in the application, what the previous commenter said about creating a simple script to do that for you would be the way to go. Ie:
#!/bin/bash
#full login url
fullLoginUrl=$APP.URL\$LOGINSUFFIX
echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=Login.URL]$fullLoginUrl
Otherwise, perhaps playing around with the run time vs compile time variables in YAML pipelines might be worth trying.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/variables?view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml%2Cbatch#understand-variable-syntax

Obtaining transition properties in TALES expression

I've created a custom workflow in Plone, using Products.DCWorkflow. I've set the transition descriptions to a more verbose description of what just occurred and am trying to display them in a status message. I thought I would be able to do this using workflow variables, but I'm hitting what appears to be a permissions issue and don't understand why.
I've based my workflow on simple_publication_workflow, which provides a set of variables. I tried copying the approach used for the action variable, which has a default expression of transition/getId|nothing. I created an action_description variable, and added transition/description|nothing. With this, I get a None value returned. Without the |nothing option, the page redirects to https, indicating the user doesn't have the permissions required for a current action.
I've put a breakpoint into createExprContext in Products/DCWorkflow/Expression.py, and as the same user I can see the information I want in sci.transition.description. So I tried replacing the previous default expression with python:transition.description, but I get the same apparent permission problem.
I'm wondering why this is happening? Why is transition/getId a valid expression for a workflow variable, while transition/description is not?

Create event log entry with powershell and fill in user

I need to create entry to Windows Event Log (e.g. application log). I know how to do all the stuff beside filling in the user who performed the action.
Example:
I need to create a script, that writes some message into application log. I used this tutorial, which worked fine: http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2013/06/20/how-to-use-powershell-to-write-to-event-logs.aspx
But I am not able to influence the "user". When adding entry in windows log, it always fills "User: N/A".
Any idea how to pass "user" argument to the "write-eventlog" cmdlet?
Thank you for your help.
Even though (as far as I'm aware) Write-EventLog does not provide an option to write directly to the "User" field, you have two workarounds:
Use built-in standalone exec "EventCreate.exe" (type in eventcreate /? to see the manual)
This one does support providing the username field. I'm not sure, but it may require a password for that user too.
Second workaround would be to pass $env:USERNAME to the "message" field of Write-EventLog. This way you will still obtain the environment's current user.
I hope that helped.

Get contents of password variable in response file

I'm evaluating install4j. The installer I'm trying to create uses a passwort text field. The value of this field should be written to the response var file as encoded value. Additional the installer must allow two installation paths:
a normal path ("advanced") that allows the user to see every screen and check/enter every value - using this path, the password field works fine.
a simple path that should use all values of a former installation that was succesful, to allow the user to start an update installation without seeing all screens.
Using the simple path (without showing the screen that contains the password field) it seems that at installation time only the encoded variable ("passwordField".encoded) is available but not the "real" password variable. Is there a chance to get the "real" password variable without showing the screen that contains this variable - maybe by using some kind of "decoding method"?
Thank you very much for your help!
Frank
Add another password component with the same variable to a screen that is shown on the simple path and set its visibility expression to "false". Then that invisible component will update the variable with the decoded value.