CryptKeeper

Provides transparent encryption for ActiveRecord. It is encryption agnostic. You can guard your data with any encryption algorithm you want. All you need is a simple class that does 3 things.

1. Takes a hash argument for initialize
2. Provides an encrypt method that returns the encrypted string
3. Provides a decrypt method that returns the plaintext

Note: Any options defined using crypt_keeper will be passed to new as a hash.

You can see an AES example here.

Why?

The options available were either too complicated under the hood or had weird edge cases that made the library hard to use. I wanted to write something simple that just works.

Usage

class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  crypt_keeper :field, :other_field, :encryptor => :aes_new, :key => 'super_good_password', salt: 'salt'
end

model = MyModel.new(field: 'sometext')
model.save! #=> Your data is now encrypted
model.field #=> 'sometext'

It works with all persistences methods: update_attributes, create, save etc.

Note: update_attribute is deprecated in ActiveRecord 3.2.7. It is superseded by update_column which skips all validations, callbacks.

That means using update_column will not perform any encryption. This is expected behavior, and has its use cases. An example would be migrating from one type of encryption to another. Using update_column would allow you to update the content without going through the current encryptor.

Encodings

You can force an encoding on the plaintext before encryption and after decryption by using the encoding option. This is useful when dealing with multibyte strings:

class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  crypt_keeper :field, :other_field, :encryptor => :aes_new, :key => 'super_good_password', salt: 'salt', :encoding => 'UTF-8'
end

model = MyModel.new(field: 'Tromsø')
model.save! #=> Your data is now encrypted
model.field #=> 'Tromsø'
model.field.encoding #=> #<Encoding:UTF-8>

Adding encryption to an existing table

If you are working with an existing table you would like to encrypt, you must use the MyExistingModel.encrypt_table! class method.

class MyExistingModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  crypt_keeper :field, :other_field, :encryptor => :aes_new, :key => 'super_good_password', salt: 'salt'
end

MyExistingModel.encrypt_table!

Running encrypt_table! will encrypt all rows in the database using the encryption method specificed by the crypt_keeper line in your model.

Supported Available Encryptors

There are four supported encryptors: aes_new, mysql_aes_new, postgresql_pgp, postgres_pgp_public_key.

• AES New

  • Encryption is peformed using AES-256 via OpenSSL.
  • Passphrases are derived using PBKDF2

• MySQL AES New

  • Encryption is peformed MySQL's native AES functions.
  • ActiveRecord logs are automatically filtered for you to protect sensitive data from being logged.
  • Passphrases are derived using PBKDF2

• PostgreSQL PGP.

  • Encryption is performed using PostgresSQL's native PGP functions.
  • It requires the pgcrypto PostgresSQL extension: CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pgcrypto
  • ActiveRecord logs are automatically filtered for you to protect senitive data from being logged.
  • Custom options can be set through the :pgcrypto_options. E.g. `crypt_keeper :field, encryptor: :postgres_pgp, pgcrypto_options: 'compress-level=9'
  • Passphrases are hashed by PostgresSQL itself using a String2Key (S2K) algorithm. This is rather similar to crypt() algorithms — purposefully slow and with random salt — but it produces a full-length binary key.

• PostgreSQL PGP Public Key.

  • Encryption is performed using PostgresSQL's native PGP functions.
  • It requires the pgcrypto PostgresSQL extension: CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pgcrypto
  • ActiveRecord logs are automatically filtered for you to protect senitive data from being logged.
  • Accepts a public and private_key. The private key is optional. If the private key is not present the ciphertext value is returned instead of the plaintext. This allows you to keep the private key off certain servers. Encryption is possible with only a public key. Any server that needs access to the plaintext will need the private key.
  • Passphrases are hashed by PostgresSQL itself using a String2Key (S2K) algorithm. This is rather similar to crypt() algorithms — purposefully slow and with random salt — but it produces a full-length binary key.

Deprecated Encryptors

These encryptors are now deprecated and should be migrated from as soon as possible using the included bin/crypt_keeper script.

• AES Legacy DEPRECATED

  • Encryption is peformed using AES-256 via OpenSSL.
  • How to migrate to AES New

• MySQL AES Legacy DEPRECATED

  • Encryption is peformed MySQL's native AES functions.
  • ActiveRecord logs are automatically filtered for you to protect senitive data from being logged.
  • How to migrate to MySQL AES New

Searching

Searching ciphertext is a complex problem that varies depending on the encryption algorithm you choose. All of the bundled providers include search support, but they have some caveats.

• AES

  • The Ruby implementation of AES uses a random initialization vector. The same plaintext encrypted multiple times will have different output each time for the ciphertext. Since this is the case, it is not possible to search leveraging the database. Database rows will need to be filtered in memory. It is suggested that you use a scope or ActiveRecord batches to narrow the results before seaching them.

• Mysql AES

  • Surprisingly, MySQL's implementation of AES does not use a random initialization vector. The column containing the ciphertext can be indexed and searched quickly.

• PostgresSQL PGP

  • PGP also uses a random initialization vector which means it generates unique output each time you encrypt plaintext. Although the database can be searched by performing row level decryption and comparing the plaintext, it will not be able to use an index. A scope or batch is suggested when searching.

How the search interface is used

Model.search_by_plaintext(:field, 'searchstring')
# With a scope
Model.where(something: 'blah').search_by_plaintext(:field, 'searchstring')

Creating your own encryptor

Creating your own encryptor is easy. All you have to do is create a class under the CryptKeeper::Provider namespace, like this:

module CryptKeeper
  module Provider
    class MyEncryptor
      def initialize(options = {})
      end

      def encrypt(value)
      end

      def decrypt(value)
      end
    end
  end
end

Just require your code and setup your model to use it. Just pass the class name as a string or an underscored symbol

class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  crypt_keeper :field, :other_field, :encryptor => :my_encryptor, :key => 'super_good_password'
end

Requirements

CryptKeeper has been tested against ActiveRecord 3.1, 3.2, 4.0, 4.1 using ruby 1.9.3, 2.0.0 and 2.1.1

ActiveRecord 4.0 is supported starting with v0.11.0. ActiveRecord 4.1 is supported starting with v0.16.0.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'crypt_keeper'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install crypt_keeper

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request