# Client Usage

To use barbicanclient, you must first create an instance of the `barbicanclient.client.Client` class.

The client uses Keystone Sessions for both authentication and for handling HTTP requests. You can provide authentication credentials to the client by creating a Keystone Session with the appropriate auth plugin and then passing that session to the new Client.

See Authentication for more details.

Example:

>     from barbicanclient import client

>     barbican = client.Client(...)

The client object has different attributes that can be used to interact with the Barbican service. Each attribute represents an entity in the Barbican service: Secrets, Orders and Containers.

## Secrets

Secrets represent keys, credentials, and other sensitive data that is stored by the Barbican service. To store or retrieve a secret in the Barbican service you should use the different methods of the `barbicanclient.secrets.SecretManager` class that is exposed as the secrets attribute of the Client.

Example:

>     # Store a random text password in Barbican

>     from barbicanclient import client
>     import random
>     import string

>     def random_password(length):
>         sys_random = random.SystemRandom()
>         return ''.join(
>             sys_random.choice(string.ascii_letters + string.digits) for _ in range(length)
>         )

>     barbican = client.Client(...)

>     my_secret = barbican.secrets.create()
>     my_secret.name = 'Random plain text password'
>     my_secret.payload = random_password(24)

>     my_secret_ref = my_secret.store()

The secret reference returned by `barbicanclient.secrets.SecretManager.store()` can later be used to retrieve the secret data from barbican.

Example:

>     # Retrieve Secret from secret reference

>     retrieved_secret = barbican.secrets.get(my_secret_ref)
>     my_password = retrieved_secret.payload

### Secret Content Types

The Barbican service defines a Secret Content Type. The client will choose the correct Content Type based on the type of the data that is set on the Secret.payload property. The following table summarizes the mapping of Python types to Barbican Secret Content Types:

Python 3 Type | Barbican Content Type
--- | ---
bytes | application/octet-stream
str | text/plain

Warning

Previous versions of python-barbicanclient allowed the user to set the payload_content_type and payload_content_encoding properties for any secret. This can lead to unexpected behavior such as changing a unicode string back to a byte string in Python 2, and dropping the base64 encoding of a binary secret as in Launchpad Bug #1419166. Because of this, manually setting the payload_content_type and the payload_content_encoding has been deprecated.

## Orders

Orders are used to request secret material to be created by the Barbican service. Submitting an order will result in a Secret being created on your behalf. The Secret can then be used like any Secret you may have uploaded yourself. Orders should be created using the factory methods in the `barbicanclient.orders.OrderManager` instance in the orders attribute of the Client.

Example:

>     # Submit an order to generate a random encryption key

>     from barbicanclient import client

>     barbican = client.Client(...)

>     my_order = barbican.orders.create_key()
>     my_order.algorithm = 'AES'
>     my_order.mode = 'CBC'
>     my_order.bit_length = 256

>     my_order_ref = my_order.submit()

The order reference returned by `barbicanclient.orders.Order.submit()` can later be used to retrieve the order from Barbican.

Example:

>     # Retrieve Order from order reference

>     retrieved_order = barbican.orders.get(my_order_ref)

Once your order has been processed by Barbican, the order status will be set to ‘ACTIVE’. An active order will contain the reference to the requested secret (or container).

Example:

>     # Retrieve Encryption Key generated by the above KeyOrder

>     generated_secret = barbican.secrets.get(retrieved_order.secret_ref)
>     key = generated_secret.payload

Currently the client can submit `barbicanclient.orders.KeyOrder` orders for Keys suitable for symmetric encryption, and `barbicanclient.orders.AsymmetricOrder` for Asymmetric keys such as RSA keys.

## Containers

Containers can be either arbitrary groupings of Secrets or a strict grouping of Secrets, such as the Public and Private keys of an RSA keypair.

Containers should be managed using the `barbicanclient.containers.ContainerManager` instance in the containers attribute of the Client

Example:

>     # Add the Secrets created above to a container

>     my_container = barbican.containers.create()

>     my_container.add('Retrieved Secret', retrieved_secret)
>     my_container.add('Generated Secret', generated_secret)

>     my_container_ref = my_container.store()

The container reference returned by `barbicanclient.containers.Container.store()` can later be used to retrieve the container from Barbican.

Example:

>     # Retrieve container from Barbican

>     retrieved_container = barbican.containers.get(my_container_ref)

## Secret Consumers

Secret consumers are represented by three attributes: service, resource type and resource id. Callers can register secret consumers to indicate that they are using a secret. For instance, in the example below, the caller creates a secret consumer to indicate that the created secret is being used to encrypt a specific Glance image.

Secret consumers should be managed using the `barbicanclient.secrets.SecretManager` instance in the secrets attribute of the Client and by the corresponding register_consumer, remove_consumer and list_consumers methods.

Example:

>     # Creating a secret and adding a consumer to it

>     secret = barbican.secrets.create(name='image encryption key',
>                                      payload='encryption_key')
>     secret.store()

>     barbican.secrets.register_consumer(
>         secret.secret_ref,
>         service="image",
>         resource_type="image",
>         resource_id="123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174002"
>     )

>     # Listing all the secret's consumers

>     consumers = barbican.secrets.list_consumers(secret.secret_ref)
>     for consumer in consumers:
>         print(f"Service: {consumer['service']}\t"
>               f"Resource Type: {consumer['resource_type']}\t"
>               f"Resource id: {consumer['resource_id']}")

>     # Removing the previously created consumer

>     barbican.secrets.remove_consumer(
>         secret.secret_ref,
>         service="image",
>         resource_type="image",
>         resource_id="123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174002"
>     )

## ACLs

Access Control List (ACL) feature in Barbican provides user level access control for secrets and containers. By default Barbican manages access to its resources (secrets, containers) on a per project level and authorization is granted based on the roles a user has in that project.

ACLs should be managed using the `barbicanclient.acls.ACLManager` instance in the acls attribute of the Client.

Example:

>     # Submits ACLs on an existing Secret with URI as 'secret_ref'

>     # create ACL entity object with needed settings
>     acl_entity = barbican.acls.create(entity_ref=secret_ref, users=[u1, u2],
>                                       project_access=False)

>     acl_ref = acl_entity.submit()  # submits ACL setting to server at this point.

The secret or container URI can be used to read all of its ACL setting. Returned value is instance of either `barbicanclient.acls.SecretACL` or `barbicanclient.acls.ContainerACL`. Refer to respective class for its available APIs.

Example:

>     # Get ACL entity for a Secret
>     # Returned entity will be either SecretACL or ContainerACL.
>     # This entity has ACL settings per operation type (e.g. 'read')

>     secret_acl = barbican.acls.get(secret_ref)

>     # To retrieve (load) ACL using existing ACL entity e.g. container_acl
>     container_acl.load_acls_data()

ACLs setting can also be retrieved directly from secret or container entity. Its data is lazy loaded i.e. related ACL settings are not read till acls attribute is accessed on secret or container entity.

Example:

>     # Get secret entity for a given ref
>     secret = barbican.secrets.get(secret_ref)

>     # To get project access flag or users for 'read' operation
>     project_access_flag = secret.acls.read.project_access
>     read_acl_users = secret.acls.read.users

>     # Get container entity for a given ref
>     container = barbican.containers.get(container_ref)

>     # To get project access flag or users for 'read' operation
>     project_access_flag = container.acls.read.project_access
>     read_acl_users = container.acls.read.users

If need to add users to existing ‘read’ ACL settings on a secret or container, above mentioned get and submit methods can be used.

Example:

>     # Every Barbican secret and container has default ACL setting which
>     # reflects default project access behavior.

>     # ACL settings is modified via submit operation on ACL entity.

>     # provide users to be added as list.
>     add_users = ['user1', 'user2', 'users3']

>     # Case 1 - Add users to 'read' operation ACL setting
>     # --------------------------------------------------

>     # Get ACL entity from server
>     acl_entity = barbican.acls.get(entity_ref=secret_ref)

>     # add new users to existing users for 'read' operation
>     acl_entity.read.users.extend(add_users)
>     # OR
>     # acl_entity.get('read').users.extend(add_users)

>     acl_ref = acl_entity.submit() # here submits ACL changes to server.

>     # Case 2 - Add same users to ACL settings for each operation type
>     # ---------------------------------------------------------------

>     # Get ACL entity from server
>     acl_entity = barbican.acls.get(entity_ref=secret_ref)

>     # Go through each operation ACL setting and add users to existing list
>     for op_acl in acl_entity.operation_acls
>         op_acl.users.extend(add_users)

>     acl_ref = acl_entity.submit() # here submits ACL changes to server.

If need to remove some users from existing ACL settings on a secret or container, similar approach can be used as mentioned above for add example.

Example:

>     # provide users to be removed as list.
>     remove_users = ['user1', 'user2', 'users3']

>     # Case 1 - Remove users from 'read' operation ACL setting
>     # -------------------------------------------------------

>     # Get ACL entity from server
>     acl_entity = barbican.acls.get(entity_ref=container_ref)

>     existing_users = acl_entity.read.users
>     # OR
>     # existing users = acl_entity.get('read').users

>     # remove matching users from existing users list
>     updated_users = set(existing_users).difference(remove_users)

>     # set back updated users to operation specific acl setting
>     acl_entity.read.users = updated_users
>     # OR
>     # acl_entity.get('read').users = updated_users

>     acl_ref = acl_entity.submit() # here submits ACL changes to server.

>     # Case 2 - Remove same users from ACL settings for each operation type
>     # --------------------------------------------------------------------

>     # Get ACL from server
>     acl_entity = barbican.acls.get(secret_ref)

>     # Go through each operation ACL setting and remove users from existing list
>     for op_acl in acl_entity.operation_acls
>         existing_users = op_acl.users

>         # remove matching users from existing users list
>         updated_users = set(existing_users).difference(remove_users)

>         # set back updated users to operation specific acl setting
>         op_acl.users = updated_users

>     acl_ref = acl_entity.submit() # here submits ACL changes to server.

If need to unset or delete ACL settings on a secret or container, `barbicanclient.acls.SecretACL.remove()` or `barbicanclient.acls.ContainerACL.remove()` can be used.

Example:

>     # create ACL entity object with secret or container ref
>     blank_acl_entity = barbican.acls.create(entity_ref=secret_ref)

>     # removes all ACL settings for the secret on server
>     blank_acl_entity.remove()

>     # To remove 'read' operation specific ACL setting
>     acl_entity = barbican.acls.get(entity_ref=secret_ref)
>     acl_entity.read.remove()
>     # OR
>     # acl_entity.get('read').remove()

this page last updated: 2026-02-27 17:03:03

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