Puppet: (Server 8) Using binary data in stored in hiera results in "Error 500 on SERVER"

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Our site is migrating from puppet6 to puppet8, and we've encountered an issue with storing binary data in hiera.

The original (binary) data file was encrypted with eyaml:

$ eyaml encrypt -f binary.data > binary.data.eyaml

and the resulted eyaml file was included in a Hiera yaml file as:

test::func::data: >
    ENC[PKCS7,.....
    ...]

When using this code:

test::func{ 'hello':
     data    =>  lookup('binary::data')
}

with:

define test::func(
  Binary $data
) {
}

results in an error:

Test::Func[hello]: parameter 'data' expects a Binary value, got String

however using type "String" (which works on puppet6)

define test::func(
  String $data
) {
}

results in:

Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 500 on
SERVER: Server Error: Failed to serialize Puppet::Resource::Catalog
for 'puppetserver': Could not render to
Puppet::Network::Format[rich_data_json]: source sequence is
illegal/malformed utf-8

This is a behavior change moving from 6 to 8.

Any suggestions as to how to get around this issue?

1

There are 1 answers

2
h0tw1r3 On

The YAML hiera backend only supports basic types, and Binary type value is created with a base64 encoded string.

function Binary.new(
  String $base64_str,
  Optional[Base64Format] $format
)
  1. Configure hiera to cast specific values with the required type using lookup_options.
  2. Encode the data with base64.
  3. Encrypt the base64 value.

Based on your use case, in the "common" control-repo hiera file add the following to ensure the lookup value is returned as Binary:

lookup_options:
  binary::data:
    convert_to: Binary

Then base64 encode the binary data and encrypt it:

base64 < binary.data | eyaml encrypt -l binary::data --stdin

The output should look something like:

binary::data: ENC[PKCS7,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]

OR

binary::data: >
  ENC[PKCS7,MIIBeQYJKoZIhvcNAQcDoIIBajCCAWYCAQAxggEhMIIBHQIBAD
  AFMAACAQEwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQAEggEA2/1rNGJbO10rQvPYq2aiLCzeIX
  Vdx/ZAzD+mFJ/IM8i4QYgiW0EwVPpvqwJUiy9iyJ3yd3lD8PJLS6c3/22ta5
  LVOR50eKRUPGSQuZ7fYGfdHpCwTH/kWz2omJrr+sm2ChW2YrUrTVninz6BhB
  jCBzSWlK9HJmejX4uuZdTu6YZn5LU123hyy9kW1mmtDCCjNfH3dM8K3EQ38f
  fv55hG4cIOHGOIuxV9J0LS9AAtuOB4sKMmh5u0/ZO6HyOUz5OniniKqZZsRM
  I3UGYpOqA0A9HxAcmFsySBSVsSwncYfZR3cEKFblfHqGorPJAccNj78XPrWO
  i5AxjcyIleQwqmPzA8BgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHQYJYIZIAWUDBAEqBBBk3e5h2V
  XAjGs5veW3o4EkgBD9bpPwo/f9bPGKyL9Ufvv9]

Copy and paste one of those into your hiera yaml file.

Note: if you interpolate a Binary variable's value in puppet code as a string, it will return the base64 value (e.g. notify { "${binary_var}": })