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Asked: 2026-05-10T13:30:08+00:00

Within Ruby on Rails applications database.yml is a plain text file that stores database

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Within Ruby on Rails applications database.yml is a plain text file that stores database credentials.

When I deploy my Rails applications I have an after deploy callback in my Capistrano recipe that creates a symbolic link within the application’s /config directory to the database.yml file. The file itself is stored in a separate directory that’s outside the standard Capistrano /releases directory structure. I chmod 400 the file so it’s only readable by the user who created it.

  • Is this sufficient to lock it down? If not, what else do you do?
  • Is anyone encrypting their database.yml files?
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  1. You’ll also want to make sure that your SSH system is well secured to prevent people from logging in as your Capistrano bot. I’d suggest restricting access to password-protected key pairs.

    Encrypting the .yml file on the server is useless since you have to give the bot the key, which would be stored . . . on the same server. Encrypting it on your machine is probably a good idea. Capistrano can decrypt it before sending.

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