Protecting Account Information

Learn how to avoid inadvertently disclosing your personal account information when creating your projects. Many projects you create require account names, passwords, tokens or other sensitive information in order for them to work. These may be secure if they never leave your desktop, but it can be all too easy to forget and publish or distribute a script file with your personal credentials in them rather than the intended placeholder "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_PASSWORD". You can address this by placing your credentials in a separate file in your library folder and including a reference to that file in your sketch initiation. That way your private credentials will not accidentally escape your desktop, and will automatically be included when you compile your sketch.

In addition, many people have family members, friends or even a business location that are willing to share their network credentials with you when you visit. You won't have to remember what the credentials are each time you visit. Simply keep a commented-out library list, then edit the library list to place the information from the visited location into the "currently in effect" section.

Parts Required

You don't need any parts for this project. Only text edits are needed to the provided skeleton library file, and two small edits to each project file are required.

Project Overview

Here is a quick overview on how the project works.

Your private credentials including account names, passwords and tokens are saved in a library file, not in your sketch.
The library file is #included at the beginning of your sketch.
The sketch is modified to reference the #defined name of the private information contained in the library file, keeping the private information out of your sketch.
If you subsequently send or distribute your sketch to someone else you don't have to take any action to "sanitize" the file, and you will never have to worry about inadvertently disclosing your personal information because you forgot to sanitize the file before sending.

Installing the skeleton MyLogin library

Follow the next steps to install a skeleton MyLogin file in your library:

Create a folder named MyLogin in your Arduino IDE installation libraries folder
Copy the following skeleton code to a file named MyLogin.h the MyLogin folder and save it

/*********
  Ron Brinkman
  Complete instructions at https://RandomNerdTutorials.com/protecting-account-information/
  
  Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files.
  The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
*********/

//Keep account names, passwords, tokens, etc. current in this file
//When visiting another location put their credentials in the "currently in effect" section

//Credentials currently in effect
#define STASSID               "YOUR_WIFI_SSID"                   //WiFi
#define STAPSK                "YOUR-WIFI_PASSWORD"

#define emailSenderAccount    "YOUR_SENDER_EMAIL@gmail.com"      //Email
#define emailSenderPassword   "YOUR_EMAIL_APP_PASSWORD"
#define emailRecipient        "YOUR_EMAIL_RECIPIENT@example.com"

#define DuckDNStoken          "YOUR_DUCKDNS_TOKEN"               //DuckDNS

/*********Saved credentials for substitution above when "on the road"
//Credentials used at home
#define STASSID               "my_wifi_ssid"
#define STAPSK                "my_wifi_password"
#define emailSenderAccount    "my_sender_email@gmail.com"
#define emailSenderPassword   "my_email_app_password"
#define emailRecipient        "my_email_recipient@example.com"
#define DuckDNStoken          "my_duckdns_token"

//Credentials used at Mom and Dad's house
#define STASSID               "parents_wifi_ssid"
#define STAPSK                "parents_wifi_password"

//Credentials used at wife's Mom and Dad's house
#define STASSID               "wifes_parents_wifi_ssid"
#define STAPSK                "wifes_parents_wifi_password"

//Credentials used at our daughter's house
#define STASSID               "daughter_wifi_ssid"
#define STAPSK                "daughter_wifi_password"

//Credentials used at our son's house
#define STASSID               "son_wifi_ssid"
#define STAPSK                "son_wifi_password"

//Credentials used at our friends Joe and Sally's house
#define STASSID               "friend_wifi_ssid"
#define STAPSK                "friend_wifi_password"
*********/

Customize the MyLogin.h file with your credentials

Open the skeleton MyLogin.h file in your Arduino IDE installation libraries folder. Follow the next steps to isolate personal account, password and token information to this private file:

Edit the Credentials currently in effect section. Write your network credentials in the following definition statements, so that applications can connect to your local network.
```
#define STASSID               "YOUR_WIFI_SSID"                   //WiFi
#define STAPSK                "YOUR-WIFI_PASSWORD"
```

Continue editing or adding any other credentials your applications use. This may include SMTP email, SMS messaging, Telegram messaging, WhatsApp instant messaging, Duck DNS, NoIP, DynDNS or other dynamic DNS support, etc.

#define emailSenderAccount    "YOUR_SENDER_EMAIL@gmail.com"      //Email
#define emailSenderPassword   "YOUR_EMAIL_APP_PASSWORD"
#define emailRecipient        "YOUR_EMAIL_RECIPIENT@example.com"

#define DuckDNStoken          "YOUR_DUCKDNS_TOKEN"               //DuckDNS

Optionally place credentilas in the commented-out section of the file so that you don't need to look them up each time you travel to another location and want to work on your application.

Start with a copy of your home credentials for the case where the Current credentials are temporarily overwritten while "on the road"

/*********Saved credentials for substitution above when "on the road"
//Credentials used at home
#define STASSID               "my_wifi_ssid"
#define STAPSK                "my_wifi_password"
#define emailSenderAccount    "my_sender_email@gmail.com"
#define emailSenderPassword   "my_email_app_password"
#define emailRecipient        "my_email_recipient@example.com"
#define DuckDNStoken          "my_duckdns_token"

Continue with customizing any other family, friend or business locations as needed
```
//Credentials used at Mom and Dad's house
#define STASSID               "wifes_parents_wifi_ssid"
#define STAPSK                "wifes_parents_wifi_password"
   .
   .
   .
```
Note that it's likely that only the network credentials will be applicable for update for remote locations.
Save the file, now containing your private information. It's ready to be used by your scripts to keep private information out of the scripts.

Tailoring your script files

Each script file you want to protect from inadvertent disclosure of your credentials will require two simple edits. Follow the next steps to protect each script file:

Place the following statement in your list of #include files:

#include            // Needed to keep personal credentials out of the sketch's source code

Find the place in your script file where your account name, password, token or other credentials would normally be entered. For your WiFi account it will look something like:
```
// Replace with your network credentials
const char* ssid = "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_SSID";
const char* password = "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_PASSWORD";
```

Replace the text with the following:

#ifndef       STASSID
  //Replace with your network credentials here ONLY if you do not have a MyLogin.h file included above
  #define STASSID      = "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_SSID"
  #define STAPSK       = "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_PASSWORD"
#endif

const char*   ssid     = STASSID;
const char*   password = STAPSK;

Don't fill-in your credentials here. They will be incorporated automatically via the MyLogin.h file and #include statement.

Continue looking for other places in your script where account names, passwords or tokens are needed for applications such as SMTP email, SMS messaging, Telegram messaging, WhatsApp instant messaging, Duck DNS, NoIP, DynDNS or other dynamic DNS support, etc.

Update these sections of code similar to the WiFi update to keep personal information out of the script.

How the Code Works

The MyLogin.h file that you have customized per the instructions above now contains all your personal credentials. It is no longer necessary to enter these credentials anywhere else, because they will be #included automatically when the script is compiled.

The MyLogin.h library file is now securely incorporated into your script when it is #included at the beginning of your script, and contains all your personal credentials.

#include            // Needed to keep personal credentials out of the sketch's source code

Because your credentials are already incorporated into your script from the #included MyLogin.h file, the #ifndef statement will skip redefining the credentials here. You don't have to do anything.

#ifndef       STASSID
  //Replace with your network credentials here ONLY if you do not have a MyLogin.h file included above
  #define STASSID               = "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_SSID"
  #define STAPSK                = "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_PASSWORD"
#endif

Now the credentials are actually incorporated into the script for use by the program logic:

const char*   ssid     = STASSID;
const char*   password = STAPSK;

If other accounts, passwords or tokens are utilized in subsequent sections of your script, they will be securely incorporated as well if you have customized and tailored them as described in the previous sections.

Demonstration

Upload your project to your microprocessor. It will work exactly as before. Your private information will be protected from inadvertent disclosure.

Wrapping Up

We hope you've found this project useful and easy to implement on all of your projects. Enjoy the peace of mind knowing that you can publish or distribute your projects without the fear of "OOPS, I forgot to remove my personal information".

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Thank you for reading.