I have got a python script which is creating an ODBC connection. The ODBC connection is generated with a connection string. In this connection string I have to include the username and password for this connection.
Is there an easy way to obscure this password in the file (just that nobody can read the password when I'm editing the file) ?
Base64 encoding is in the standard library and will do to stop shoulder surfers:
>>> import base64
>>> print(base64.b64encode("password".encode("utf-8")))
cGFzc3dvcmQ=
>>> print(base64.b64decode("cGFzc3dvcmQ=").decode("utf-8"))
password
Here is a simple method:
Create a python module - let's call it peekaboo.py.
In peekaboo.py, include both the password and any code needing that password
Create a compiled version - peekaboo.pyc - by importing this module (via python commandline, etc...).
Now, delete peekaboo.py.
You can now happily import peekaboo relying only on peekaboo.pyc. Since peekaboo.pyc is byte compiled it is not readable to the casual user.
This should be a bit more secure than base64 decoding - although it is vulnerable to a py_to_pyc decompiler.
Douglas F Shearer's is the generally approved solution in Unix when you need to specify a password for a remote login.
You add a --password-from-file option to specify the path and read plaintext from a file.
The file can then be in the user's own area protected by the operating system.
It also allows different users to automatically pick up their own own file.
For passwords that the user of the script isn't allowed to know - you can run the script with elavated permission and have the password file owned by that root/admin user.
If you are working on a Unix system, take advantage of the netrc module in the standard Python library. It reads passwords from a separate text file (.netrc), which has the format decribed here.
Here is a small usage example:
import netrc
# Define which host in the .netrc file to use
HOST = 'mailcluster.loopia.se'
# Read from the .netrc file in your home directory
secrets = netrc.netrc()
username, account, password = secrets.authenticators( HOST )
print username, password
How about importing the username and password from a file external to the script? That way even if someone got hold of the script, they wouldn't automatically get the password.
The best solution, assuming the username and password can't be given at runtime by the user, is probably a separate source file containing only variable initialization for the username and password that is imported into your main code. This file would only need editing when the credentials change. Otherwise, if you're only worried about shoulder surfers with average memories, base 64 encoding is probably the easiest solution. ROT13 is just too easy to decode manually, isn't case sensitive and retains too much meaning in it's encrypted state. Encode your password and user id outside the python script. Have he script decode at runtime for use.
Giving scripts credentials for automated tasks is always a risky proposal. Your script should have its own credentials and the account it uses should have no access other than exactly what is necessary. At least the password should be long and rather random.
base64 is the way to go for your simple needs. There is no need to import anything:
>>> 'your string'.encode('base64')
'eW91ciBzdHJpbmc=\n'
>>> _.decode('base64')
'your string'
A way that I have done this is as follows:
At the python shell:
>>> from cryptography.fernet import Fernet
>>> key = Fernet.generate_key()
>>> print(key)
b'B8XBLJDiroM3N2nCBuUlzPL06AmfV4XkPJ5OKsPZbC4='
>>> cipher = Fernet(key)
>>> password = "thepassword".encode('utf-8')
>>> token = cipher.encrypt(password)
>>> print(token)
b'gAAAAABe_TUP82q1zMR9SZw1LpawRLHjgNLdUOmW31RApwASzeo4qWSZ52ZBYpSrb1kUeXNFoX0tyhe7kWuudNs2Iy7vUwaY7Q=='
Then, create a module with the following code:
from cryptography.fernet import Fernet
# you store the key and the token
key = b'B8XBLJDiroM3N2nCBuUlzPL06AmfV4XkPJ5OKsPZbC4='
token = b'gAAAAABe_TUP82q1zMR9SZw1LpawRLHjgNLdUOmW31RApwASzeo4qWSZ52ZBYpSrb1kUeXNFoX0tyhe7kWuudNs2Iy7vUwaY7Q=='
# create a cipher and decrypt when you need your password
cipher = Fernet(key)
mypassword = cipher.decrypt(token).decode('utf-8')
Once you've done this, you can either import mypassword directly or you can import the token and cipher to decrypt as needed.
Obviously, there are some shortcomings to this approach. If someone has both the token and the key (as they would if they have the script), they can decrypt easily. However it does obfuscate, and if you compile the code (with something like Nuitka) at least your password won't appear as plain text in a hex editor.
for python3 obfuscation using base64 is done differently:
import base64
base64.b64encode(b'PasswordStringAsStreamOfBytes')
which results in
b'UGFzc3dvcmRTdHJpbmdBc1N0cmVhbU9mQnl0ZXM='
note the informal string representation, the actual string is in quotes
and decoding back to the original string
base64.b64decode(b'UGFzc3dvcmRTdHJpbmdBc1N0cmVhbU9mQnl0ZXM=')
b'PasswordStringAsStreamOfBytes'
to use this result where string objects are required the bytes object can be translated
repr = base64.b64decode(b'UGFzc3dvcmRTdHJpbmdBc1N0cmVhbU9mQnl0ZXM=')
secret = repr.decode('utf-8')
print(secret)
for more information on how python3 handles bytes (and strings accordingly) please see the official documentation.
This is a pretty common problem. Typically the best you can do is to either
A) create some kind of ceasar cipher function to encode/decode (just not rot13)
or
B) the preferred method is to use an encryption key, within reach of your program, encode/decode the password. In which you can use file protection to protect access the key.
Along those lines if your app runs as a service/daemon (like a webserver) you can put your key into a password protected keystore with the password input as part of the service startup. It'll take an admin to restart your app, but you will have really good pretection for your configuration passwords.
Your operating system probably provides facilities for encrypting data securely. For instance, on Windows there is DPAPI (data protection API). Why not ask the user for their credentials the first time you run then squirrel them away encrypted for subsequent runs?
Here is my snippet for such thing. You basically import or copy the function to your code. getCredentials will create the encrypted file if it does not exist and return a dictionaty, and updateCredential will update.
import os
def getCredentials():
import base64
splitter='<PC+,DFS/-SHQ.R'
directory='C:\\PCT'
if not os.path.exists(directory):
os.makedirs(directory)
try:
with open(directory+'\\Credentials.txt', 'r') as file:
cred = file.read()
file.close()
except:
print('I could not file the credentials file. \nSo I dont keep asking you for your email and password everytime you run me, I will be saving an encrypted file at {}.\n'.format(directory))
lanid = base64.b64encode(bytes(input(' LanID: '), encoding='utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
email = base64.b64encode(bytes(input(' eMail: '), encoding='utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
password = base64.b64encode(bytes(input(' PassW: '), encoding='utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
cred = lanid+splitter+email+splitter+password
with open(directory+'\\Credentials.txt','w+') as file:
file.write(cred)
file.close()
return {'lanid':base64.b64decode(bytes(cred.split(splitter)[0], encoding='utf-8')).decode('utf-8'),
'email':base64.b64decode(bytes(cred.split(splitter)[1], encoding='utf-8')).decode('utf-8'),
'password':base64.b64decode(bytes(cred.split(splitter)[2], encoding='utf-8')).decode('utf-8')}
def updateCredentials():
import base64
splitter='<PC+,DFS/-SHQ.R'
directory='C:\\PCT'
if not os.path.exists(directory):
os.makedirs(directory)
print('I will be saving an encrypted file at {}.\n'.format(directory))
lanid = base64.b64encode(bytes(input(' LanID: '), encoding='utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
email = base64.b64encode(bytes(input(' eMail: '), encoding='utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
password = base64.b64encode(bytes(input(' PassW: '), encoding='utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
cred = lanid+splitter+email+splitter+password
with open(directory+'\\Credentials.txt','w+') as file:
file.write(cred)
file.close()
cred = getCredentials()
updateCredentials()
Place the configuration information in a encrypted config file. Query this info in your code using an key. Place this key in a separate file per environment, and don't store it with your code.
More homegrown appraoch rather than converting authentication / passwords / username to encrytpted details. FTPLIB is just the example.
"pass.csv" is the csv file name
Save password in CSV like below :
user_name
user_password
(With no column heading)
Reading the CSV and saving it to a list.
Using List elelments as authetntication details.
Full code.
import os
import ftplib
import csv
cred_detail = []
os.chdir("Folder where the csv file is stored")
for row in csv.reader(open("pass.csv","rb")):
cred_detail.append(row)
ftp = ftplib.FTP('server_name',cred_detail[0][0],cred_detail[1][0])
Do you know pit?
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pit (py2 only (version 0.3))
https://github.com/yoshiori/pit (it will work on py3 (current version 0.4))
test.py
from pit import Pit
config = Pit.get('section-name', {'require': {
'username': 'DEFAULT STRING',
'password': 'DEFAULT STRING',
}})
print(config)
Run:
$ python test.py
{'password': 'my-password', 'username': 'my-name'}
~/.pit/default.yml:
section-name:
password: my-password
username: my-name
If running on Windows, you could consider using win32crypt library. It allows storage and retrieval of protected data (keys, passwords) by the user that is running the script, thus passwords are never stored in clear text or obfuscated format in your code. I am not sure if there is an equivalent implementation for other platforms, so with the strict use of win32crypt your code is not portable.
I believe the module can be obtained here: http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/win32crypt.html
You could also consider the possibility of storing the password outside the script, and supplying it at runtime
e.g. fred.py
import os
username = 'fred'
password = os.environ.get('PASSWORD', '')
print(username, password)
which can be run like
$ PASSWORD=password123 python fred.py
fred password123
Extra layers of "security through obscurity" can be achieved by using base64 (as suggested above), using less obvious names in the code and further distancing the actual password from the code.
If the code is in a repository, it is often useful to store secrets outside it, so one could add this to ~/.bashrc (or to a vault, or a launch script, ...)
export SURNAME=cGFzc3dvcmQxMjM=
and change fred.py to
import os
import base64
name = 'fred'
surname = base64.b64decode(os.environ.get('SURNAME', '')).decode('utf-8')
print(name, surname)
then re-login and
$ python fred.py
fred password123
Why not have a simple xor?
Advantages:
looks like binary data
noone can read it without knowing the key (even if it's a single char)
I get to the point where I recognize simple b64 strings for common words and rot13 as well. Xor would make it much harder.
There are several ROT13 utilities written in Python on the 'Net -- just google for them. ROT13 encode the string offline, copy it into the source, decode at point of transmission.But this is really weak protection...
This doesn't precisely answer your question, but it's related. I was going to add as a comment but wasn't allowed.
I've been dealing with this same issue, and we have decided to expose the script to the users using Jenkins. This allows us to store the db credentials in a separate file that is encrypted and secured on a server and not accessible to non-admins.
It also allows us a bit of a shortcut to creating a UI, and throttling execution.
import base64
print(base64.b64encode("password".encode("utf-8")))
print(base64.b64decode(b'cGFzc3dvcmQ='.decode("utf-8")))
Related
I have a Python script that contains a plain text password used to bind Mac to AD.
I need to deploy this script to few Macs.
How can I secure password which is in plain text, so that no one can see the password?
I don't want to use base64, I'd need something stronger than base64.
You can use encode and decode functions.
def encode(key, clear):
enc = []
for i in range(len(clear)):
key_c = key[i % len(key)]
enc_c = chr((ord(clear[i]) + ord(key_c)) % 256)
enc.append(enc_c)
return base64.urlsafe_b64encode("".join(enc).encode()).decode()
def decode(key, enc):
dec = []
enc = base64.urlsafe_b64decode(enc).decode()
for i in range(len(enc)):
key_c = key[i % len(key)]
dec_c = chr((256 + ord(enc[i]) - ord(key_c)) % 256)
dec.append(dec_c)
return "".join(dec)
Usage: encode("mykey", "password")
(You need to import base64)
If you want high secured password, i coded a script but i tried to decode the string and i can not do it.
Try storing the password in a variable in a separate Python script.
pass.py
password = 'PASSWORD'
Import the variable from this script separately.
main.py
from pass import password
This will create a bytecode file named pass.pyc. Now you can delete pass.py and continue using pass.pyc, which isn't human-readable and much harder to decompile.
Edit: If somebody has access to your source code, they can still see the password with a print statement!
Edit 2: As Giacomo Alzetta commented, the password is still human-readable here, but it comes down to the "attack model" here. If someone really wants to, they can still dig around and find it. Other alternatives are encryption algorithms available in OpenSSL. Symmetric key algorithms might still not be useful for you since you'd probably have to store the encryption key within the source code. Asymmetric key algorithms might work.
I am having database credentials in my python code, which I would like to have it encrypted, use the value in run time by decrypting it.
I've found the below code with the help of stackoverflow and working as expected
from Crypto.Cipher import AES
import base64
msg_text = b'test some plain text here'.rjust(32)
secret_key = b'1234567890123456' # create new & store somewhere safe
cipher = AES.new(secret_key,AES.MODE_ECB) # never use ECB in strong systems obviously
encoded = base64.b64encode(cipher.encrypt(msg_text))
print(encoded)
# ...
decoded = cipher.decrypt(base64.b64decode(encoded))
print(decoded.strip())
Above code has secret_key and comment says to create new secret key.
How can I create a secret key and from where it can be created?
What would be the recommended place to store secret keys? Is there any structure/place that's recommended to save? I think it should be saved in database
Is above code the strong way of encrypting and decrypting? If it can be tampered, what way should be approached? Providing sample link would be a great help
Instead of hardcoding the password into source code, you can use a password and generate the keys by using PBKDF2 functions on the runtime.
A password should not be saved in the database, or in a file. You must keep in the memory.
The ECB mode is insecure, it leaks pattern on the data, see the penguin in Wikipedia. You should use CBC mode or CTR mode for encryption. However keep in mind that, while you can execute equality queries with ECB mode, you cannot execute with CBC or CTR mode. If the ECB mode suits your case, that is; the pattern is not a security issue, you can use ECB.
I just create a new aplication in python for registration.
I save all the fields in database and user created successfully but the password is save same as it is we filled at the time of registration.
How do I encrypt or use default functonality of python for password.
Please suggest me?
To make offline password cracking more expensive, you could use bcrypt.
If you are limited to the stdlib, there is crypt module on Unix:
hashed = crypt.crypt(plaintext)
you should hash the passwords, the following code hashes the raw-input password according to your PASSWORD_HASHERS in settings.py
from django.contrib.auth.hashers import make_password
pass = make_password(raw_pass) # hashing is done here
user.set_password(pass)
Don't implement such stuff yourself or you likely will do it wrong.
For password storage, using some reversible encoding or symetric encryption or a simple hash from hashlib or even a randomly salted hash are all major FAILURES nowadays.
If you are using django, use some strong algorithm provided by django (usually one of: bcrypt, pbkdf2, sha512_crypt).
When not using django: use passlib - after reading its documentation.
http://code.google.com/p/passlib/
Hash the password upon getting it from the user (and on registration) to encrypt it.
import hashlib
m = hashlib.sha1()
m.update("My users' password here")
m.digest()
Ref: http://docs.python.org/2/library/hashlib.html#module-hashlib
For actual encryption, you can try M2Crypto or PyCrypto. Those are probably what you are looking for; however, there are other ways to obfuscate your passwords for the average user:
(if you would like to read some more answers as to what encryption method might suit you best, check out this somewhat related SO post: Recommended Python cryptographic module?
hashlib will provide various hash algorithms (ex. "SHA1, SHA224, SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512"). A simple example:
import hashlib
enc = hashlib.md5()
enc.update("Somerandompassword")
print enc.hexdigest()
And this will print you the md5 "Somerandompassword":
c5532f9e756b4583db4c627c8aa7d303
However, for (base64) encoding, for example, try:
import base64
enc = base64.b64encode("Somerandompassword")
and decoding
dec = base64.b64decode("U29tZXJhbmRvbXBhc3N3b3Jk")
print dec
will print: Somerandompassword
the pickled file i create using this method is readable in text editor if we forcibly open it,
import pickle,os
print os.path.split(__file__)[0]
storloc= os.path.normpath(os.path.join(os.path.split(__file__)[0],"test.pkl"))
newD={"String":"this is the world", "int":1,"float":1.5}
print newD
print storloc
d = open(storloc, 'wb')
pickle.dump(newD,d)
d.close()
how to make pickled file(test.pkl) unreadable in any text editor?
Attempting to make a simple format such as Python pickles safe for passwords is a fools game.
Use the keyring package instead and leave it to the OS to store your password safely.
import keyring
username = # Obtain a stored username or ask the user
password = keyring.get_password('your_application_name', username)
if password is None or verify_password_failed:
password = # Obtain a password from the user
keyring.set_password('your_application_name', username, password)
The keyring package uses the OS-supplied keyring (OS X, Windows, KDE, Gnome), but will fall back to an encrypted store of it's own if necessary.
Just add a third parameter to the dump call - it is the protocol parameter, and only the default one (0) is ASCII encoded - protocols 1 and 2 are binary only and should be mangled in a text editor.
However, this is not safe - if you want passwords not to be seen, check pycripto, and do some proper cryptography on your file.
I'm trying to understand how does Linux encrypt our password on the etc/shadow file, so I've dont a new virtual 'test' user to make some test:
user: newuser
password: usrpw123
Generated salt: Ii4CGbr7
So the OS makes me the following line on the etc/shadow file, using a SHA512 encryptation system ($6$): newuser:$6$Ii4CGbr7$IOua8/oPV79Yp.BwzpxlSHjmCvRfTomZ.bhEvjZV2x5qhrvk82lZVrEtWQQej2pOWMdN7hvKwNgvCXKFQm5CB/:15069:0:99999:7:::
Now, I take the SHA512 module from python and try this:
import hashlib
m = hashlib.sha512()
m.update('Ii4CGbr7'+'usrpw123')
print m.hexdigest
This gives me the following hash as a result:
c73156daca3e31125ce457f1343201cc8a26400b2974440af2cc72687922b48b6631d21c186796ea2756ad987a996d2b261fe9ff3af4cc81e14c3029eac5df55
As you can see, it's different than the other one on the /etc/shadow file, and I dont know why if I'm using the same salt+password to generate the hash.
Can someone give me a hand and explain me more or less why this happens?
And also, why does the /etc/shadow files generates a hash with some dots (.)?
Thanks
The fields in /etc/shadow are not built or interpreted the way you think they are. You'll want to read the man page for details, but the most obvious difference is that it uses an unusual base64 encoding for both the salt and the hash.
There is an algorithm for generating the password hashes found in /etc/shadow.
See this document for an explanation:
http://www.akkadia.org/drepper/SHA-crypt.txt
There's an implementation of this in python here:
http://packages.python.org/passlib/lib/passlib.hash.sha512_crypt.html
I fell into the same trap as everything that I read lead me to believe you could retrieve the results the same way you have it written.
I was able to determine the password by using the salt and password using crypt.crypt()
import crypt
crypt.crypt(password, salt)
salt: $6$Ii4CGbr7
password: usrpw123
doesn't exactly use the hashlib library but it works.