VB.NET

SSH Tunnel Credentials from OS Secure Storage

Demonstrates the EnableSecrets property, which enables automatic resolution of credentials from the operating system's secure storage. When enabled, password properties and methods may receive a "secret specification string" beginning with !! instead of a literal password.

Background: This is a cleaner alternative to reading a secret yourself and passing it in: with EnableSecrets on, you hand Chilkat a reference like !!my_secret_name and it fetches the actual value from the platform's secure store — Windows Credential Manager, Apple Keychain, and so on. The literal password never appears in your source or configuration, which is exactly the practice recommended throughout these examples.

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Dim success As Boolean = False

'  Demonstrates the SshTunnel.EnableSecrets property, which enables automatic resolution of
'  credentials from the operating system's secure storage.

Dim tunnel As New Chilkat.SshTunnel

'  When EnableSecrets is True, supported password properties and methods may receive a "secret
'  specification string" beginning with "!!" instead of a literal password.  Chilkat resolves the
'  secret from the OS secure store (Windows Credential Manager, Apple Keychain, etc.).
tunnel.EnableSecrets = True

tunnel.DestHostname = "db.internal.example.com"
tunnel.DestPort = 5432

Dim sshPort As Integer = 22
success = tunnel.Connect("ssh.example.com",sshPort)
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


'  Pass a secret specification instead of a literal password.  Chilkat looks up the named secret
'  in the OS secure store rather than using this text directly.
Dim password As String = "!!my_ssh_password_secret"
success = tunnel.AuthenticatePw("mySshLogin",password)
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


Dim listenPort As Integer = 1080
success = tunnel.BeginAccepting(listenPort)
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

Debug.WriteLine("Authenticated using a secret from OS secure storage.")

Dim waitForThreadExit As Boolean = True
success = tunnel.CloseTunnel(waitForThreadExit)
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If