dotgpg is a tool for backing up and versioning your production secrets or shared passwords securely and easily. (Why?)
Getting started
If you're a ruby developer, you know the drill. Either gem install dotgpg or add gem "dotgpg" to your Gemfile.
There are also instructions for use without ruby.
Mac OS X
brew install gpgsudo gem install dotgpg
Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install ruby1.9sudo gem install dotgpg
Usage
dotgpg init
To get started run dotgpg init. Unless you've used GPG before, it will prompt you for a new passphrase. You should make this passphrase as secure as your SSH passphrase, i.e. 12-20 characters and not just letters.
$ dotgpg init
Creating a new GPG key: Conrad Irwin <[email protected]>
Passphrase:
Passphrase confirmation:
dotgpg edit
To create or edit files, just use dotgpg edit. I recommend you use the .gpg suffix so that other tools know what these files contain.
$ dotgpg edit production.gpg
[ opens your $EDITOR ]
dotgpg cat
To read encrypted files, dotgpg cat them.
$ dotgpg cat prodution.gpg
GPG passphrase for [email protected]:
dotgpg add
To add other people to your team, you need to dotgpg add them. To run this command you need their public key (see dotgpg key).
$ dotgpg add
Paste a public key, then hit <ctrl-d> twice.
<paste>
<ctrl-d><ctrl-d>
Once you've added them run git commit or let Dropbox work its syncing magic and they'll be able to access the files just like you.
dotgpg key
To be added to a dotgpg directory, you just need to send your GPG public key to someone who already has access. Getting the key is as easy as running dotgpg key. Then email/IM someone who already has access (you can see the list with ls .gpg).
$ dotgpg key
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.15 (Darwin)
mQENBFK2JfMBCAC8wX7dsWiNX2Ov9akPlz+54Y7n8a3gtdP63CiabW9Ao4614ZDu
vZWI8GIr1QaqMQOcUnhVe9BU3u3y4TX5ei1rHp4ykKoum606R7oFKS5Q4viob/6W
rfVND/o/Sh8twY9ZIpOxRq1zqfGmJk/wSTMuM047hhPUDZVf1BNU+lkURTh2qqnL
...snip...
ZQPcmlBEEI4zq+4GzLTTHHM3/rcHHZmi5p9JAK8OxM/Xyc2otF+N/+iGtIIHjD4a
0FJjy4jQzl7FsvLbDf0VDbcw6RZkJ5dGXIyaEcNiOkF3UGwDcfg6oLsA7d5lo+3a
leJCaaNJQBbIOj4QOjFWiZ8ATqLH9nkgawSwOV3xp0MWayCJ3MVnibt4CaI=
=Vzb6
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Why
Production secrets are the keys that your app needs to run. For example the session cookie encryption key, or the database password. These are critical to the running of your app, so it's essential to have a backup that is version controlled. Then if anything goes wrong, you can find the previous values and go back to running happily.
Unfortunately it's also essential that your production secrets are kept secret. This means that traditional solutions to storing them, like putting them unenecrypted in git or in a shared google doc or in Dropbox are not sufficiently secure. Anyone who gets access to your source code, or to someone's Dropbox password, gets the keys to the kingdom for free.
Dotgpg aims to be as easy to use as "just store them in git/Dropbox", but because it uses gpg encryption is less vulnerable. If someone gets access to your source code, or someone's Google Apps account, they won't be able to get to your production database.
Deploying
dotenv
I recommend using dotenv for production secrets, then storing your production .env file as config/dotgpg/production.gpg in your web repository (after doing dotgpg init config/dotgpg).
You can do this manually with ssh:
dotgpg cat config/dotgpg/production.gpg |\
ssh host1.example.com 'cat > /apps/website/shared/.env'
Or use Capistrano's put helper:
file = `dotgpg cat config/dotgpg/production.gpg`
put file, "/apps/website/shared/.env"
Heroku
We store a dump of heroku config -s in dotgpg with added comments. The dotgpg version is considered the master version, so if we make a mistake configuring Heroku (I've done that before...) we can restore easily.
Other
You're kind of on your own for now :). Just store secrets in dotgpg and nowhere else, and you'll be fine!
If you've got a setup that you think is common enough, please send a pull request to add docs.
Shared passwords
You can also use dotgpg to share passwords for things that you log into manually with the rest of your team. This works particularly well if you put the dotgpg directory into Dropbox so that it syncs magically.
Use without ruby
The only person who really needs to use the dotgpg executable is the one responsible for adding and removing users from the directory. If you want to use dotgpg without requiring everyone to install ruby you can give them these instructions:
To export your GPG key, use: gpg --armor --export EMAIL_ADDRESS. (If you get an error 'nothing exported', you can generate a new key using the default settings of gpg --gen-key.)
To read the encrypted files use gpg --decrypt FILE.
To edit the encrypted files, you'll want to use vim-gnupg and add autocmd User GnuPG let b:GPGOptions += ["sign"] to your ~/.vimrc. Every time a new user is added to the directory, you'll need to sync GPG's public key store with gpg --import .gpg/* or you won't be able to save changes.
Security
I'm not a security professional, so please email me if you have feedback on anything in this section.
The files stored in dotgpg are unreadable to an attacker provided:
- A file encrypted by GnuPG cannot be decrypted except by someone with access to a recipient's private key.
- No-one has access to your GPG private key.
The former assumption is reasonably strong. I'm willing to accept the tiny risk that there's a bug in GnuPG because it'll make headline news.
The latter assumption is reasonably weak. GPG private keys are stored encrypted on your laptop, and the encryption key is based on a passphrase.
This means that if someone gets access to your laptop (or a backup) they can easily get your GPG key unless you've chosen a secure passphrase. I consider this acceptable risk because, by default, SSH passwords are easier to crack than GPG passphrases (GPG uses 65536 rounds of SHA-1 while SSH uses a single round of MD5) and if they can decrypt your SSH key they can read the secrets directly off your production servers.
Change passphrase
If you didn't choose a secure passphrase, you can change it with:
gpg --edit-keys [email protected] passwd
If you can't remember your passphrase then you generate a new key with dotgpg key -n and ask someone on your team to overwrite your existing key with dotgpg add -f.
Revoking access
Occasionally people leave, or stop needing access to dotgpg. To remove them use dotgpg rm.
dotgpg rm conrad.irwin@gmail.com