14. Secret handling and connection security

This document describes how Ascender handles secrets and connections in a secure fashion.

14.1. Secret Handling

Ascender manages three sets of secrets:

  • user passwords for local Ascender users

  • secrets for Ascender operational use (database password, message bus password, etc.)

  • secrets for automation use (SSH keys, cloud credentials, external password vault credentials, etc.)

14.1.1. User passwords for local users

Ascender hashes local Ascender user passwords with the PBKDF2 algorithm using a SHA256 hash. Users who authenticate via external account mechanisms (LDAP, SAML, OAuth, and others) do not have any password or secret stored.

14.1.2. Secret handling for operational use

Ascender contains the following secrets used operationally:

  • /etc/awx/SECRET_KEY

    • A secret key used for encrypting automation secrets in the database (see below). If the SECRET_KEY changes or is unknown, no encrypted fields in the database will be accessible.

  • /etc/awx/awx.{cert,key}

    • SSL certificate and key for the Ascender web service. A self-signed cert/key is installed by default; the customer can provide a locally appropriate certificate and key.

  • Database password in /etc/awx/conf.d/postgres.py and message bus password in /etc/awx/conf.d/channels.py

    • Passwords for connecting to Ascender component services

These secrets are all stored unencrypted on the Ascender server, as they are all needed to be read by the Ascender service at startup in an automated fashion. All secrets are protected by Unix permissions, and restricted to root and the Ascender service user awx.

If hiding of these secrets is required, the files that these secrets are read from are interpreted Python. These files can be adjusted to retrieve these secrets via some other mechanism anytime a service restarts.

Note

If the secrets system is down, Ascender will be unable to get the information and may fail in a way that would be recoverable once the service is restored. Using some redundancy on that system is highly recommended.

If, for any reason you believe the SECRET_KEY Ascender generated for you has been compromised and needs to be regenerated, you can run a tool from the installer that behaves much like Ascender backup and restore tool.

To generate a new secret key, run setup.sh -k using the inventory from your install.

A backup copy of the prior key is saved in /etc/awx/.

14.1.3. Secret handling for automation use

Ascender stores a variety of secrets in the database that are either used for automation or are a result of automation. These secrets include:

  • all secret fields of all credential types (passwords, secret keys, authentication tokens, secret cloud credentials)

  • secret tokens and passwords for external services defined in Ascender settings

  • “password” type survey fields entries

To encrypt secret fields, Ascender uses AES in CBC mode with a 256-bit key for encryption, PKCS7 padding, and HMAC using SHA256 for authentication. The encryption/decryption process derives the AES-256 bit encryption key from the SECRET_KEY (described above), the field name of the model field and the database assigned auto-incremented record ID. Thus, if any attribute used in the key generation process changes, Ascender fails to correctly decrypt the secret. Ascender is designed such that the SECRET_KEY is never readable in playbooks Ascender launches, that these secrets are never readable by Ascender users, and no secret field values are ever made available via the Ascender REST API. If a secret value is used in a playbook, we recommend using no_log on the task so that it is not accidentally logged.

14.2. Connection Security

14.2.1. Internal Services

Ascender connects to the following services as part of internal operation:

  • PostgreSQL database

  • A Valkey key/value store

The connection to valkey is over a local unix socket, restricted to the awx service user.

The connection to the PostgreSQL database is done via password authentication over TCP, either via localhost or remotely (external database). This connection can use PostgreSQL’s built in support for SSL/TLS, as natively configured by the installer support. SSL/TLS protocols are configured by the default OpenSSL configuration.

14.2.2. External Access

Ascender is accessed via standard HTTP/HTTPS on standard ports, provided by nginx. A self-signed cert/key is installed by default; the customer can provide a locally appropriate certificate and key. SSL/TLS algorithm support is configured in the /etc/nginx/nginx.conf file. An “intermediate” profile is used by default, and can be configured. Changes must be reapplied on each update.

14.2.3. Managed Nodes

Ascender also connects to managed machines and services as part of automation. All connections to managed machines are done via standard secure mechanism as specified such as SSH, WinRM, SSL/TLS, and so on - each of these inherits configuration from the system configuration for the feature in question (such as the system OpenSSL configuration).