configured Vault token contains non-printable characters and cannot be used

[tormath1]

Describe the bug
Hi, I am trying to use a Vault token stored in a tmp file:

configured Vault token contains non-printable characters and cannot be used

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. echo "my-token" >> /tmp/my-token
2. use ioutil.Readfile to get content of /tmp/token
3. use SetToken to set the token
4. perform a request to Vault

Expected behavior
Get my request result

Environment:
github.com/hashicorp/vault/api v1.0.4 // indirect

Additional context

In the source, we run this kind of test:

vault/api/client.go

Lines 755 to 761 in 18aaf01

	// Sanity check the token before potentially erroring from the API
	idx := strings.IndexFunc(token, func(c rune) bool {
	return !unicode.IsPrint(c)
	})
	if idx != -1 {
	return nil, fmt.Errorf("configured Vault token contains non-printable characters and cannot be used")
	}

It could be nice to check if the last character is a \n and replace it by an empty character?

[catsby]

Hello there! Would it be possible to trim the trailing characters in your code before attempting to use the token? Something like token = strings.TrimSuffix(token, "\n")?

On the surface, it's really simple to add that to Vault's code and do it for you. At the same time, I'm hesitant to introduce code that modifies a users token input in an attempt to make the token be valid. I would prefer Vault not modify the supplied token value at all. (edited for spelling, wording)

[jefferai]

Additionally using "echo -n" would work around this in the first place.

[tormath1]

Hi there,

Yes it totally makes sense to not "modify" the token. However, we could add a more explicit error message ?
The user should not need to lookup in the source code to find out this error trigger :/

[michelvocks]

Hi @tormath1!

What error message would you expect to see? I personally think the current error message explicitly defines the problem, doesn't it?

Cheers,
Michel

[catsby]

Hello - we haven't heard back in some time, so we're going to close this issue for now. If you have more information please let us know by opening a new issue, and optionally referencing this one. Thanks!

[stephmafole]

@catsby ... your idea was the ultimate solution to my problem.

Thank you very much.

I've trimmed the token before authenticating my Go app on Vault, and it worked like a charm !!!