Adding Data to the Keystore

To add data to the keystore, use the Java keytool -importpass line command. From a command prompt:

1. Enter the -importpass command, specifying an alias/key.
2. When the keytool prompts, enter the keystore's password.
3. When the keytool prompts again for a "password", enter the data, usually a user name or password. 

For example:

• The keystore is called secret.jks... what's our default called ...
• The keystore password  is secretpass
• The datasource instance details you want to store are:
  • username sqluser, wth the key db1
  • password x34!2axf with the key db1pass

Windows example:

"%JAVA_HOME%\bin\keytool" -importpass -alias db1 -keystore C:\secure\secret.jks -storetype PKCS12
secretpass
sqluser
"%JAVA_HOME%\bin\keytool" -importpass -alias db1pass -keystore C:\secure\secret.jks -storetype PKCS12
secretpass
x34!2axf

$JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -importpass -alias db1 -keystore /opt/secure/secret.jks -storetype PKCS12
secretpass
sqluser
$JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -importpass -alias db1pass -keystore /opt/secure/secret.jks -storetype PKCS12
secretpass
x34!2axf

Pepperkye

If you have local users you also need to set up a Pepperkey

Wikipedia article on Pepper Encrytption

Datasource instances or email

todo

Keytool Syntax

For reference, here is the keytool command syntax.

<keytool> -importpass -alias <key> -keystore <file> -storetype <type>

Understanding How PhixFlow Uses A Keystore

This section illustrates how PhixFlow uses a keystore to access its own database.

When PhixFlow is running, it provides the account credentials to its database as follows:

1. phixflow-datasource.xml stores alias credentials for the database. It requests actual credentials from phixflow-secret.xml.
2. phixflow-secret.xml asks the keystore for the actual credentials.
   1. The keystore password is configured as an environment variable This file stores the location of the keystore file and optionally its password (2a in the diagram below).
   2. Alternatively, phixflow-secret.xml stores the location of the keystore file and optionally its password (2b in the diagram below)
3. The keystore file returns the actual account credentials to phixflow-secret
4. which, in turn, passes the actual credentials to phixflow-datasource.xml.
5. phixflow-datasource.xml then uses the actual credentials to log into the database, so that PhixFlow can update it.

This is shown in the diagram below.

 How PhixFlow authenticates to its database using a keystore

Possibly another page??

Local User Password Encrytption

PhixFlow users can be set up as

• external - all user authentication and permissions are handled externally for example by a SAML single-sign-on service or Active Directory.
• mixed - user authentication is handled externally but a assigned to user groups in PhixFlow, which handle permissions
• local - both user authentication and permissions are handled locally

For local users only, you can configure an added layer of security. PhixFlow one-way encrypts user passwords and the answers to user security questions.

• security answers: normalized Bcrypt - this changes all letters to lower case and removes spaces before encrytpting. It does not use the pepepr key, so security answers will work if the user account is imported to another instance
• user passwords: pepper key Bcrypt
  • this requires an exact match, case/spaces etc

  • AND uses a pepper key from the keystore to get an additional string to add to the password. The pepper key is tied to the PhixFlow instance

    You can export/import user accounts from one instance to another. However their passwords will not work in the new instance because the pepperkey will be different. The user will need to have their password reset in the import instance.

To check a passowrd or answer, PhixFlow identifies which method has been used to encrypt it, and uses the same method to encrypt the string supplied by the user. PhixFlow then compares the two encrypted versions and ensures these match.

In version 8.3.0 PhixFlow switched to using Bcrypt as its method of encrypting data.

phixflow-login.xml includes a list for the encoders. Phixflow will check for

Bcrypt

legacy (used prior to 8.3.0

startup - used for the initital administrator login to a new installation

How to move passwords to the new encoder

For PhixFlow instances upgraded to 8.3.0

Your local users will have passwords and security questions that require the legacy encoder. You can continue to run with this. However, to ensure your system is using the more secure Bcrypt and one-way encoding we recommend users change their passwords and their security answers as soon as possible.

When a user changes their password/answers, it is automatically encrypted with the new Bcrypt encode.

Making phixflow-login.xml more secure

Consider the following change

For new installations at 8.3.0 onwards, all passwords and answers will be using Bcrypt.

For upgraded instaances, when all passwords and answers are using Bcrypt

Update phixflow-login.xml to comment out the legacy line. 

Consider the following change when you have an administrator login set up for your installation

Update phixflow-login.xml to comment out the startup line. This will automatically disable the startup user. If you subseqently have problems that mean you cannot log into the sytem, you can re-enable the startup user from outside PhixFlow. 

Is it better to just disable it in PhixFlow

(This sounds like a security back door though)

phixflow-instance.xml knows about the pepperkey. if you want to call it something else in the keystore, remember to update it here too. - shared statement with install instructions