Obscuring Sensitive Test Data using Axe and C# Based Tools

There is often a requirement for sensitive data to be kept out of plain text files used for test automation. This solution provides a way to obscure plain text, based on the technique in the following article:

http://www.saipanya.net/2010/03/encrypt-query-strings.html

The solution enables a user to store an obscured string in an Axe Run Configuration file and to use a custom load action to pull the data and be used in a set action. E.g. To set a userid and password. This is paired with a simple app to obscure the required data.

Obscuring Data

Creation of a simple App that takes a plain text string and provides an obscured version is relatively simple, an example VS2015 solution can be downloaded from:

http://www.odintech.com/downloads/ObscureString.zip

The App presents data that can be copied to the Run Configuration File:

As an entry in the Run Configuration file for userid and pass:

The following Custom Action can be created:

This can then be used in an Axe subtest workflow as follows:

The data will be loaded, converted back in memory and entered into the fields.

NB – This does not provide a secure mechanism but prevents sensitive data being stored in plain text.