From d68f4e0555874b70541b15de37b9e2d9011bf396 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ItsDrike Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2022 10:30:26 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Add post about managing git credentials --- content/posts/git-credentials.md | 529 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 529 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/posts/git-credentials.md diff --git a/content/posts/git-credentials.md b/content/posts/git-credentials.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2762f47 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/git-credentials.md @@ -0,0 +1,529 @@ +--- +title: Managing (multiple) git credentials +date: 2022-07-27 +tags: [programming, git] +sources: + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +--- + +Many people often find initially setting up their git user a bit unclear, especially when it comes to managing multiple +git users on a single machine. But even managing credentials for just a single user can be quite complicated without +looking into it a bit deeper. Git provides a lot of different options for credential storage, and picking one can be +hard without knowing the pros and cons of that option. + +Even if you already have your git set up, I'd still recommend at least looking at the possible options git has for +credential storage, find the method you're using and make sure it's actually secure enough for your purposes. But +looking over the other methods may be helpful too, as there may be a better option to what you're using which you +didn't even know about. + +## Adding user into global configuration + +Let's first look at the simple single local git user setup: + +```bash +git config --global user.name ItsDrike +git config --global user.email itsdrike@example.com +git config --global user.signingkey B014E761034AF742 # Signing key isn't required +``` + +So what do these commands actually do? It's really quite simple. The git program has a single global configuration file +located in `~/.config/git/config` (or in `%APPDATA%/.gitconfig` for Windows). Once this git config command runs, it +actually just writes the settings into the config file using the TOML format: + +```toml +[user] + name = ItsDrike + email = itsdrike@example.com + signingkey = B014E761034AF742 +``` + +## Adding user into local configuration + +A thing you may have noticed in the section above is the use of `--global` flag when running the `git config` commands. +This flag means that this configuration will be stored into the global configuration that applies for every git +repository. But we can also define a configuration for a single repository, by using the `--local` flag instead. Local +configurations are actually also the default option, so we can even omit the flag entirely. + +This local configuration will then be stored in the `.git` folder of your project, specifically in `.git/config`. The +settings set in this configuration will take precedence over the global ones, meaning you can have some default git +user, and some other user for a single specific local project. + +```bash +git config --local user.name ItsDrike +git config --local user.email itsdrike@example.com +git config --local user.signingkey B014E761034AF742 # Signing key isn't required +``` + +## Git credentials + +User configuration is one thing, but there's another important part of account configuration to consider, that is +storing the credentials. Even though you don't technically need to store the credentials, since git can just ask you to +enter them each time you clone a private repo, or push into a repo, it's a huge annoyance to have to do this each time. +So instead, we can use one of the below methods to store the credentials with git for longer. + +### Credentials in remote-url + +The most basic way of specifying credentials is to just provide them via HTTPS. You can do this in more ways, but let's +first take a look at the most straight-forward method, which is to store them into the remote URL directly: + +```bash +# While clonning: +git clone https://:@github.com/path/to/repo.git +# After initialized repo without any added remote: +git remote add origin +# On an already clonned repository without the credentials: +git remote set-url origin https://:@github.com/path/to/repo.git +``` + +Since this method requires you to specify these credentials for every repository individually, it's easily usable with +multiple accounts, but it's also still quite annoying since you'll need to set the credentials with each new repo. + +{{< notice note >}} +The password here is generally meant to be a user password for the git hosting provider site, however many platforms do +also have support for "Personal Access Tokens", which are a safer, because they're limited in what they can do with +your account (for example they may only allow you to pull/push code, but not to change the account's email). +{{< /notice >}} + +{{< notice warning >}} +This method stores your credentials in the project's git config file in `.git/config`. Since this is a simple URL to +one of the proejcts remotes, it will just be stored in this config file in **plaintext** without any form of encryption. + +Bear this in mind when giving someone access to the project directory, your credentials will be present in that +directory! +{{< /notice >}} + +### Git credential contexts + +To avoid some repetition, git supports configuring per context credentials. You can configure a specific git context to +use a specific username: + +```bash +git config --global credential.https://github.com.username +``` + +Alternatively, we can directly edit the global git configuration: + +```toml +[credential "https://github.com"] + username = + +[credential "https://gitlab.com"] + username = + +[credential "https://gitlab.work_company.com"] + username = +``` + +Each credential context is defined by a URL. This context will then be used to look up specific configuration. For +example if we're accessing `https://github.com/ItsDrike/itsdrike.com`, git looks into the config file to see if a +section matches this context. It will consider the two a match, if the context matches on both the protocols +(`http`/`https`), and then on the host portion (`github.com`/`gitlab.com`/...). It can also optionally check the paths +too, if they are present (`/ItsDrike/itsdrike.com`) + +{{< notice note >}} +Git matches the hosts directly, without considering if they come from the same domain, so if subdomain differs, it will not register as a match. +For example, for context of `https://gitlab.work_company.com/user/repo.git`, it wouldn't match a configuration section +for `https://work_company.com`, since `wokr_company.com != gitlab.work_company.com`. + +The paths are also matched exactly (if they're included), so for the example context from above, we would not get a +match on a config section with `https://gitlab.work_company.com/user`, only on +`https://gitlab.work_company.com/user/repo.git` (in addition to the config entry without path +`https://gitlab.work_company.com`). +{{< /notice >}} + +This does sound like a great option for multi-account usage, however the issue with this approach is that these +credential contexts can only be used to store usernames, they don't support storing passwords, and you'll instead be +prompted to enter your password each time. But it does save you from re-typing the username each time. + +{{< notice info >}} +The username will be stored in git's global config file in **plaintext**, making it potentially unsafe if you're +worried about leaking your **username** (not password) for the git hosting provider. + +If you're using the global configuration, this generally shouldn't be a big concern, since the username won't actually +be in the project file unlike with the remote-urls. However if you share a machine with multiple people, you may want +to consider securing your global configuration file (`~/.config/git/config`) using your filesystem's permission +controls to prevent others from reading it. + +If you're defining contexts in local project's config though, you should be aware that the username will be present in +`.git/config`, and sharing this project with others may leak it. +{{< /notice >}} + +### Git credential helpers + +If you want to avoid both username and password repetition, and to have a safer way of storing your credentials, you +can use git's "credential helpers". These allow you to store your data in multiple ways, and even integrate with 3rd +party systems like password keychains. These credential helpers still use the same form of sending credentials, which +is to send them over HTTPS. + +Out of the box, git provides 2 credential helpers: + +- **Cache:** credentials stored in RAM memory for short durations +- **Store:** credentials stored indefinitely on disk + +#### Store credential helper + +To configure the store credential helper, you can run: + +```bash +git config --global credential.helper store +``` + +By default, this file will be stored in `~/.git-credentials`, but this path can be changed. I'd suggest using +`~/.config/git/git-credentials` to avoid clutter in your home directory. To change the file, you can use the `file` +option: + +```bash +git config --global credentials.helper 'store --file=/full/path/to/git-credentials' +``` + +Once the helper is configured, you will first still get asked for your username and password, and only after that first +time you enter them will the get cached into this credentials file. + +{{< notice info >}} + +The credentials file will cache the data in this format: + +```txt +https://:@github.com +``` + +Which is indeed a **plaintext** format, however the file will be protected with your file system permissions, and +access should be limited to you (as the user who owns the file). And since this file should live somewhere outside of +the project's directory, the project can be safely shared with others without worrying about leakage. +{{< /notice >}} + +#### Cache credential helper + +To configure the cache credential helper, you can run: + +```bash +git config --global credential.helper cache +``` + +A `timeout` option can also be provided, allowing us to define how long should the credentials be kept in memory in +seconds. + +```bash +git config --global credential.helper 'cache --timeout=86400' +``` + +The cache credential helper will never write your credential data to disk, although credentials are accessible using +Unix sockets. These sockets are protected using file permissions that are limited to the user who stored them though, +so even in multi-user machine, generally speaking, they are secure. + + +#### Custom credential helpers + +Apart from these default options, you can also use [custom +helpers](https://git-scm.com/docs/gitcredentials#_custom_helpers). These allow us to do more sophisticated credential +management by delegating to 3rd party applications and services. + +A commonly used external credential helper is for example the [Git Credential Manager +(GCM)](https://github.com/GitCredentialManager/git-credential-manager). GCM can even handle things like 2 factor +authentication, or using OAuth2. + +If you want to, you can even write your own custom credential helper to handle your exact needs, in which case I'd +recommend going over git's official documentation about the credential helper system +[here](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Credential-Storage), where they go over this system in depth, including +some examples of a basic custom provider. + +### SSH Keys + +Most modern git servers also provide a way to access their repositories using SSH keys rather than username and +password over HTTPS. This approach is significantly better, since guessing SSH keys is generally much harder, and they +can easily be revoked. They also generally aren't nowhere near as powerful as full user passwords, so even if they are +compromised, the attacker would only have a limited access. + +SSH uses public-private key pair, which means you will need to give out the public key over to the git hosting +platform, and keep the private part on your machine for authentication. Using the public key, the server will then be +able to safely verify that your connection is valid, without even actually knowing the key. This means that even if the +git hosting server has leaked your stored SSH key, it would be useless without the private key on your machine. + +The main downside to using SSH is that it uses non-standard ports. This may mean hitting the firewall some networks or +proxies, making communication with the remote server impossible. + +#### Generating an SSH key + +To generate an SSH key, you can use `ssh-keygen` command line utility. Generating keys should always be done +independently from the git hosting provider, since they don't shouldn't need to see your private key at any point. + +The command for this key generation looks like this: + +```bash +ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "" +``` + +- The `-C` flag allows you to specify a comment, which you can use to specify what this key will be used for. If you + don't need a comment, you can also omit this flag. +- The `-t` flag specifies the key type. The default type for SSH keys is `rsa`, however I'd suggest using `ed25519` + which is considered safer and more performant than RSA keys. If you will decide to use `rsa`, make sure to use a + key size of at least 2048 bits, but for better security, but ideally you should try to use a key size of `4096`. + +After running this command, you will be asked to specify a file where this key should be stored. You will probably want +to use some meaningful name, so that you can easily find it later. I'd recommend storing the keys in `~/.ssh/git`, so +you can have all of your git ssh keys grouped together and separated from SSH keys for actual machines or other things. + +{{< notice info >}} +Make sure to add the `~/.ssh` (or `C:\Users\your_username\.ssh` for Windows) prefix to your filename, so the key is +correctly added to the `.ssh` folder. You should keep your keys in this folder, since it is already protected by the +filesystem from reading by other users. +{{< /notice >}} + +Once you select a file name, you will be asked to set a passphrase. You can opt to leave this empty by pressing enter +without entering anything. Going with a passphrase protected key is safer, however it will also mean you will need to +type your password each time, which may be annoying. However there is a way to cache this passphrase with SSH agent, +which you can read more about in the [GitHub's +docs](https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent#adding-your-ssh-key-to-the-ssh-agent). +Using passphrase is significantly better for your system's security, since it means that even if the private key got +leaked somehow, it would be pretty much useless without the passphrase, which the attacker likely wouldn't have. + +This will then generate two keys: a public key, denoted by the file extension `.pub` and a private key, with no file +extension. + +#### Add public key to your hosting provider's account + +Now that you've create a public and private SSH key pair, you will need to let your git hosting provider know about it. +It is important that you only give the public key (file with `.pub` extension) to your provider, and not your private +key. + +Instructions on how to add the public SSH key will differ for each platform, here are some links to documentations for +the most commonly used platforms: + +- [GitHub](https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/adding-a-new-ssh-key-to-your-github-account) +- [GitLab](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/ssh.html#add-an-ssh-key-to-your-gitlab-account) +- [BitBucket](https://support.atlassian.com/bitbucket-cloud/docs/set-up-an-ssh-key/#Step-3.-Add-the-public-key-to-your-Account-settings) + +{{< notice tip >}} +The documentation may tell you to use `pbcopy` or some other command line tool to copy the SSH key contents to your clipboard. For example: + +```bash +pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub +``` + +However, if you are having trouble with this command, you can use `xsel --clipboard --input < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub` +instead, or you can also just simply open up the public key file in any editor of your choosing, and copy the +**entire** file contents with Ctrl+C. +{{< /notice >}} + +#### Test if it works + +After adding the public key to your git hosting provider, you can verify that everything went well and the SSH key is +recognized. To run this test, you can simply issue this command (should work on both Unix and Windows systems): + +```bash +ssh -T git@github.com -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 +``` + +Running this command should produce a welcome message informing you that the connection works. + +If you are unsuccessful, you can run the command in verbose mode in order to get more details on why your connection +was not established. + +```bash +ssh -Tvvv git@github.com -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 +``` + +#### SSH Configuration file + +To meaningfully use your key, you'll want register some specific host name for your key, so you won't need to use the +`-i` flag. You can do this by editing (or creating) `~/.ssh/config` file (or `C:\Users\your_username\.ssh\config` for +Windows). + +An example configuration file with multiple git accounts: + +```ini +# Personal GitHub account +HOST github.com + HostName github.com + User git + IdentityFile ~/.ssh/git/personal_gh + +# Personal GitLab account +HOST gitlab.com + HostName gitlab.com + User git + IdentityFile ~/.ssh/git/personal_gl + +# Work GitHub account +HOST work.github.com + HostName github.com + User git + IdentityFile ~/.ssh/git/work_gh +``` + +When you have multiple accounts with the same `HostName` (same git hosting provider), you will need to specify a unique +`Host` name. + +To then make sure this configuration works, you can run another test command, but this time without specifying the +key file explicitly, as it should now be getting picked up from the settings: + +```bash +ssh -T git@github.com +ssh -T git@gitlab.com +ssh -T git@work.github.com +# If you've specified the `User git` in your config file, you can even omit the username here: +ssh -T github.com +ssh -T gitlab.com +ssh -T work.github.com +``` + +#### Using the SSH keys + +No let's finally get to actually using these keys in your repositories. Doing this can be pretty straight-forward, as +it is very similar to the first method of handling credentials which I've talked about, being storing the credentials +in the remote-url. However this time, instead of using the actual credentials, and therefore making the project +directory unsafe to share, as it contains your password in plaintext, it will actually only contain the `HOST` name +you've set in your config, without leaking any keys. + +The commands to set this up are very similar, however instead of `https://:@github.com`, we now use +`git@HOST`: + +```bash +# While clonning: +git clone git@github.com/user/repo.git +# After initialized repo without any added remote: +git remote add origin git@gitlab.com/user/repo.git +# On an already clonned repository without the credentials: +git remote set-url origin git@work.github.com/user/repo.git +``` + +This method does have the same disadvantage as the with the credentials passed directly into the remote-urls, which is +that you will need to do something extra for every repository where you need the credentials, but unlike with +remote-urls, it does not introduce security issues with storing the credentials in plaintext, and you also don't need +to remember the username or the password, instead you just need to know the host you set in your ssh config. + +## Which method to use for credentials + +Generally, using SSH keys is the safest approach, but it can also be a bit annoying since it requires you to specify +the SSH host for each repository in it's remote url. For that reason, the approach that I would recommend is using +git's credential helper system to store your credentials instead. + +However if you will go with this method, make sure that you're using a personal access token instead of the actual +account's password, to limit the permissions an attacker would gain in case your credentials were leaked. + +If your git hosting platform doesn't provide access tokens, this method becomes a lot more dangerous to use, since if +an attacker would somehow obtain the credentials file from your system, they would be able to gain full access to your +account on that git host platform. That's why in that case, you should really consider using SSH keys instead, even if +it's a bit less convenient, as they can be easily revoked and only allow limited access, just like personal access +tokens. + +## Tackling credentials for multiple accounts + +### Credentials for differing hosts + +When it comes to managing multiple accounts, this gets a bit more tricky. But if each of your accounts lives on a +different domain/host, you can still use credential helpers without any issues, since it can handle multiple +credentials for multiple websites out of the box. If you're using the file credential helper, this would result in the +`git-credentials` file looking like this: + +```txt +https://:@github.com +https://:@gitlab.com +``` + +With that, whenever you'd try to pull/push with the remote url, git will go through this file in order, searching for +the first matching host. So for example when using a remote url belonging to `github.com` domain, the first line would +apply, while if your remote url belongs to `gitlab.com`, the second line would apply. This means that if your accounts +are from different providers, you can avoid the hassle of doing anything more complicated. + +However if you have more accounts on a single host, you will need to somehow let git know what to do. + +### Using credential contexts + +The good news is that even with same domains, you can actually still use the git credentials as your default method, +and use git credential contexts to find a username. With that, even if you're using the same host, git will know to +look for a specific username in the credentials file now, which should be sufficient distinction to match any amount of +different credentials. + +However the issue with git contexts is that they need to match the path component exactly, so even though you can +configure git to use different contexts for different repositories in your global config, you can't configure it to use +a certain context for a partial match on path, so you'd need to specify each repository which should use custom +credentials into your global git configuration, which is not great. + +Instead, you should use the local git configuration of each project and specify a git context with the username you +want to use for that project. That way, you won't need to keep config for every non-default project in your global +config, and yet still use the same file credential helper to store all of your credentials in a single place. + +```bash +git config --local credential.https://github.com.username +``` + +{{< notice info >}} +Once again, this will store the credential context into the local project's git configuration (in `.git/config`), which +is using **plaintext**, which means you might end up leaking your **username** (not password), if you give someone +access to this project's directory. + +The actual password will however be completely safe, as it should only be present in the `git-credentials` file, which +should be located elsewhere, and configured from the global git config. So this only affects you if you want to keep +your username for that git hosting provider private too. If you do, you will need to keep this fact in mind when +sharing project files, or use a different method. +{{< /notice >}} + +### Using different credentials file + +The alternative to using credential contexts with your plaintext stored username would be using multiple +`git-credentials` files, and simply overriding the credential helper system in the local config, setting a different +file for the store credential helper. This could for example look like this: + +```bash +git config credentials.helper 'store --file=/home/user/.config/git-credentials-work' +``` + +With this approach, you can have your credentials kept in multiple separate credential files, and just mention the path +to the file you need for each project. + +Security-wise, this method is better because your username will be kept outside of the project in the referenced git +credential file, which should be secured by the file system's permissions to prevent reads from other users. However +practicality-wise, it may be a bit more inconvenient to type and even to remember the path to each credential file. + +### SSH keys instead + +The thing you may have noticed about all of these methods is that you'll generally need to do some extra work for all +repositories that require non-default credentials. So even though relying on git's file credential helper is convenient +for the default case, extending it to non-default cases will always require doing some extra configuration. + +This extra configuration is inevitable, which is why I'd suggest going with SSH keys instead, which are pretty much +equally as annoying, requiring you to do something extra for each non-default project (specifying them in the remote +URL). However as I've already explained, they're pretty much the most secure way to handle credentials. So instead of +doing some extra work just to configure a less secure method, you might as well do an equal amount of work and +use the more secure way with SSH keys. + +The only disadvantage to this method is then the use of non-standard ports, which some networks might end up blocking, +making connection to the server [*pretty much*]({{< ref "posts/escaping-isolated-network#port-22-is-blocked" >}}) +unreachable from those networks. + +## Make convenience aliases + +If you really dislike the idea of all of this repetition, I'd suggest making short-hands for whichever method you +ended up picking, in the form of git aliases (you can also use shell aliases though). Git supports defining aliases +through it's configuration file, where you can use the `[alias]` section for them. + +```toml +[alias] +# Clone the repository with the SSH host prefixed +work-clone="!sh -c 'git clone git@work.github.com:$1'" +# Make current repository use the work git credentials file +make-work="config --local credentials.helper 'store --file=/path/to/work/credentials'" +# Set the username for credentials to your work account, so it can find it in default git credentials +use-work-uname="config --local credential.https://github.com.username my-work-username" +``` + +To then use these aliases, you can simply execute them as you would any other git command: + +```bash +git work-clone ItsDrike/itsdrike.com +git make-work +git user-work-uname +```