Securing a database password

For additional security, you can protect the database password that Jira uses to access your database, which is stored in the configuration file. We’ve prepared different encryption methods from basic to advanced. Additionally, you can create your own encryption mechanism based on our SecretStore interface.

The solutions outlined below provide a level of protection for encrypting database values, but do not offer complete security. The configuration files will still contain the necessary data to decrypt the values, which means that an attacker with access to these files could potentially decrypt the property values.

These approaches are intended to provide an additional layer of protection against accidental exposure of sensitive data but should not be relied upon as a comprehensive security solution.

We recommend that you secure the server where Jira and the database reside.

Base64 encoding

We don't recommend Base64 encoding in production for securing secrets because it doesn't provide encryption, and therefore cannot guarantee sufficient data protection.

AES encryption

This method allows you to choose an algorithm to encrypt your password. It provides more security as you don't have to store the encrypted password anywhere in the configuration file, which makes it difficult for unauthorized parties to find and decrypt it.  

Learn more about AES encryption

AWS Secrets Manager

AWS Secrets Manager provides a high-level secure storage option for your database credentials. This service retrieves credentials through a runtime call, eliminating hard-coded credentials, such as keys and tokens, altogether.

Learn more about AWS Secrets Manager for encryption

HashiCorp Vault

HashiCorp Vault is a tool that secures, stores, and controls access to sensitive data such as passwords, tokens, and keys. It acts like a digital safe, keeping your secrets locked away from unauthorized users while being readily available to services with the right permissions.

Learn more about HashiCorp Vault for encryption

Custom implementation

If you have extra requirements for encryption, you can create your own SecretStore implementation based on our implementation and examples. To do this, you will need Java knowledge and some basic knowledge of Maven. 

Learn more about custom encryption

Last modified on Jul 11, 2024

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