OS Secret Store Plugin

This plugin allows to read and manage secrets using the native Operating System keyring. For Windows this plugin uses the credential manager, on Linux the kernel keyring is used and on MacOS we use the Keychain implementation.

⭐ Telegraf v1.25.0 🏷️ system 💻 all

Usage <!-- @/docs/includes/secret_usage.md -->

Secrets defined by a store are referenced with @{<store-id>:<secret_key>} the Telegraf configuration. Only certain Telegraf plugins and options of support secret stores. To see which plugins and options support secrets, see their respective documentation (e.g. plugins/outputs/influxdb/README.md). If the plugin's README has the Secret store support section, it will detail which options support secret store usage.

Configuration

# Get secrets from Operating System's native secret store
[[secretstores.os]]
  ## Unique identifier for the secret store.
  ## This id can later be used in plugins to reference the secrets
  ## in this secret store via @{<id>:<secret_key>} (mandatory)
  id = "secretstore"

  ## Keyring Name & Collection
  ## * Linux: keyring name used for the secrets, collection is unused
  ## * macOS: keyring specifies the macOS' Keychain name and collection is an
  ##     optional Keychain service name
  ## * Windows: keys follow a fixed pattern in the form
  ##     `<collection>:<keyring>:<key_name>`. Please keep this in mind when
  ##     creating secrets with the Windows credential tool.
  # keyring = "telegraf"
  # collection = ""

  ## macOS Keychain password
  ## If no password is specified here, Telegraf will prompt for it at startup
  ## time.
  # password = ""

  ## Allow dynamic secrets that are updated during runtime of telegraf
  # dynamic = false

As the configuration differs slightly depending on the Operating System we provide individual interpretations or options in the following sections.

For all operating systems, the keyring name can be chosen using the keyring parameter. However, the interpretation is slightly different on the individual implementations.

The dynamic flag allows to indicate secrets that change during the runtime of Telegraf. I.e. when set to true, the secret will be read from the secret store on every access by a plugin. If set to false, all secrets in the secret store are assumed to be static and are only read once at startup of Telegraf.

Linux

On Linux the kernel keyring in the user scope is used to read or store secrets. The collection setting is ignored on Linux.

MacOS

On MacOS the Keychain implementation is used. Here the keyring parameter corresponds to the Keychain name and the collection to the optional Keychain service name. Additionally a password is required to access the Keychain. The password itself is also a secret and can be a string, an environment variable or a reference to a secret stored in another secret store. If password is omitted, you will be prompted for the password on startup.

Windows

On Windows you can use the Credential Manager in the Control Panel to manage your secrets. Click "Windows Credentials" and then "Add a generic credential" with the following settings

• Internet or network address: Enter the secret name in the format of: <collection>:<keyring>:<key_name>
• User name: This field is unused, but cannot be left empty
• Password: The actual secret value

If using Telegraf, see the help output of telegraf secrets set to add secrets. Again use the <collection>:<keyring>:<key_name> format of the secret key name.

Additional Information

Docker containers

Access to the kernel keyring is disabled by default in docker containers (see documentation). In this case you will get an opening keyring failed: Specified keyring backend not available error!

You can enable access to the kernel keyring, but as the keyring is not namespaced, you should be aware of the security implication! One implication is for example that keys added in one container are accessible by all other containers running on the same host, not only within the same container.

systemd-nspawn

The memguard dependency that Telegraf uses to secure memory for secret storage requires the CAP_IPC_LOCK capability to correctly lock memory. Without this capability Telegraf will panic. Users will need to start a container with the --capability=CAP_IPC_LOCK flag for telegraf to correctly work.

See github.com/awnumar/memguard#144 for more information.