Introduction
Often we hear that credentials should not be hardcoded in the code or Version Control (like git). You can leverage the dynamic substitution of such credentials using Environment variables tied to the code as a variable.
Pre-requisite
- Python 3.8 or up
- PyYaml - To read YAML configuration file
Steps
- Create a
yaml
file as the following
# credentials.yml
aws:
access_key_id: "${AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID}"
secret_access_key: "${AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY}"
- We will read this
yaml
file and get the python dictionary object
# main.py
from typing import Dict
import yaml
def read_credentials_file() -> Dict:
try:
with open("credentials.yml", mode="r", encoding="utf-8") as cred_file:
return yaml.safe_load(cred_file)
except yaml.YAMLError as yaml_err:
print(f"Unable to read the file. Error: {yaml_err}")
raise
- We will use the
string.Template
from the standard library to substitute the value from the environment variables
# main.py
import string
import os
def substitute_creds(creds: Dict) -> None:
creds["aws"]["access_key_id"] = string.Template(
creds["aws"]["access_key_id"]
).substitute(
{"AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID": os.getenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID")}
)
creds["aws"]["secret_access_key"] = string.Template(
creds["aws"]["secret_access_key"]
).substitute(
{"AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY": os.getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY")}
)
- Add the following two variables as part of the environment. They can be added in the
.env
file as well
$ export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="abcd1234"
$ export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="secret123"
Complete Program
# main.py
from typing import Dict
import string
import yaml
import os
def read_credentials_file() -> Dict:
try:
with open("credentials.yml", mode="r", encoding="utf-8") as cred_file:
return yaml.safe_load(cred_file)
except yaml.YAMLError as yaml_err:
print(f"Unable to read the file. Error: {yaml_err}")
raise
def substitute_creds(creds: Dict) -> None:
creds["aws"]["access_key_id"] = string.Template(
creds["aws"]["access_key_id"]
).substitute(
{"AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID": os.getenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID")}
)
creds["aws"]["secret_access_key"] = string.Template(
creds["aws"]["secret_access_key"]
).substitute(
{"AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY": os.getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY")}
)
if __name__ == "__main__":
credentials = read_credentials_file()
substitute_creds(credentials)
# WARNING: Never print or log credentials or any sensitive information
print(f"Credentials: {credentials}")
- The above code when run should produce the following output
$ python3 main.py
Credentials: {"aws": {"access_key_id": "abcd1234", "secret_access_key": "secret123"}}
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