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The security of the encryption depends on the security of the bootstrap.conf file, storing which contains the encryption key.

Vocabulary

• minifi home: the directory as specified to encrypt-config by the --minifi-home option
• configuration directory: the directory <minifi home>/conf
• properties file: the file <minifi home>/conf/minifi.properties
• flow configuration: the file specified in the properties file with the key nifi.flow.configuration.file, or if not specified it defaults to <minifi home>/conf/config.yml
• bootstrap file: the file <minifi home>/conf/bootstrap.conf
• sensitive property: all property in the properties file that we wish to encrypt

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1. If the files are already encrypted, there should be a "nifi.bootstrap.sensitive.key=..." line in the bootstrap.conf file (i.e. have access to the original key), otherwise you have to manually replace all encrypted data (sensitive properties and flow configuration) with their original, unencrypted values (or some other new value)
2. If present, rename the "nifi.bootstrap.sensitive.key=..." property in bootstrap.conf to "nifi.bootstrap.sensitive.key.old=..." (i.e. add ".old" suffix to the property name)
3. If you have a specific encryption key you would like to use, add it to the bootstrap.conf, file (add the line "nifi.bootstrap.sensitive.key=<your encryption key here>"). If you provide no encryption key (no nifi.bootstrap.sensitive.key property in bootstrap.conf, or no bootstrap.conf at all), a new key will be randomly generated and written to bootstrap.conf.
4. Re-run the encrypt-config tool.

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$ cat /var/tmp/minifi-home/conf/bootstrap.conf

nifi.bootstrap.sensitive.key.old=0728061a041edb09445ae4dbd95f11bd255bb0b467b8efb239e665aea5ace46b
nifi.bootstrap.sensitive.key=46af2c11a3f24c8c875ab4bee65e18a75f825fc3a4e03abdc8ce49d405b0b730

$ ./bin/encrypt-config --minifi-home /var/tmp/minifi-home

Old encryption key found in conf/bootstrap.conf
Using the existing encryption key found in conf/bootstrap.conf
PropertySuccessfully decrypted property "nifi.security.client.pass.phrase" isusing alreadyold properly encryptedkey.
CouldEncrypted not find any (new) sensitive properties to encryptproperty: nifi.security.client.pass.phrase
Encrypted 1 sensitive property in conf/minifi.properties
WARNING: you did not request the flow config to be updated, if it is currently encrypted and the old key is removed, you won't be able to recover the flow config.

If you forgot to specify the --encrypt-flow-config flag, you can re-run encrypt-config with the flag, and it will re-encrypt the flow configuration file, as well.

It is always safe to re-run encrypt-config; if it doesn't find anything new to encrypt, it will simply not do anything.

When you have successfully re-encrypted all sensitive properties and the flow configuration file(s), you can delete the nifi.bootstrap.sensitive.key.old  line from the bootstrap file.

Automatic encryption

Specify the property nifi.flow.configuration.encrypt=true, in the properties file , to have the new flow configuration written to the disk encrypted after a flow update (originating from a C2 server). It requires that you have a conf/bootstrap.conf in your minifi home, containing an encryption key (nifi.bootstrap.sensitive.key). This "master key" is also used on agent startup to decrypt the flow configuration file.