Enabling custom password encryption

You need to protect passwords that are contained in your WebSphere® Application Server configuration. After creating your server profile, you can add protection by creating a custom class for encrypting the passwords.

1. Add the following system properties for every server and client process. For server processes, update the server.xml file for each process. Add these properties as a genericJvmArgument argument preceded by a -D prefix.

   com.ibm.wsspi.security.crypto.customPasswordEncryptionClass=
          com.acme.myPasswordEncryptionClass
   com.ibm.wsspi.security.crypto.customPasswordEncryptionEnabled=true

   Important: Regarding the wsadmin client, if you use wsadmin in connected mode, this property must be set in the deployment manager or server connected by using AdminTask.setJVMSystemProperties command or through the console. If you use wsadmin in local mode (conntype=NONE), you can set the property with a javaoption command option, as shown here:

   wsadmin -conntype none -lang jython -javaoption
   -Dcom.ibm.wsspi.security.crypto.customPasswordEncryptionClass=<encryptionClassToUse>

   Tip: If the custom encryption class name is com.ibm.wsspi.security.crypto.CustomPasswordEncryptionImpl, it is automatically enabled when this class is present in the classpath. Do not define the system properties that are listed previously when the custom implementation has this package and class name. To disable encryption for this class, you must specify com.ibm.wsspi.security.crypto.customPasswordEncryptionEnabled=false as a system property.
2. Choose one of the following methods to configure the WebSphere Application Server runtime to load the custom encryption implementation class:
   • Place the custom encryption class in a Java™ archive (JAR) file that resides in the ${WAS_INSTALL_ROOT}/classes directory, which you have created.
     Avoid trouble: WebSphere Application Server does not create the ${WAS_INSTALL_ROOT}/classes directory. For more information on the classes directory, see the topic, Creating a classes subdirectory in your profile for custom classes.
   • Place the custom encryption class in a Java archive (JAR) file that resides in the ${WAS_HOME}/lib/ext directory.
3. Restart all server processes.
4. Edit each configuration document that contains a password and save the configuration.
   All password fields are then run through the WSEncoderDecoder utility, which calls the plug point when it is enabled. The {custom:alias} tags are displayed in the configuration documents. The passwords, even though they are encrypted, are still Base64-encoded. They seem similar to encoded passwords, except for the tags different.
5. Encrypt any passwords that are in client-side property files by using the PropsFilePasswordEncoder (.bat or .sh) utility.
   This utility requires that the properties listed previously are defined as system properties in the script to encrypt new passwords instead of encoding them. You will need to edit the script to add the properties to the java command line. For instance:

   %JAVA_EXE% -Dcom.ibm.wsspi.security.crypto.customPasswordEncryptionEnabled=true 
   -Dcom.ibm.wsspi.security.crypto.customPasswordEncryptionClass=mysample.MySampleEncryption 
   -Dcmd.properties.file=%TMPJAVAPROPFILE% 
   "-Dwas.install.root=%WAS_HOME%" com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.WSLauncher com.ibm.ws.security.util.PropFilePasswordEncoder %*

   For the list of files that need to be run through the PropsFilePasswordEncoder, refer to table two in Encoding passwords in files.
6. To decrypt passwords from client Java virtual machines (JVMs), add the properties listed previously as system properties for each client utility.
7. Ensure that all nodes have the custom encryption classes in their class paths before enabling this function.