PowerShell / PowerShell/DSC

Support encrypted secrets

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#673 2 comments 5 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Issue-Enhancement
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
523
Forks
75
Avg merge
3d 16h
Merged PRs (30d)
24

Description

Summary of the new feature / enhancement

There are scenarios where a resource might export secrets. Using SecureString and SecureObject currently is insufficient as the contents are in clear text and the only contract is that the contents are redacted when traced.

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

We can adopt CMS (Cryptographic Message Syntax) using public key encryption. This requires the user to provide a public key used for encryption. In this scenario, a resource that exports secrets would export it as a SecureString or SecureObject and when DSC receives it, would encrypt it using the given public key. When this config is applied, the user needs to provide the private key to decrypt the secrets which DSC would then pass to the appropriate resources. In this case, resources don't handle encryption/decryption directly and only DSC itself handles it.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing how DSC v3 handles SecureString and SecureObject values when resources export or receive secrets. Then investigate the proposed CMS public-key encryption flow, including where public and private keys would be supplied. Done requires an agreed design and an implementation plan covering encryption, decryption, and resource boundaries.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
powershell, rust
Domain
cryptography, security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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