greenmask: PostgreSQL dump and obfuscation tool

by do son · Published April 12, 2024 · Updated August 11, 2024

Greenmask – dump obfuscation tool

Greenmask is a powerful open-source utility that is designed for logical database backup dumping, obfuscation, and restoration. It offers extensive functionality for backup, anonymization, and data masking. Greenmask is written entirely in pure Go and includes ported PostgreSQL libraries, making it platform-independent. This tool is stateless and does not require any changes to your database schema. It is designed to be highly customizable and backward-compatible with existing PostgreSQL utilities.

Features

Cross-platform – Can be easily built and executed on any platform, thanks to its Go-based architecture, which eliminates platform dependencies.
Database type safe – Ensures data integrity by validating data and utilizing the database driver for encoding and decoding operations. This approach guarantees the preservation of data formats.
Transformation validation and easy maintainable – During obfuscation development, Greenmask provides validation warnings and a transformation diff feature, allowing you to monitor and maintain transformations effectively throughout the software lifecycle.
Partitioned tables transformation inheritance – Define transformation configurations once and apply them to all partitions within partitioned tables, simplifying the obfuscation process.
Stateless – Greenmask operates as a logical dump and does not impact your existing database schema.
Backward compatible – It fully supports the same features and protocols as existing vanilla PostgreSQL utilities. Dumps created by Greenmask can be successfully restored using the pg_restore utility.
Extensible – Users have the flexibility to implement domain-based transformations in any programming language or use predefined templates.
Declarative – Greenmask allows you to define configurations in a structured, easily parsed, and recognizable format.
Integrable – Integrate Greenmask seamlessly into your CI/CD system for automated database obfuscation and restoration.
Parallel execution – Take advantage of parallel dumping and restoration, significantly reducing the time required to deliver results.
Provide variety of storages – Greenmask offers a variety of storage options for local and remote data storage, including directories and S3-like storage solutions.

Use Cases

Greenmask is ideal for various scenarios, including:

Backup and Restoration. Use Greenmask for your daily routines involving logical backup dumping and restoration. It seamlessly handles tasks like table restoration after truncation. Its functionality closely mirrors that of pg_dump and pg_restore, making it a straightforward replacement.
Anonymization, Transformation, and Data Masking. Employ Greenmask for anonymizing, transforming, and masking backups, especially when setting up a staging environment or for analytical purposes. It simplifies the deployment of a pre-production environment with consistently anonymized data, facilitating faster time-to-market in the development lifecycle.