Node.js - Storing password in env variable

JavaScript
1

I am creating admin credentials for my app, the model is quite simple, it has username and password properties and some validation as well. I have a function where I populate some information to the db.

async function init() {
  const admin = new Admin({
    username: "admin",
    password: "12345"
  });

  const salt = await bcrypt.genSalt(10);
  admin.password = await bcrypt.hash(admin.password, salt);

  try {
    await admin.save({ username: admin.username });
  } catch (ex) {
    console.log(ex.message);
  }
}

However, with this approach I am saving the password in my source code and I don’t want that. I was thinking that maybe I could store my admin password in an environment variable using the config package.

I tried the following:

  • Created a default.json file:
{
  "adminPassword": ""
}
  • Created a custom-environment-variables.json file:
{
  "adminPassword": "fifteen_adminPassword"
}
  • Then:
const admin = new Admin({
    username: "admin",
    password: config.get("adminPassword")
  });

Finally I set the env variable export fifteen_adminPassword=12345 but this fails when I’m authenticating with invalid password.