How to set Gitlab gitlab-ci variables properly

Question

I want to set a gitlab variable so it can be consumed by the gitlab-ci.yaml

The variable I want to set is a ssh private key and it is being copied to a server.

Problem: - When I set the private key as below, it changes the structure of that private key which leads to a incorrect key.

Private key before: (I will only put a half of the key for security reasons)

Private key after it is being saved to server from the pipeline:

How can I avoid this disorientation?

Greg Dubicki · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-03 19:56:59Z

8

Use base64 encoding before you put text in the variable and then decode variable back into key using base64 as well.

I.e.,

base64 -w0 your_key_file > key.base64

Then put contents of key.base64 into your env variable.

Then in your pipeline do

echo -n $PRIVATEKEY | base64 -d > key

Which would put your original key into the key file.

Side note: be very careful with adding private ssh keys to pipelines. This may pose significant security risk.

Greg Dubicki

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answered Jun 18, 2020 at 23:58

taleodor

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