Encrypt Attributes

Mix.install([{:ash, "~> 3.0"}, {:ash_cloak, "~> 0.1.0"}, {:cloak, "~> 1.1"}],
  consolidate_protocols: false
)

Application.put_env(:my_app, MyApp.Vault,
  ciphers: [
    default: {
      Cloak.Ciphers.AES.GCM,
      tag: "AES.GCM.V1",
      key: Base.decode64!("ETpvtowVAL7JmcxfqJ+XVQWzKrt1ynAkC0vT7AxfyNU="),
      iv_length: 12
    }
  ]
)

defmodule MyApp.Vault do
  use Cloak.Vault, otp_app: :my_app
end

MyApp.Vault.start_link()

Introduction

When dealing with PII(Personally Identifiable Information) or other sensitive data, we often want to encrypt this data, and control access to the decrypted values.

To do this in Ash, we do that with AshCloak. See the getting started guide in AshCloak for installation instructions.

Encrypting attributes

1. If you have not yet, follow the getting started guide for AshCloak and Cloak
2. Add the AshCloak extension to your resource
3. Configure the attributes that should be encrypted
4. Add any other additional desired configuration (provided by AshCloak)

Examples

defmodule User do
  use Ash.Resource,
    domain: Domain,
    data_layer: Ash.DataLayer.Ets,
    extensions: [AshCloak]

  cloak do
    vault MyApp.Vault
    attributes [:ssn]
  end

  attributes do
    uuid_primary_key :id
    attribute :ssn, :string, allow_nil?: false
  end

  actions do
    defaults [:read, create: [:ssn], update: [:ssn]]
  end
end

defmodule Domain do
  use Ash.Domain,
    validate_config_inclusion?: false

  resources do
    resource User do
      define(:create_user, action: :create, args: [:ssn])
      define(:update_user, action: :update, args: [:ssn])
      define(:list_users, action: :read)
    end
  end
end

{:module, Domain, <<70, 79, 82, 49, 0, 1, 255, ...>>,
 [
   Ash.Domain.Dsl.Resources.Resource,
   Ash.Domain.Dsl.Resources.Options,
   Ash.Domain.Dsl,
   %{opts: [], entities: [...]},
   Ash.Domain.Dsl,
   Ash.Domain.Dsl.Resources.Options,
   ...
 ]}

Data is encrypted when modified and is not displayed when inspecting.

user = Domain.create_user!("111-11-1111")

#User<
  __meta__: #Ecto.Schema.Metadata<:loaded>,
  id: "bc5284fe-294a-485e-8585-06130a4bca4e",
  aggregates: %{},
  calculations: %{},
  ...
>

# AshCloak turned ssn into a calculation
user.ssn

#Ash.NotLoaded<:calculation, field: :ssn>

# Load the value to decrypt it on-demand
Ash.load!(user, :ssn).ssn

"111-11-1111"