Can I avoid putting key store password on command-line with JSSE?

Question

We are using Maven 2 and have a maven repository manager secured with SSL client authentication. In order for Maven to access the repository the following system properties must be passed to Java:

javax.net.ssl.trustStore=trust.jks
javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=<trustPass>
javax.net.ssl.keyStore=keystore.p12
javax.net.ssl.keyStoreType=pkcs12
javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=<keyStorePass>

See this mini-guide for more details.

In order to set these system properties in Maven, I have to use the MAVEN_OPTS environment variable (or pass them directly on the command-line). Either way, when Maven actually executes, all of these properties become visible to other users on the system (via ps), including my key store password.

Is there a way to set these properties so that the password doesn't get exposed on the command-line?

Answer 1

OSX

The solution I came up with on OSX is the following .mavenrc. It uses a python script to access the password in the keychain in order to open the client certificate and then generates a random passphrase and a temporary certificate with that random password.

Put this in ~/.mavenrc and add your client certificate to the OSX keychain. Make sure and set MAVEN_CLIENT_CERT to the location of your client certificate.

~/.mavenrc

export MAVEN_CLIENT_CERT=<PATH.TO.CLIENT.CERTIFICATE>

# Retrieve secret from keychain
export SECRET=$(python <<END
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
import re, sys, os

passlabel = os.environ.get("MAVEN_CLIENT_CERT", None)

p = Popen(['security', 'find-generic-password', '-l',passlabel,'-g'], stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE, stdin=PIPE)

sys.stdout.write(re.compile('password:\\s"(.*)"').match(p.stderr.read()).group(1))
sys.exit(0)
END)

TMPDIR=/tmp
TMPTMPL=mvn-$(id -u)-XXXXXXXXXX
PASSPHRASE=$(openssl rand -base64 32)
export PASSPHRASE TMPDIR

pemfile=$(mktemp $TMPDIR/$TMPTMPL)
openssl pkcs12 -in $MAVEN_CLIENT_CERT -passin env:SECRET -out $pemfile -passout env:PASSPHRASE
p12file=$(mktemp $TMPDIR/$TMPTMPL)
openssl pkcs12 -export -in $pemfile -out $p12file -passin env:PASSPHRASE -passout env:PASSPHRASE

sh -c "while kill -0 $$ 2>/dev/null; do sleep 1; done; rm -f $pemfile; rm -f $p12file;" &

MAVEN_OPTS="$MAVEN_OPTS -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=$p12file -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStoreType=pkcs12 -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=$PASSPHRASE"

Linux

On Linux, the following .mavenrc will work with gnome keyring (make sure and add the cert password to your login keyring and set the id variable KEYRING_ID):

~/.mavenrc

MAVEN_CLIENT_CERT=<PATH.TO.CLIENT.CERTIFICATE>

export KEYRING_NAME="login"
export KEYRING_ID=<KEYRING.ID>

# Try to get secret from the gnome keyring 
export SECRET=$(python <<END
import sys, os
# Test for gtk
try:
  import gtk #ensure that the application name is correctly set
  import gnomekeyring as gk
except ImportError:
  gtk = None
if gtk:
  id = os.environ.get("KEYRING_ID", None)
  name = os.environ.get("KEYRING_NAME", None)
  try:
    if id:
      info = gk.item_get_info_sync(name, int(id))
      attr = gk.item_get_attributes_sync(name, int(id))
      sys.stdout.write(str(info.get_secret()))
    else:
      params = {}
      types = {'secret': gk.ITEM_GENERIC_SECRET, 'network': gk.ITEM_NETWORK_PASSWORD, 'note': gk.ITEM_NOTE}
      eparams = os.environ.get("KEYRING_PARAMS", None)
      etype = os.environ.get("KEYRING_ITEMTYPE", None)
      if eparams and etype:
        list = eparams.split(',')
        for i in list:
          if i:
            k, v = i.split('=', 1)
            if v.isdigit():
              params[k] = int(v)
            else:
              params[k] = v
        matches = gk.find_items_sync(types[etype], params)
        # Write 1st out and break out of loop. 
        # TODO: Handle more then one secret.
        for match in matches:
          sys.stdout.write(str(match.secret))
          break
    sys.exit(0)
  except gk.Error:
    pass
sys.exit(1)
END
)

TMPDIR=/dev/shm
TMPTMPL=mvn-$(id -u)-XXXXXXXXXX
PASSPHRASE=$(openssl rand -base64 32)
export PASSPHRASE TMPDIR

pemfile=$(mktemp $TMPDIR/$TMPTMPL)
openssl pkcs12 -in $MAVEN_CLIENT_CERT -passin env:SECRET -out $pemfile -passout env:PASSPHRASE
p12file=$(mktemp $TMPDIR/$TMPTMPL)
openssl pkcs12 -export -in $pemfile -out $p12file -passin env:PASSPHRASE -passout env:PASSPHRASE

sh -c "while kill -0 $$ 2>/dev/null; do sleep 1; done; rm -f $pemfile; rm -f $p12file;" &

MAVEN_OPTS="$MAVEN_OPTS -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=$p12file -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStoreType=pkcs12 -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=$PASSPHRASE"