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BUSINESS POSTURE

This project, dotenv, aims to simplify the management of environment variables for software applications. It allows developers to load environment variables from a .env file into the application's environment at runtime. This is particularly useful for separating configuration from code, especially sensitive information like API keys and database credentials, across different environments (development, staging, production).

Business priorities for using dotenv include:

  • Simplifying application configuration management across different environments.
  • Enhancing developer productivity by providing a consistent way to manage environment variables.
  • Reducing the risk of accidentally committing sensitive configuration data into version control.

Key business risks associated with using dotenv include:

  • Accidental exposure of sensitive information if .env files are not properly managed and secured.
  • Misconfiguration of applications if .env files are not correctly set up or if there are inconsistencies between environments.
  • Potential for application downtime or malfunction if environment variables are not loaded correctly or are missing.

SECURITY POSTURE

Existing security controls:

  • security control: Access control to the GitHub repository is managed by GitHub. (Implemented by: GitHub repository settings)
  • security control: Version control of the code base using Git. (Implemented by: Git)
  • accepted risk: The project itself does not enforce secure storage or handling of secrets within .env files. This is the responsibility of the user.
  • accepted risk: The project relies on the security of the underlying operating system and file system for access control to .env files.

Recommended security controls:

  • security control: Implement secret scanning in CI/CD pipelines to detect accidental commits of .env files containing secrets.
  • security control: Provide clear documentation and best practices for securely managing .env files, emphasizing the importance of not committing them to public repositories and using secure file permissions.
  • security control: Consider adding warnings or checks within the library to alert users if .env files are world-readable or located in insecure locations.

Security requirements:

  • Authentication: Not directly applicable to dotenv itself, as it is a configuration loading library. Authentication is handled by the applications that use dotenv.
  • Authorization: Not directly applicable to dotenv itself. Authorization is handled by the applications that use dotenv based on the loaded environment variables.
  • Input validation: dotenv should perform basic validation of the .env file format to prevent parsing errors and potential vulnerabilities due to malformed input. This includes checking for valid variable names and values.
  • Cryptography: Cryptography is not a core requirement for dotenv itself. However, applications using dotenv might store encrypted secrets in environment variables, and dotenv should not interfere with this. If secrets are stored encrypted, the application is responsible for decryption after loading the variables.

DESIGN

C4 CONTEXT

flowchart LR
    subgraph "Organization Context"
      A["Developer"]
      B["Application"]
    end
    C["dotenv Project"]
    D["Operating System"]
    E[".env Files"]

    A -->|Configures| E
    A -->|Uses| B
    B -->|Uses| C
    B -->|Reads Environment Variables| D
    C -->|Reads| E
    C -->|Sets Environment Variables| D

    style C fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
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  • Elements of Context Diagram:
      • Name: Developer
      • Type: Person
      • Description: Software developers who use dotenv to manage application configuration.
      • Responsibilities: Create and manage .env files, configure applications using environment variables.
      • Security controls: Access control to development machines, secure coding practices.
      • Name: Application
      • Type: Software System
      • Description: Applications that use the dotenv library to load configuration from environment variables.
      • Responsibilities: Utilize environment variables for configuration, process application logic.
      • Security controls: Application-level security controls (authentication, authorization, input validation, etc.).
      • Name: dotenv Project
      • Type: Software System
      • Description: The dotenv library itself, responsible for loading environment variables from .env files.
      • Responsibilities: Read .env files, parse environment variables, set environment variables in the operating system environment.
      • Security controls: Input validation on .env file format, secure coding practices in the library itself.
      • Name: Operating System
      • Type: Software System
      • Description: The operating system environment where the application and dotenv run. Provides the environment variable storage.
      • Responsibilities: Manage environment variables, provide access to file system.
      • Security controls: Operating system level security controls (user permissions, file system permissions, etc.).
      • Name: .env Files
      • Type: Data Store
      • Description: Files storing environment variables in a key-value format.
      • Responsibilities: Persist environment variable configurations.
      • Security controls: File system permissions to control access to .env files.

C4 CONTAINER

flowchart LR
    subgraph "Deployment Environment"
      subgraph "Application Process"
        A["dotenv Library"]
      end
      B["Operating System Environment"]
      C[".env Files"]
    end

    A -->|Reads| C
    A -->|Sets Environment Variables| B

    style A fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
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  • Elements of Container Diagram:
      • Name: dotenv Library
      • Type: Library
      • Description: The dotenv library code, which is integrated into the application.
      • Responsibilities: Read and parse .env files, set environment variables in the process environment.
      • Security controls: Secure coding practices, input validation.
      • Name: Operating System Environment
      • Type: Environment
      • Description: The environment variables space provided by the operating system process where the application runs.
      • Responsibilities: Store and provide access to environment variables.
      • Security controls: Operating system level security controls.
      • Name: .env Files
      • Type: File
      • Description: Files on the file system containing environment variable configurations.
      • Responsibilities: Store environment variable configurations persistently.
      • Security controls: File system permissions.

DEPLOYMENT

dotenv is a library and does not have a separate deployment architecture in the traditional sense. It is deployed as part of the application that uses it. The deployment architecture is determined by the application itself.

Assuming a typical application deployment scenario (e.g., a web application):

flowchart LR
    subgraph "Production Environment"
      subgraph "Application Server"
        A["Application Instance"]
        B["dotenv Library"]
      end
      C["Operating System"]
      D[".env File (on Server)"]
    end

    A -->|Uses| B
    A -->|Reads Environment Variables| C
    B -->|Reads| D
    B -->|Sets Environment Variables| C

    style A fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style B fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
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  • Elements of Deployment Diagram:
      • Name: Application Instance
      • Type: Software Process
      • Description: An instance of the application running in the production environment.
      • Responsibilities: Execute application logic, utilize environment variables for configuration.
      • Security controls: Application-level security controls, access control to the server.
      • Name: dotenv Library
      • Type: Software Library (Deployed within Application Instance)
      • Description: The dotenv library code running within the application process.
      • Responsibilities: Load environment variables from .env file and set them in the application process environment.
      • Security controls: Secure coding practices.
      • Name: Operating System
      • Type: Operating System (Server OS)
      • Description: The operating system running on the application server.
      • Responsibilities: Provide runtime environment, manage environment variables, file system access.
      • Security controls: Server hardening, OS-level security controls, access management.
      • Name: .env File (on Server)
      • Type: File (Configuration File)
      • Description: The .env file deployed on the application server, containing production environment variables.
      • Responsibilities: Store production environment configurations.
      • Security controls: File system permissions, secure deployment practices to prevent unauthorized access.

BUILD

flowchart LR
    A["Developer"] --> B{Code Changes};
    B --> C["Version Control (GitHub)"];
    C --> D["CI/CD Pipeline (GitHub Actions)"];
    D --> E["Build Process"];
    E --> F["Security Checks (Linters, SAST)"];
    F --> G["Build Artifacts (Library Package)"];
    G --> H["Package Registry (e.g., RubyGems)"];
    H --> I["Application Build Process"];

    style G fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
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  • Elements of Build Diagram:
      • Name: Developer
      • Type: Person
      • Description: Software developer making changes to the dotenv codebase.
      • Responsibilities: Write code, commit changes, initiate build process.
      • Security controls: Developer workstation security, secure coding practices, code review.
      • Name: Code Changes
      • Type: Data
      • Description: Modifications to the dotenv source code.
      • Responsibilities: Represent code updates.
      • Security controls: Version control history, code review.
      • Name: Version Control (GitHub)
      • Type: Software System (Service)
      • Description: GitHub repository hosting the dotenv source code.
      • Responsibilities: Store and manage code versions, track changes, facilitate collaboration.
      • Security controls: Access control, branch protection, audit logs.
      • Name: CI/CD Pipeline (GitHub Actions)
      • Type: Software System (Service)
      • Description: Automated build and deployment pipeline using GitHub Actions.
      • Responsibilities: Automate build, test, and potentially release processes.
      • Security controls: Secure pipeline configuration, access control to secrets and credentials, audit logs.
      • Name: Build Process
      • Type: Software Process
      • Description: Steps involved in compiling, packaging, and preparing the dotenv library for distribution.
      • Responsibilities: Compile code, run tests, package library.
      • Security controls: Controlled build environment, dependency management, build reproducibility.
      • Name: Security Checks (Linters, SAST)
      • Type: Software Process
      • Description: Automated security checks integrated into the build process, including linters and Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools.
      • Responsibilities: Identify potential code quality issues and security vulnerabilities.
      • Security controls: Regularly updated security tools, configured security rules.
      • Name: Build Artifacts (Library Package)
      • Type: Data (Software Package)
      • Description: The packaged dotenv library ready for distribution (e.g., a gem file for Ruby).
      • Responsibilities: Distributable software package.
      • Security controls: Integrity checks (checksums, signatures), secure storage.
      • Name: Package Registry (e.g., RubyGems)
      • Type: Software System (Service)
      • Description: Public or private package registry where the dotenv library is published.
      • Responsibilities: Host and distribute software packages.
      • Security controls: Access control, package integrity verification, vulnerability scanning.
      • Name: Application Build Process
      • Type: Software Process
      • Description: The build process of applications that depend on the dotenv library, which will download and include dotenv as a dependency.
      • Responsibilities: Integrate dotenv library into applications.
      • Security controls: Dependency management, vulnerability scanning of dependencies.

RISK ASSESSMENT

Critical business process we are trying to protect:

  • Secure and reliable application configuration management across different environments.
  • Preventing accidental exposure of sensitive configuration data, especially secrets.

Data we are trying to protect and their sensitivity:

  • Environment variables stored in .env files.
  • Sensitivity: Can range from low (non-sensitive configuration settings) to high (API keys, database credentials, encryption keys). The sensitivity level is highly dependent on the specific application and the environment variables being managed. Secrets within environment variables are considered highly sensitive and require strong protection.

QUESTIONS & ASSUMPTIONS

Questions:

  • What is the target programming language for the dotenv library in question? (While the example is Ruby, dotenv exists in many languages).
  • What are the primary use cases for this dotenv library? Is it primarily for web applications, command-line tools, or other types of software?
  • What is the intended deployment environment for applications using dotenv? (e.g., cloud platforms, on-premises servers, containers).
  • Are there any specific compliance requirements that applications using dotenv need to adhere to (e.g., PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR)?

Assumptions:

  • BUSINESS POSTURE: The primary business goal is to simplify configuration management and improve developer experience while minimizing the risk of exposing sensitive information.
  • SECURITY POSTURE: Security is a secondary consideration compared to ease of use, but still important. Users are expected to take responsibility for securing their .env files and managing secrets appropriately. The library itself should provide basic security best practices guidance and avoid introducing vulnerabilities.
  • DESIGN: The dotenv library is designed as a lightweight, dependency-free library that can be easily integrated into various types of applications. It focuses on reading .env files and setting environment variables, without providing advanced features like secret management or encryption.