This article by Dennis Kalaygian on Medium discusses how to securely manage sensitive information such as database passwords and API keys in web applications. Storing such data directly in code repositories poses significant security risks. The solution involves encrypting sensitive values to maintain privacy while tracking configuration changes.
The encryption is achieved using the Spring Configuration Library, consisting of a repository for configuration files and a web application to serve these files. This setup supports multiple applications and environments (e.g., dev, uat, prod).
To implement this solution, a configuration repository is created with directories for each application and environment-specific configuration files. A Spring Boot web application acts as the Configuration Server, integrated with a repository (e.g., Bitbucket or GitHub).
Access control is managed through a VPN, allowing only network-limited application access and requiring developer IP whitelisting.
To integrate applications with the Configuration Server, updates to the web application’s pom.xml file and properties are necessary. Encryption of sensitive data involves generating cryptographic keys and using endpoints on the Configuration Server to encrypt and decrypt values securely.
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