README

Store an API key in the options table without storing it in the clear.

What it does

A plugin that talks to Stripe or a courier has a secret key, and the usual home for it is wp_options in plain text — readable by anything with database access, and included in every backup and staging copy.

This encrypts on the way in and decrypts on the way out, using a key derived from the site's own salts, so nothing extra has to be configured. Read the option the normal way and you get the value; read the database and you get ciphertext.

Features

Encrypt an option on save and decrypt it on read, transparently
Derive the key from the site's salts, with no extra configuration
Let a constant in wp-config.php override the stored value, for staging
Tell whether a stored value is encrypted, so old plaintext still works
Re-encrypt everything under a new key, when the salts are rotated
Describe where a value came from, to show in a settings screen

Installation

composer require arraypress/wp-encryption-utils

Quick start

use ArrayPress\EncryptionUtils\Manager;

$secrets = new Manager( 'myplugin' );

$secrets->update_option( 'stripe_secret_key', $key );

$key = $secrets->get_option( 'stripe_secret_key' );

The value in the database is ciphertext. The value your code sees is the key.

What it does not do

The key comes from the site's salts, which are in wp-config.php — so this protects against a leaked database dump, not against someone who already has the filesystem. That is the threat worth defending here, and it is a real one: database backups travel far more freely than wp-config.php does.

Requirements

PHP 8.3 or later
WordPress 7.1 or later
The OpenSSL extension

License

GPL-2.0-or-later

arraypress / wp-encryption-utils

Package info

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