this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
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How do you handle secrets in home automation? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/selfhosted
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Say you have a script or something that gets run in cron/task scheduler and it needs a password.. say to ssh to a raspberry pi elsewhere in your house.

How do you save that password in a way that automation can access it?

Some ideas:

  • Plaintext file. Not a fan because its sitting unencrypted on the box somewhere.
  • Environment variable. Not a fan because its still unencrypted somewhere to someone on the box (albeit likely the same user or an admin).
  • A secrets manager. If I use something locally like hashicorp vault or infisical, I can get to a point where a cli/api call gets the password. Though in this case I still need a vault password/secret to get my password. So I fall back to needing one of the above to get this to work.

If the secrets manager is easily available, the secret to get into the secrets manager is available as well leading to a feeling of security by obscurity.

If someone breaks into my system via SSH/etc. then they can get the passwords either way.

.. How do people normally do this? I'm not sure I actually get anything out of a secrets manager if its local and I have the disk itself encrypted before login.

What actually makes sense at a personal/home scale?

(Edit: I know using SSH key probably is better for getting to the raspberry pi, but still the question is the same idea).

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[–] IanTwenty 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Two more options you might consider:

  • secret-tool - like a vault that unlocks when a user logs in to their session. This shifts the problem to keeping the user's login credentials secure but depending on your setup that might be preferable. Just be aware the once unlocked any process could access the vault in theory (I wish they'd add access controls...)
  • podman secrets - so you can securely provide secrets to containers. You can set these once securely then nothing except processes in the container can get them.
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is likely a too late, but reasonable moment to say this server happens to be Windows based.

.. for backup reasons.

(The tool used for online backup only allows home versions of Windows and local drives)

One day if I build a new one, I might start with a Linux base, though that kind of requires this one to be on its last leg before I get to that point. It's running a processor/mobo that are 14ish years old.. so maybe I should think more about it.

[–] IanTwenty 2 points 1 year ago

In that case I'll also mention that Powershell has a secure-string that allows you to load secrets from encrypted file/user input. I believe it's secured by the user's login/session like secret-tool. They are even remain encrypted in memory so they can't be snooped on.