Rules of AEM

How to Use Crypto Support in AEM to Encrypt/Decrypt Data? While working with AEM, The AEM dev-ops / developer team sometimes have a requirements to call third-party APIs/Services. Configurations related to these APIs/Services like username, passwords, client id/secrets, API keys are usually stored in a code repository in the form of OSGi configuration. This sensitive information should be stored encrypted rather than plain-text format. This is possible through the OOTB AEM Crypto Support bundle. This bundle provides services for encrypting and decrypting the confidential/secured data through system-wide keys (hmac and master files).   What are the Features of Crypto Support? Decryption happens at runtime. No one can decrypt the data through the UI. There’s no UI to decrypt the encrypted data. So, the information remains secure. What are hmac/master keys? Encryption/decryption happens through keys (hmac and master files). These keys get generated during the first startup of AEM inst...

Crypto Support in AEM (Syncing HMAC among AEM instances) AEM OOTB provides a feature where we can encrypt the secured and confidential data through OOTB AEM Crypto Support and store it in a code repository in the form of OSGi configuration. Crypto Support is based on keys (hmac and master files) which are unique for each AEM instance. Encrypted text generated for the same plain-text string on one AEM instance will be different from another instance. This can raise alarms in cases where we have the same OSGi configuration values shared among Author and Publish instances under the same topology. For e.g. /apps/project/config.prod/com.day.cq.db.dbservice.xml Here DB password for Default DB Service will be same across all Prod AEM instances. So, in order to make sure that the same encrypted value works on all Prod instances, we will have to sync hmac and master files among Prod Author and Publish instances. Vital Points to know before HMAC SYNC  Sync of HMAC/keys will break the AEM SSL...