Introduction

Maven supports server password encryption. The main use case, addressed by this solution is:

• multiple users share the same build machine (server, CI box)
• some users have the privilege to deploy Maven artifacts to repositories, some don't.
  • this applies to any server operations, requiring authorization, not only deployment
• settings.xml is shared between users

The implemented solution adds the following capabilities:

• authorized users have an additional settings-security.xml file in their ${user.home}/.m2 directory
  • this file either contains encrypted master password, used to encrypt other passwords
  • or it can contain a relocation - reference to another file, possibly on removable storage
  • this password is created first via CLI for now
• server entries in the settings.xml have passwords and/or keystore passphrases encrypted
  • for now - this is done via CLI after master password has been created and stored in appropriate location

How to create a master password

Use the following command line:

mvn --encrypt-master-password <password>

Note: Since Maven 3.2.1 the password argument should no longer be used (see Tips below for more information). Maven will prompt for the password. Earlier versions of Maven will not prompt for a password, so it must be typed on the command-line in plaintext.

This command will produce an encrypted version of the password, something like

{jSMOWnoPFgsHVpMvz5VrIt5kRbzGpI8u+9EF1iFQyJQ=}

Store this password in the ${user.home}/.m2/settings-security.xml; it should look like

<settingsSecurity>
  <master>{jSMOWnoPFgsHVpMvz5VrIt5kRbzGpI8u+9EF1iFQyJQ=}</master>
</settingsSecurity>

When this is done, you can start encrypting existing server passwords.

How to encrypt server passwords

You have to use the following command line:

mvn --encrypt-password <password>

Note:Just like --encrypt-master-password the password argument should no longer be used since Maven 3.2.1 (see Tips below for more information.).

This command produces an encrypted version of it, something like

{COQLCE6DU6GtcS5P=}

Copy and paste it into the servers section of your settings.xml file. This will look like:

<settings>
...
  <servers>
...
    <server>
      <id>my.server</id>
      <username>foo</username>
      <password>{COQLCE6DU6GtcS5P=}</password>
    </server>
...
  </servers>
...
</settings>

Please note that password can contain any information outside of the curly brackets, so that the following will still work:

<settings>
...
  <servers>
...
    <server>
      <id>my.server</id>
      <username>foo</username>
      <password>Oleg reset this password on 2009-03-11, expires on 2009-04-11 {COQLCE6DU6GtcS5P=}</password>
    </server>
...
  </servers>
...
</settings>

Then you can use, say, deploy plugin, to write to this server:

mvn deploy:deploy-file -Durl=https://maven.corp.com/repo \
                       -DrepositoryId=my.server \
                       -Dfile=your-artifact-1.0.jar \

How to keep the master password on removable drive

Create the master password exactly as described above, and store it on a removable drive, for instance on OSX, my USB drive mounts as /Volumes/mySecureUsb, so I store

<settingsSecurity>
  <master>{jSMOWnoPFgsHVpMvz5VrIt5kRbzGpI8u+9EF1iFQyJQ=}</master>
</settingsSecurity>

in the file /Volumes/mySecureUsb/secure/settings-security.xml

And then I create ${user.home}/.m2/settings-security.xml with the following content:

<settingsSecurity>
  <relocation>/Volumes/mySecureUsb/secure/settings-security.xml</relocation>
</settingsSecurity>

This assures that encryption only works when the USB drive is mounted by the OS. This addresses a use case where only certain people are authorized to deploy and are issued these devices.

Tips

jSMOWnoPFgsHVpMvz5VrIt5kRbzGpI8u+{EF1iFQyJQ=

{jSMOWnoPFgsHVpMvz5VrIt5kRbzGpI8u+\{EF1iFQyJQ=}

mvn --encrypt-master-password a!$%^b

mvn --encrypt-master-password "a!$%^b"