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The Python keyring library provides an easy way to access the
system keyring service from python. It can be used in any
application that needs safe password storage.
These recommended keyring backends are supported:
* macOS `Keychain
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keychain_%28software%29>`_
* Freedesktop `Secret Service
<http://standards.freedesktop.org/secret-service/>`_ supports many DE including
GNOME (requires `secretstorage <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/secretstorage>`_)
* KDE4 & KDE5 `KWallet <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KWallet>`_
(requires `dbus <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/dbus-python>`_)
* `Windows Credential Locker
<https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/security/credential-locker>`_
Other keyring implementations are available through `Third-Party Backends`_.
Installation - Linux
====================
On Linux, the KWallet backend relies on dbus-python_, which does not always
install correctly when using pip (compilation is needed). For best results,
install dbus-python as a system package.
.. _dbus-python: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/dbus/dbus-python
Compatibility - macOS
=====================
macOS keychain supports macOS 11 (Big Sur) and later requires Python 3.8.7
or later with the "universal2" binary. See
`#525 <https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/issues/525>`_ for details.
Using Keyring
=============
The basic usage of keyring is pretty simple: just call
``keyring.set_password`` and ``keyring.get_password``::
>>> import keyring
>>> keyring.set_password("system", "username", "password")
>>> keyring.get_password("system", "username")
'password'
Command-line Utility
--------------------
Keyring supplies a ``keyring`` command which is installed with the
package. After installing keyring in most environments, the
command should be available for setting, getting, and deleting
passwords. For more usage information, invoke with no arguments
or with ``--help`` as so::
$ keyring --help
$ keyring set system username
Password for 'username' in 'system':
$ keyring get system username
password
The command-line functionality is also exposed as an executable
package, suitable for invoking from Python like so::
$ python -m keyring --help
$ python -m keyring set system username
Password for 'username' in 'system':
$ python -m keyring get system username
password
Tab Completion
--------------
If installed via a package manager (apt, pacman, nix, homebrew, etc),
these shell completions may already have been distributed with the package
(no action required).
Keyring provides tab completion if the ``completion`` extra is installed::
$ pip install 'keyring[completion]'
Then, generate shell completions, something like::
$ keyring --print-completion bash | sudo tee /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/keyring
$ keyring --print-completion zsh | sudo tee /usr/share/zsh/site-functions/_keyring
$ keyring --print-completion tcsh | sudo tee /etc/profile.d/keyring.csh
**Note**: the path of `/usr/share` is mainly for GNU/Linux. For other OSs,
consider:
- macOS (Homebrew x86): /usr/local/share
- macOS (Homebrew ARM): /opt/homebrew/share
- Android (Termux): /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/share
- Windows (mingw64 of msys2): /mingw64/share
- ...
After installing the shell completions, enable them following your shell's
recommended instructions. e.g.:
- bash: install `bash-completion <https://github.com/scop/bash-completion>`_,
and ensure ``. /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion`` in ``~/.bashrc``.
- zsh: ensure ``autoload -Uz compinit && compinit`` appears in ``~/.zshrc``,
then ``grep -w keyring ~/.zcompdump`` to verify keyring appears, indicating
it was installed correctly.
Configuring
===========
The python keyring lib contains implementations for several backends. The
library will attempt to
automatically choose the most suitable backend for the current
environment. Users may also specify the preferred keyring in a
config file or by calling the ``set_keyring()`` function.
Config file path
----------------
The configuration is stored in a file named "keyringrc.cfg"
found in a platform-specific location. To determine
where the config file is stored, run ``keyring diagnose``.
Config file content
-------------------
To specify a keyring backend, set the **default-keyring** option to the
full path of the class for that backend, such as
``keyring.backends.macOS.Keyring``.
If **keyring-path** is indicated, keyring will add that path to the Python
module search path before loading the backend.
For example, this config might be used to load the
``SimpleKeyring`` from the ``simplekeyring`` module in
the ``./demo`` directory (not implemented)::
[backend]
default-keyring=simplekeyring.SimpleKeyring
keyring-path=demo
Third-Party Backends
====================
In addition to the backends provided by the core keyring package for
the most common and secure use cases, there
are additional keyring backend implementations available for other
use cases. Simply install them to make them available:
- `keyrings.cryptfile <https://pypi.org/project/keyrings.cryptfile>`_
- Encrypted text file storage.
- `keyring_jeepney <https://pypi.org/project/keyring_jeepney>`__ - a
pure Python backend using the secret service DBus API for desktop
Linux.
- `keyrings.alt <https://pypi.org/project/keyrings.alt>`_ - "alternate",
possibly-insecure backends, originally part of the core package, but
available for opt-in.
- `gsheet-keyring <https://pypi.org/project/gsheet-keyring>`_
- a backend that stores secrets in a Google Sheet. For use with
`ipython-secrets <https://pypi.org/project/ipython-secrets>`_.
- `bitwarden-keyring <https://pypi.org/project/bitwarden-keyring/0.1.0/>`_
- a backend that stores secrets in the `BitWarden <https://bitwarden.com/>`_
password manager.
- `sagecipher <https://pypi.org/project/sagecipher>`_ - an encryption
backend which uses the ssh agent protocol's signature operation to
derive the cipher key.
- `keyrings.osx_keychain_keys <https://pypi.org/project/keyrings.osx-keychain-keys>`_
- OSX keychain key-management, for private, public, and symmetric keys.
Write your own keyring backend
==============================
The interface for the backend is defined by ``keyring.backend.KeyringBackend``.
Every backend should derive from that base class and define a ``priority``
attribute and three functions: ``get_password()``, ``set_password()``, and
``delete_password()``. The ``get_credential()`` function may be defined if
desired.
See the ``backend`` module for more detail on the interface of this class.
Keyring employs entry points to allow any third-party package to implement
backends without any modification to the keyring itself. Those interested in
creating new backends are encouraged to create new, third-party packages
in the ``keyrings`` namespace, in a manner modeled by the `keyrings.alt
package <https://github.com/jaraco/keyrings.alt>`_. See the
``setup.cfg`` file
in that project for hints on how to create the requisite entry points.
Backends that prove essential may be considered for inclusion in the core
library, although the ease of installing these third-party packages should
mean that extensions may be readily available.
To create an extension for Keyring, please submit a pull request to
have your extension mentioned as an available extension.
Runtime Configuration
=====================
Keyring additionally allows programmatic configuration of the
backend calling the api ``set_keyring()``. The indicated backend
will subsequently be used to store and retrieve passwords.
To invoke ``set_keyring``::
# define a new keyring class which extends the KeyringBackend
import keyring.backend
class TestKeyring(keyring.backend.KeyringBackend):
"""A test keyring which always outputs the same password
"""
priority = 1
def set_password(self, servicename, username, password):
pass
def get_password(self, servicename, username):
return "password from TestKeyring"
def delete_password(self, servicename, username):
pass
# set the keyring for keyring lib
keyring.set_keyring(TestKeyring())
# invoke the keyring lib
try:
keyring.set_password("demo-service", "tarek", "passexample")
print("password stored successfully")
except keyring.errors.PasswordSetError:
print("failed to store password")
print("password", keyring.get_password("demo-service", "tarek"))
Disabling Keyring
=================
In many cases, uninstalling keyring will never be necessary.
Especially on Windows and macOS, the behavior of keyring is
usually degenerate, meaning it will return empty values to
the caller, allowing the caller to fall back to some other
behavior.
In some cases, the default behavior of keyring is undesirable and
it would be preferable to disable the keyring behavior altogether.
There are several mechanisms to disable keyring:
- Uninstall keyring. Most applications are tolerant to keyring
not being installed. Uninstalling keyring should cause those
applications to fall back to the behavior without keyring.
This approach affects the Python environment where keyring
would otherwise have been installed.
- Configure the Null keyring in the environment. Set
``PYTHON_KEYRING_BACKEND=keyring.backends.null.Keyring``
in the environment, and the ``Null`` (degenerate) backend
will be used. This approach affects all uses of Keyring where
that variable is set.
- Permanently configure the Null keyring for the user by running
``keyring --disable`` or ``python -m keyring --disable``.
This approach affects all uses of keyring for that user.
Altering Keyring Behavior
=========================
Keyring provides a mechanism to alter the keyring's behavior through
environment variables. Each backend implements a
``KeyringBackend.set_properties_from_env``, which
when invoked will find all environment variables beginning with
``KEYRING_PROPERTY_{NAME}`` and will set a property for each
``{NAME.lower()}`` on the keyring. This method is invoked during
initialization for the default/configured keyring.
This mechanism may be used to set some useful values on various
keyrings, including:
- keychain; macOS, path to an alternate keychain file
- appid; Linux/SecretService, alternate ID for the application
Using Keyring on Ubuntu 16.04
=============================
The following is a complete transcript for installing keyring in a
virtual environment on Ubuntu 16.04. No config file was used::
$ sudo apt install python3-venv libdbus-glib-1-dev
$ cd /tmp
$ pyvenv py3
$ source py3/bin/activate
$ pip install -U pip
$ pip install secretstorage dbus-python
$ pip install keyring
$ python
>>> import keyring
>>> keyring.get_keyring()
<keyring.backends.SecretService.Keyring object at 0x7f9b9c971ba8>
>>> keyring.set_password("system", "username", "password")
>>> keyring.get_password("system", "username")
'password'
Using Keyring on headless Linux systems
=======================================
It is possible to use the SecretService backend on Linux systems without
X11 server available (only D-Bus is required). In this case:
* Install the `GNOME Keyring`_ daemon.
* Start a D-Bus session, e.g. run ``dbus-run-session -- sh`` and run
the following commands inside that shell.
* Run ``gnome-keyring-daemon`` with ``--unlock`` option. The description of
that option says:
Read a password from stdin, and use it to unlock the login keyring
or create it if the login keyring does not exist.
When that command is started, enter a password into stdin and
press Ctrl+D (end of data). After that, the daemon will fork into
the background (use ``--foreground`` option to block).
* Now you can use the SecretService backend of Keyring. Remember to
run your application in the same D-Bus session as the daemon.
.. _GNOME Keyring: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeKeyring
Using Keyring on headless Linux systems in a Docker container
=============================================================
It is possible to use keyring with the SecretService backend in Docker containers as well.
All you need to do is install the necessary dependencies and add the `--privileged` flag
to avoid any `Operation not permitted` errors when attempting to unlock the system's keyring.
The following is a complete transcript for installing keyring on a Ubuntu 18:04 container::
docker run -it -d --privileged ubuntu:18.04
$ apt-get update
$ apt install -y gnome-keyring python3-venv python3-dev
$ python3 -m venv venv
$ source venv/bin/activate # source a virtual environment to avoid polluting your system
$ pip3 install --upgrade pip
$ pip3 install keyring
$ dbus-run-session -- sh # this will drop you into a new D-bus shell
$ echo 'somecredstorepass' | gnome-keyring-daemon --unlock # unlock the system's keyring
$ python
>>> import keyring
>>> keyring.get_keyring()
<keyring.backends.SecretService.Keyring object at 0x7f9b9c971ba8>
>>> keyring.set_password("system", "username", "password")
>>> keyring.get_password("system", "username")
'password'
Integration
===========
API
---
The keyring lib has a few functions:
* ``get_keyring()``: Return the currently-loaded keyring implementation.
* ``get_password(service, username)``: Returns the password stored in the
active keyring. If the password does not exist, it will return None.
* ``get_credential(service, username)``: Return a credential object stored
in the active keyring. This object contains at least ``username`` and
``password`` attributes for the specified service, where the returned
``username`` may be different from the argument.
* ``set_password(service, username, password)``: Store the password in the
keyring.
* ``delete_password(service, username)``: Delete the password stored in
keyring. If the password does not exist, it will raise an exception.
In all cases, the parameters (``service``, ``username``, ``password``)
should be Unicode text.
Exceptions
----------
The keyring lib raises the following exceptions:
* ``keyring.errors.KeyringError``: Base Error class for all exceptions in keyring lib.
* ``keyring.errors.InitError``: Raised when the keyring cannot be initialized.
* ``keyring.errors.PasswordSetError``: Raised when the password cannot be set in the keyring.
* ``keyring.errors.PasswordDeleteError``: Raised when the password cannot be deleted in the keyring.
Get Involved
============
Python keyring lib is an open community project and eagerly
welcomes contributors.
* Repository: https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/
* Bug Tracker: https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/issues/
* Mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/python-keyring
For Enterprise
==============
Available as part of the Tidelift Subscription.
This project and the maintainers of thousands of other packages are working with Tidelift to deliver one enterprise subscription that covers all of the open source you use.
`Learn more <https://tidelift.com/subscription/pkg/pypi-keyring?utm_source=pypi-keyring&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=github>`_.
Security Contact
================
To report a security vulnerability, please use the
`Tidelift security contact <https://tidelift.com/security>`_.
Tidelift will coordinate the fix and disclosure.
Security Considerations
=======================
Each built-in backend may have security considerations to understand
before using this library. Authors of tools or libraries utilizing
``keyring`` are encouraged to consider these concerns.
As with any list of known security concerns, this list is not exhaustive.
Additional issues can be added as needed.
- macOS Keychain
- Any Python script or application can access secrets created by
``keyring`` from that same Python executable without the operating
system prompting the user for a password. To cause any specific
secret to prompt for a password every time it is accessed, locate
the credential using the ``Keychain Access`` application, and in
the ``Access Control`` settings, remove ``Python`` from the list
of allowed applications.
- Freedesktop Secret Service
- No analysis has been performed
- KDE4 & KDE5 KWallet
- No analysis has been performed
- Windows Credential Locker
- No analysis has been performed
Making Releases
===============
This project makes use of automated releases and continuous
integration. The
simple workflow is to tag a commit and push it to Github. If it
passes tests in CI, it will be automatically deployed to PyPI.
Other things to consider when making a release:
- Check that the changelog is current for the intended release.
Running Tests
=============
Tests are continuously run in Github Actions.
To run the tests locally, install and invoke
`tox <https://pypi.org/project/tox>`_.
Background
==========
The project was based on Tarek Ziade's idea in `this post`_. Kang Zhang
initially carried it out as a `Google Summer of Code`_ project, and Tarek
mentored Kang on this project.
.. _this post: http://tarekziade.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/pycon-hallway-session-1-a-keyring-library-for-python/
.. _Google Summer of Code: http://socghop.appspot.com/