PowerShell SecretManagement module provides a convenient way for a user to store and retrieve secrets. The secrets are stored in SecretManagement extension vaults. An extension vault is a PowerShell module that has been registered to SecretManagement, and exports five module functions required by SecretManagement. An extension vault can store secrets locally or remotely. Extension vaults are registered to the current logged in user context, and will be available only to that user (unless also registered to other users).
In addition to implementing the five required SecretManagement functions, extension vaults are responsible for any authentication, including prompting the user for passphrases, and providing error and informational messages specific to the vault implementation. Error and informational messages common to all extension vaults are provided by SecretManagement.
PowerShell SecretManagement module is essentially an orchestrator for extension vaults which perform the actual secret storage and encryption. The extension vault may implement its own store, or wrap an existing secure store solution, such as Azure KeyVault, KeePass, Keyring, etc.
PowerShell SecretManagement supports the following secret data types:
- byte[]
- string
- SecureString
- PSCredential
- Hashtable
All extension vault implementations must also support these data types.
PowerShell SecretManagement module provides cmdlets for for accessing and manipulating secrets, and also cmdlets for registering and manipulating vault extensions.
You can install the Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretManagement module from the PowerShell Gallery.
Install-Module -Name Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretManagement -Repository PSGalleryExtension vaults can optionally support storing and retrieving additional secret metadata, that is data associated with the secret.
Secret metadata is not security sensitive and does not need to be stored securely in the extension vault.
Secret metadata can be included by using the -Metadata parameter: Set-Secret -Metadata @{ Name=Value }.
The -Metadata parameter takes a Hashtable type argument consisting of name/value pairs.
Extension vaults should at minimum support the following value types:
-
string
-
int
-
DateTime
The secret metadata is included in the SecretInformation type object returned by Get-SecretInfo, in a Metadata property.
The Metadata property is a ReadonlyDictionary<string, object> type.
Registers a single extension vault to the current user
Retrieves information about one or more registered extension vaults
Unregisters a single extension vault
Sets one registered extension vault as the default vault
Runs the Test-SecretVault function provided by the extension vault
Unlocks the extension vault through a passed in SecureString password
Adds a secret to a specific extension vault, or to the default vault if no vault is specified
Adds or replaces additional secret metadata to an existing secret in the vault. Metadata is not stored securely.
Retrieves a secret from a specific extension vault, or first found over all vaults
Retrieves information about one or more secrets, but not the secret itself
Removes a secret from a specific vault
Vault extensions are registered to the current user context. They are registered as PowerShell modules that expose required functions used by SecretManagement to manipulate secrets. The required functions are provided as PowerShell cmdlets, and can be implemented as script or binary cmdlets.
Since each extension vault module exports the same five cmdlets, the module must conform to a directory structure that hides cmdlets from the user and PowerShell command discovery. Therefore the extension vault module itself does not export the five required cmdlets directly, but are instead exported from a nested module that resides within the extension vault module directory. This nested module must have a name that is the parent module name with '.Extension' appended to it.
It is recommended that the parent module manifest file (.psd1) include the 'SecretManagement' tag in its PrivateData section. This allows PowerShellGallery to associate it with the SecretManagement module.
This is a minimal vault extension example to demonstrate the directory structure and functional requirements of an extension vault module. The extension vault module name is 'TestVault'.
./TestVault
./TestVault/TestVault.psd1
./TestVault/TestStoreImplementation.dll
./TestVault/TestVault.Extension
./TestVault/TestVault.Extension/TestVault.Extension.psd1
./TestVault/TestVault.Extension/TestVault.Extension.psm1
@{
ModuleVersion = '1.0'
RootModule = '.\TestStoreImplementation.dll'
NestedModules = @('.\TestVault.Extension')
CmdletsToExport = @('Set-TestStoreConfiguration','Get-TestStoreConfiguration')
PrivateData = @{
PSData = @{
Tags = @('SecretManagement')
}
}
}The TestVault extension module has a binary component (TestStoreImplementation.dll) which implements the vault. It publicly exports two cmdlets that are used to configure the store. It also declares the required nested module (TestVault.Extension) that exports the five functions required by SecretManagement registration.
Note that the nested module conforms to the required naming format:
'[ModuleName].Extension'
Note that only the 'NestedModules' entry is required because it loads 'TestVault.Extension' into the module scope, and allows SecretManagement access to the required five functions. The 'RootModule' and 'CmdletsToExport' entries are only for configuring the TestStore in this specific case, and are not needed in general.
@{
ModuleVersion = '1.0'
RootModule = '.\TestVault.Extension.psm1'
RequiredAssemblies = '..\TestStoreImplementation.dll'
FunctionsToExport = @('Set-Secret','Get-Secret','Remove-Secret','Get-SecretInfo','Test-SecretVault')
}This nested module implements and exports the five functions required by SecretManagement. It also specifies the TestStoreImplementation.dll binary as a 'RequiredAssemblies' because the five exported functions depend on it.
function Get-Secret
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[string] $Name,
[string] $VaultName,
[hashtable] $AdditionalParameters
)
return [TestStore]::GetItem($Name, $AdditionalParameters)
}
function Get-SecretInfo
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[string] $Filter,
[string] $VaultName,
[hashtable] $AdditionalParameters
)
return @(,[Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretManagement.SecretInformation]::new(
"Name", # Name of secret
"String", # Secret data type [Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretManagement.SecretType]
$VaultName, # Name of vault
$Metadata)) # Optional Metadata parameter
}
function Set-Secret
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[string] $Name,
[object] $Secret,
[string] $VaultName,
[hashtable] $AdditionalParameters
)
[TestStore]::SetItem($Name, $Secret)
}
# Optional function
function Set-SecretInfo
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[string] $Name,
[hashtable] $Metadata,
[string] $VaultName,
[hashtable] $AdditionalParameters
)
[TestStore]::SetItemMetadata($Name, $Metadata)
}
function Remove-Secret
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[string] $Name,
[string] $VaultName,
[hashtable] $AdditionalParameters
)
[TestStore]::RemoveItem($Name)
}
function Test-SecretVault
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[string] $VaultName,
[hashtable] $AdditionalParameters
)
return [TestStore]::TestVault()
}
# Optional function
function Unregister-SecretVault
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[string] $VaultName,
[hashtable] $AdditionalParameters
)
[TestStore]::RunUnregisterCleanup()
}
# Optional function
function Unlock-SecretVault
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[SecureString] $Password,
[string] $VaultName,
[hashtable] $AdditionalParameters
)
[TestStore]::UnlockVault($Password)
}This module script implements the five functions, as cmdlets, required by SecretManagement, plus some optional functions.
It also implements an optional Unregister-SecretVault function that is called during vault extension un-registration.
It also implements an optional Set-SecretInfo function that sets secret metadata to a specific secret in the vault.
It also implements an optional Unlock-SecretVault function that unlocks the vault for the current session based on a provided password.
The Set-Secret, Set-SecretInfo, Remove-Secret, Unregister-SecretVault functions do not write any data to the pipeline, i.e., they do not return any data.
The Get-Secret cmdlet writes the retrieved secret value to the output pipeline on return, or null if no secret was found.
It should write an error only if an abnormal condition occurs.
The Get-SecretInfo cmdlet writes an array of Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretManagement.SecretInformation type objects to the output pipeline or an empty array if no matches were found.
The Test-SecretVault cmdlet should write all errors that occur during the test.
But only a single true/false boolean should be written the the output pipeline indicating success.
The Unregister-SecretVault cmdlet is optional and will be called on the extension vault if available.
It is called before the extension vault is unregistered to allow it to perform any needed clean up work.
The Unlock-SecretVault cmdlet is optional and will be called on the extension vault if available.
It's purpose is to unlock an extension vault for use without having to prompt the user, and is useful for unattended scripts where user interaction is not possible.
In general, these cmdlets should write to the error stream only for abnormal conditions that prevent successful completion. And write to the output stream only the data as indicated above, and expected by SecretManagement.
In addition, these cmdlets should perform proper authentication and provide errors, and instructions to authenticate, as appropriate. Or prompt the user if needed, for example if a passphrase is required.
A vault extension doesn't need to provide full implementation of all required functions. For example, a vault extension does not need to provide a way to add or remove a secret through the SecretManagement cmdlets, and can just provide retrieval services. If a vault extension doesn't support some functionality, then it should write an appropriate error with a meaningful message.
Be careful with module implementation with scripts, because any data returned by function or method calls are automatically written to the output pipeline (if not assigned to a variable). SecretManagement expects only specific data to appear in the output pipeline, and if other data is inadvertently written, that will cause SecretManagement to not function properly.
Once the TestVault module is created, it is registered as follows:
Register-SecretVault -Name LocalStore -ModuleName ./TestVault -VaultParameters @{ None="ReallyNeeded" } -DefaultVault
Get-SecretVault
VaultName ModuleName IsDefaultVault
--------- ---------- --------------
LocalStore TestVault True
SecretManagement is designed to be installed and run within a user account on both Windows and non-Windows platforms. The extension vault registry file is located in a user account protected directory.
For Windows platforms the location is: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\PowerShell\secretmanagement
For non-Windows platforms the location: $HOME/.secretmanagement
SecretManagement does not currently work for Windows managed accounts.
SecretManagement depends on both %LOCALAPPDATA% folders to store registry information, and Data Protection APIs for safely handling secrets with the .Net SecureString type.
However, Windows managed accounts do not have profiles or %LOCALAPPDATA% folders, and Windows Data Protection APIs do not work for managed accounts.
Consequently, SecretManagement will not run under managed accounts.
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