This plugin is for use with Apache Cordova and allows your application to securely store secrets such as usernames, passwords, tokens, certificates or other sensitive information (strings) on iOS & Android phones and Windows devices.
- Android
- iOS
- Windows (Windows 8.x/Store, Windows 10/UWP and Windows Phone 8.1+)
Below are the methods for installing this plugin automatically using command line tools. For additional info, take a look at the Plugman Documentation, cordova plugin command and Cordova Plugin Specification.
The plugin can be installed via the Cordova command line interface:
- Navigate to the root folder for your phonegap project.
- Run the command:
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-secure-storageor if you want to be running the development version,
cordova plugin add https://github.com/crypho/cordova-plugin-secure-storage.gitvar ss = new cordova.plugins.SecureStorage(
function() {
console.log("Success");
},
function(error) {
console.log("Error " + error);
},
"my_app"
);ss.set(
function(key) {
console.log("Set " + key);
},
function(error) {
console.log("Error " + error);
},
"mykey",
"myvalue"
);where key and value are both strings.
ss.get(
function(value) {
console.log("Success, got " + value);
},
function(error) {
console.log("Error " + error);
},
"mykey"
);ss.remove(
function(key) {
console.log("Removed " + key);
},
function(error) {
console.log("Error, " + error);
},
"mykey"
);ss.keys(
function(keys) {
console.log("Got keys " + keys.join(", "));
},
function(error) {
console.log("Error, " + error);
}
);ss.clear(
function() {
console.log("Cleared");
},
function(error) {
console.log("Error, " + error);
}
);On iOS secrets are stored directly in the KeyChain through the SAMKeychain library.
On iOS it is possible to configure the accessibility of the keychain by setting the KeychainAccessibility preference in the config.xml to one of the following strings:
- AfterFirstUnlock
- AfterFirstUnlockThisDeviceOnly
- WhenUnlocked (default)
- WhenUnlockedThisDeviceOnly
- WhenPasscodeSetThisDeviceOnly (this option is available only on iOS8 and later)
For reference what these settings mean, see Keychain Item Accessibility Constants.
For example, include in your config.xml the following:
<platform name="ios">
<preference name="KeychainAccessibility" value="WhenUnlocked"/>
</platform>iOS 7 is supported without WhenPasscodeSetThisDeviceOnly option.
How to test the plugin using iOS 7 simulator:
- Download and install Xcode 6 into a separate folder, e.g. /Application/Xcode 6/
- Run
$ xcode-select --switch <path to Xcode6>/Contents/Developer - Build Cordova app with the plugin and run it in iOS 7 simulator
On Android there does not exist an equivalent of the iOS KeyChain. The SecureStorage API is implemented as follows:
- A random 256-bit AES key is generated.
- The AES key encrypts the value.
- The AES key is encrypted with a device-generated RSA (RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding) from the Android KeyStore.
- The combination of the encrypted AES key and value are stored in
SharedPreferences.
The inverse process is followed on get.
Native AES is used. Minimum android supported version is 5.0 Lollipop. If you need to support earlier Android versions use version 2.6.8.
The plugin will only work correctly if the user has sufficiently secure settings on the lock screen. If not, the plugin will fail to initialize and the failure callback will be called on init(). This is because in order to use the Android Credential Storage and create RSA keys the device needs to be somewhat secure.
In case of failure to initialize, the app developer should inform the user about the security requirements of her app and initialize again after the user has changed the screen-lock settings. To facilitate this, we provide secureDevice which will bring up the screen-lock settings and will call the success or failure callbacks depending on whether the user locked the screen appropriately.
For example, this would keep asking the user to enable screen lock forever. Obviously adapt to your needs :)
var ss;
var _init = function() {
ss = new cordova.plugins.SecureStorage(
function() {
console.log("OK");
},
function() {
navigator.notification.alert(
"Please enable the screen lock on your device. This app cannot operate securely without it.",
function() {
ss.secureDevice(
function() {
_init();
},
function() {
_init();
}
);
},
"Screen lock is disabled"
);
},
"my_app"
);
};
_init();The plugin can be used to share data securely between 2 Android apps.
This can be done by updating the config.xml for both the Android apps with below changes:
- Add
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"in the initialwidgettag. - Add the below tag in
<platform name="android">
<edit-config file="AndroidManifest.xml" mode="merge" target="/manifest">
<manifest android:sharedUserId="<your>.<secret>.<anyUserId>" />
</edit-config>This is required as both the apps should have the same android:sharedUserId. For e.g. android:sharedUserId="com.example.myUser".
Consider App1 with packageName as com.test.app1.
Data can be set from the App1 using the below code.
var ss = new cordova.plugins.SecureStorage(function() {
ss.set(function(res) {
console.log("Shared key set: " + res);
}, function(err) {
console.log("Error setting shared key: " + err);
}, "sharedKey", "sharedValue");
}, function(err) {
console.log("Error creating SecureStorage: " + err);
}, "my_shared_data");Consider App2 with packageName as com.test.app2.
Data can be accessed from the App2 using the packageName of App1 as shown in below code.
var ss = new cordova.plugins.SecureStorage(function() {
ss.get(function(res) {
console.log("Got Shared key: " + res);
}, function(err) {
console.log("Error getting shared key: " + err);
}, "sharedKey");
}, function(err) {
console.log("Error creating SecureStorage: " + err);
}, "my_shared_data",
{
android: {
packageName: "com.test.app1"
}
});Please note that if the 2 apps use different android:sharedUserId, the App2 will fail with an error Error: Key [sharedKey] not found.
If App1 is uninstalled and App2 tries to access the sharedKey from App1, App2 will fail with an error Error: Application package com.test.app1 not found.
Changing the lock screen type on Android erases the keystore (issues 61989 and 210402). This is also described in the Android Security: The Forgetful Keystore blog post.
This means that any values saved using the plugin could be lost if the user changes security settings. The plugin should therefore be used as a secure credential cache and not persistent storage on Android.
Windows implementation is based on PasswordVault object from the Windows.Security.Credentials namespace. The contents of the locker are specific to the app so different apps and services don't have access to credentials associated with other apps or services.
Limitations: you can only store up to ten credentials per app. If you try to store more than ten credentials, you will encounter an error. Read documentation for more details.
The browser platform is supported as a mock only. Key/values are stored unencrypted in localStorage.
-
I get the error
cordova.plugins.SecureStorage is not a function, what gives?You can instantiate the plugin only after the
devicereadyevent is fired. The plugin is not available before that. Also make sure you use the plugin after its success callback has fired. -
Do my users really need to set a PIN code on their android devices to use the plugin?
Yes, sorry. Android will not allow the creation of cryptographic keys unless the user has enabled at least PIN locking on the device.
- Create a cordova app.
- Change the start page in config.xml with
<content src="cdvtests/index.html" /> - Add your platforms.
- Add the
cordova-plugin-test-frameworkplugin:
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-test-framework
- Finally add the secure storage plugin as well as the tests from its location
cordova plugin add PATH_TO_SECURE_STORAGE_PLUGIN
cordova plugin add PATH_TO_SECURE_STORAGE_PLUGIN/tests
Just run the app for all platforms. Remember, if you have changes to test you will need to remove the secure storage plugin and add it again for the changes to be seen by the app.
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Copyright (c) 2015 Crypho AS.
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