v0.6.6 Keychain Integration & Settings Management - griffingilreath/Punch-Card-Project GitHub Wiki

v0.6.6 - Keychain Integration & Settings Management

Release Date: March 2025

View official GitHub release

Overview

Version 0.6.6 introduces significant improvements to security and usability through enhanced keychain integration and settings management. This release focuses on making the application more secure while providing users with greater control over their preferences.

Key Features

Keychain Integration

  • Secure Credential Storage: Implemented full keychain integration for storing API keys and user credentials
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility: Added support for platform-specific keychain implementations (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, Linux Secret Service)
  • Migration Tool: Created utility to safely migrate credentials from config files to system keychain
  • Fallback Mechanism: Added secure fallback for environments without keychain access

Settings Management

  • Centralized Settings: Refactored settings management into a unified interface
  • User Preferences: Added new UI panel for managing all application settings
  • Persistence: Implemented improved settings persistence with automatic backup
  • Validation: Added validation for all user-configurable settings
  • Default Profiles: Created predefined setting profiles for different use cases

Additional Improvements

  • Error Handling: Enhanced error reporting for keychain and settings operations
  • Documentation: Added comprehensive documentation for keychain integration
  • Testing: Expanded test suite to cover new features
  • Performance: Optimized settings loading and saving processes

Technical Details

macOS Keychain Integration

The macOS Keychain is a secure, encrypted database system built into macOS that stores sensitive information like passwords, API keys, and certificates. It works as follows:

  • It provides a system-level secure vault that applications can use to store credentials
  • All stored data is encrypted with strong encryption algorithms
  • It's protected by user authentication (requires login or explicit permission)
  • The system manages encryption keys, relieving applications from implementing their own encryption

Our implementation:

  1. Uses the keyring library to interact with the macOS Keychain API
  2. Stores sensitive data like API keys in the keychain rather than in plain text files
  3. Creates a secure identifier system to retrieve specific credentials
  4. Provides permission dialogs that let users approve access to credentials

This keychain integration represents a significant security improvement because:

  • Credentials are no longer stored in plain text configuration files that could be easily compromised
  • The encryption is handled by a mature, well-tested system component
  • Credentials can't be accessed by other applications without permission
  • Even if configuration files are transferred to other systems, sensitive data isn't exposed
  • It follows security best practices used by professional applications

Settings Management System

The new settings management system introduces a structured approach to handling application preferences:

  1. Centralized Interface: A single SettingsManager class handles all configuration settings
  2. Hierarchical Structure: Settings are organized in categories (display, security, API, hardware)
  3. Type Validation: Each setting has a defined type and validation rules
  4. Change Notifications: Components can subscribe to be notified when specific settings change
  5. Automatic Persistence: Settings are automatically saved to disk with atomic write operations

Implementation details:

  • JSON schema for defining valid settings structure
  • Observer pattern for change notifications
  • Automatic serialization/deserialization of settings
  • File locking for safe concurrent access

This improved settings management system:

  1. Prevents Configuration Errors: Validation ensures settings are always in a valid state
  2. Improves Reliability: Automatic backup prevents configuration loss
  3. Enhances User Experience: The UI panel makes settings more discoverable and easier to modify
  4. Supports Different Use Cases: Default profiles allow quick configuration for different scenarios
  5. Reduces Code Duplication: By centralizing settings logic, it reduces the need for duplicate code across components

Installation

git clone https://github.com/griffingilreath/Punch-Card-Project.git
cd Punch-Card-Project
git checkout v0.6.6
pip install -r requirements.txt
python setup.py install

Upgrade Notes

When upgrading from a previous version, run the migration assistant to securely transfer credentials:

python tools/migrate_credentials.py

Known Issues

  • On some Linux distributions, additional packages may be required for Secret Service API
  • Settings migration may require manual review in rare edge cases