theskumar / theskumar/python-dotenv

Support encryption of .env file

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Python
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Description

Working in a high security environment it is sometimes concerning to have a .env file sitting on your machine with plaintext credentials needed for development. It is also cumbersome to regularly recreate the .env file per working session if the credentials are particularly sensitive. One possible solution would be to support pgp encryption of the .env file, so a call to load dotenv would look like:

from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv(encrypted=True)

Right now I'm using some boilerplate code like this:

from os import getenv
from io import StringIO
from gnupg import GPG
from dotenv import load_dotenv

# encrypted with `gpg -o .env.gpg -e --default-recipient-self .env`
with open("test.env.gpg", "rb") as f:
    env_vars = GPG().decrypt_file(f)

if not env_vars.ok:
    raise Exception(f"Decryption failed: {env_vars.status}")

load_dotenv(stream=StringIO(env_vars.data.decode()))

foo = getenv("FOO")
print(f"FOO: {foo}")

This way the decrypted credentials will only ever exist in memory and since I use a yubikey to store my private keys, there is no way to access that key and retrieve those credentials without the physical key.

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 at the load_dotenv entry point and review how the existing stream-based loading path could relate to an encrypted .env input. The issue's example uses PGP decryption and gnupg, so clarify the supported decryption interface and dependency expectations before implementation. Done should allow encrypted credentials to be loaded without requiring a plaintext .env file on disk.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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