keyring

N.B.: keyring is not for encrypting passwords--for that, you should use something like bcrypt. It's meant for encrypting sensitive data you will need to access in plain text (e.g. storing OAuth token from users). Passwords do not fall in that category.

This library is heavily inspired by attr_vault, and can read encrypted messages if you encode them in base64 (e.g. Base64.strict_encode64(encrypted_by_attr_vault)).

Installation

Add this line to your application:

go get github.com/fnando/keyring-go

Usage

Basic usage

package main

import (
  "fmt"

  k "github.com/fnando/keyring-go"
)

func main() {
  keyring, err := k.CreateKeyring(
    map[string]string{"1": "uDiMcWVNTuz//naQ88sOcN+E40CyBRGzGTT7OkoBS6M="},
    "<custom digest salt>",
    k.AES128CBC,
  )

  if err != nil {
    panic(err)
  }

  // STEP 1: Encrypt message using latest encryption key.
  encrypted, err := keyring.Encrypt("super secret")

  if err != nil {
    panic(err)
  }

  fmt.Println("🔒", encrypted.Encrypted)
  fmt.Println("🔑", encrypted.KeyId)
  fmt.Println("🔎", encrypted.Digest)

  // STEP 2: Decrypted message using encryption key defined by keyring id.
  decrypted, err := keyring.Decrypt(encrypted.Encrypted, encrypted.KeyId)

  if err != nil {
    panic(err)
  }

  fmt.Println("✉️ ", decrypted)
}

Change encryption algorithm

You can choose between AES-128-CBC, AES-192-CBC and AES-256-CBC. By default, AES-128-CBC will be used.

To specify the encryption algorithm, set the encryption option. The following example uses AES-256-CBC.

keyring := k.Create(
  map[string]string{"1": "uDiMcWVNTuz//naQ88sOcN+E40CyBRGzGTT7OkoBS6M="},
  k.AES256CBC,
  "<custom digest salt>",
)

Configuration

As far as database schema goes:

1. You'll need a column to track the key that was used for encryption, like keyring_id.
2. Every encrypted column can be named encrypted_<column name>.
3. Optionally, you can also have a <column name>_digest to help with searching (see Lookup section below).

Encryption

By default, AES-128-CBC is the algorithm used for encryption. This algorithm uses 16 bytes keys, but you're required to use a key that's double the size because half of that keys will be used to generate the HMAC. The first 16 bytes will be used as the encryption key, and the last 16 bytes will be used to generate the HMAC.

Using random data base64-encoded is the recommended way. You can easily generate keys by using the following command:

$ dd if=/dev/urandom bs=32 count=1 2>/dev/null | openssl base64 -A
qUjOJFgZsZbTICsN0TMkKqUvSgObYxnkHDsazTqE5tM=

Include the result of this command in the value section of the key description in the keyring. Half this key is used for encryption, and half for the HMAC.

Key size

The key size depends on the algorithm being used. The key size should be double the size as half of it is used for HMAC computation.

• aes-128-cbc: 16 bytes (encryption) + 16 bytes (HMAC).
• aes-192-cbc: 24 bytes (encryption) + 24 bytes (HMAC).
• aes-256-cbc: 32 bytes (encryption) + 32 bytes (HMAC).

About the encrypted message

Initialization vectors (IV) should be unpredictable and unique; ideally, they will be cryptographically random. They do not have to be secret: IVs are typically just added to ciphertext messages unencrypted. It may sound contradictory that something has to be unpredictable and unique, but does not have to be secret; it is important to remember that an attacker must not be able to predict ahead of time what a given IV will be.

With that in mind, keyring uses base64(hmac(unencrypted iv + encrypted message) + unencrypted iv + encrypted message) as the final message. If you're planning to migrate from other encryption mechanisms or read encrypted values from the database without using keyring, make sure you account for this. The HMAC is 32-bytes long and the IV is 16-bytes long.

Keyring

Keys are managed through a keyring--a short JSON document describing your encryption keys. The keyring must be a JSON object mapping numeric ids of the keys to the key values. A keyring must have at least one key. For example:

{
  "1": "uDiMcWVNTuz//naQ88sOcN+E40CyBRGzGTT7OkoBS6M=",
  "2": "VN8UXRVMNbIh9FWEFVde0q7GUA1SGOie1+FgAKlNYHc="
}

The id is used to track which key encrypted which piece of data; a key with a larger id is assumed to be newer. The value is the actual bytes of the encryption key.

You can use keyring.ParseKeys(jsonString) to load the keys before creating the keyring:

keys, err := k.ParseKeys(`
  {
    "1": "uDiMcWVNTuz//naQ88sOcN+E40CyBRGzGTT7OkoBS6M=",
    "2": "VN8UXRVMNbIh9FWEFVde0q7GUA1SGOie1+FgAKlNYHc="
  }
`)

keyring := k.CreateKeyring(keys, "<custom digest salt>", k.AES128CBC)

Lookup

One tricky aspect of encryption is looking up records by a known secret. Doing a select * from users where email = $1 is trivial with plain text fields, but impossible with encrypted attributes.

If you create a column <attribute>_digest, then you can use the SHA1 digest to lookup by that value instead and add unique indexes. You don't have to use a hashing salt, but it's highly recommended; this way you can avoid leaking your users' info via rainbow tables.

Exchange data with Ruby

If you use Ruby, you may be interested in https://github.com/fnando/attr_keyring, which is able to read and write messages using the same format.

Exchange data with Node.js

If you use Node.js, you may be interested in https://github.com/fnando/keyring-node, which is able to read and write messages using the same format.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/fnando/keyring-go. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Icon

Icon made by Icongeek26 from Flaticon is licensed by Creative Commons BY 3.0.

Code of Conduct

Everyone interacting in the keyring-go project’s codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.