With web.config
going away, what is the preferred way to store sensitive info (passwords, tokens) in the configurations of a web app built using ASP.NET Core?
Is there a way to automatically get encrypted configuration sections in appsettings.json
?
User secrets looks like a good solution for storing passwords, and, generally, application secrets, at least during development.
Check the official Microsoft documentation. You can also review this other SO question.
This is just a way to "hide" your secrets during development process and to avoid disclosing them into the source tree; the Secret Manager tool does not encrypt the stored secrets and should not be treated as a trusted store.
If you want to bring an encrypted appsettings.json
to production, you can do so by building a custom configuration provider.
For example:
public class CustomConfigProvider : ConfigurationProvider, IConfigurationSource
{
public CustomConfigProvider()
{
}
public override void Load()
{
Data = UnencryptMyConfiguration();
}
private IDictionary<string, string> UnencryptMyConfiguration()
{
// do whatever you need to do here, for example load the file and unencrypt key by key
//Like:
var configValues = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{"key1", "unencryptedValue1"},
{"key2", "unencryptedValue2"}
};
return configValues;
}
private IDictionary<string, string> CreateAndSaveDefaultValues(IDictionary<string, string> defaultDictionary)
{
var configValues = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{"key1", "encryptedValue1"},
{"key2", "encryptedValue2"}
};
return configValues;
}
public IConfigurationProvider Build(IConfigurationBuilder builder)
{
return new CustomConfigProvider();
}
}
Define a static class for your extension method:
public static class CustomConfigProviderExtensions
{
public static IConfigurationBuilder AddEncryptedProvider(this IConfigurationBuilder builder)
{
return builder.Add(new CustomConfigProvider());
}
}
And then you can activate it:
// Set up configuration sources.
var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
.AddJsonFile("appsettings.json")
.AddEncryptedProvider()
.AddJsonFile($"appsettings.{env.EnvironmentName}.json", optional: true);