Hiding a persisted variable

[yuvnith]

Scenario: In our WiX v3 installers we use bundle persisted variables to handle serial numbers and store them as engine variables in order to use the same values by default during modify workflow.
To hide these serial number values in the installation logs we mark them as hidden variables.
<Variable Name="FEATUREASERIALNUM" Type="formatted" Value="" Persisted="yes" Hidden="yes" />
In WiX v4 unfortunately a variable can no longer be both Hidden and Persisted. The migration document suggest to handle this behavior by encrypting the values using BA.

Is there any other workaround to hide these kind of variable values in the log instead of encrypting them?

[yuvnith]

Scenario: Encrypting variable values using BA
Observed below issue when performing silent installation:
We are performing silent installation by providing serial keys within the installation command. As a result the whole command was printed in the log as below.

[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i001: Burn x86 v4.0.3+b9b68be290f544475f9d0f853344be38ef006993, Windows v10.0 x64 (Build 19045: Service Pack 0), path: C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Local\Temp\{390C422F-F2AF-4E90-A027-98EC2A0DB124}\.cr\SetupRTMToHideSerialNum.exe
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'INSTALLLEVEL' to value '1'
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'FEATUREADIR' to value '[ProgramFilesFolder]SmartPlant\Custom1'
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'FEATUREEDIR' to value '[ProgramFilesFolder]SmartPlant\Custom2'
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'INPUTSTRING' to value 'C:\SmartPlant\Testing\BA'
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'FEATUREASERIALNUM' to value ''
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'FEATUREBSERIALNUM' to value ''
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'RESULTSTRING' to value ''
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'UILanguage' to value ''
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'UICulture' to value ''
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'LANGUAGE' to value ''
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'USERNAME' to value ''
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'COMPANYNAME' to value ''
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Initializing formatted variable 'BundleOriginalCreatedTime' to value ''
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i009: Command Line: '"-burn.clean.room=XXXXXXX\SetupRTMToHideSerialNum.exe" -burn.filehandle.attached=644 -burn.filehandle.self=652 /disablesystemrestore /quiet /install SLAACCEPT=YES FEATUREASERIALNUM=00000055401383 FEATUREBSERIALNUM=00000024401331 ADDLOCAL=ALL'
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Setting string variable 'WixBundleOriginalSource' to value 'XXXXX\SetupRTMToHideSerialNum.exe'
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:19]i000: Setting string variable 'WixBundleOriginalSourceFolder' to value 'XXXXXXX\SetupRTMToHideSerialNum\bin\x86\Debug\'
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:20]i000: Setting string variable 'WixBundleLog' to value 'XXXXX\Intergraph_Managed_Bootstrapper_RTM_7_20240301100820.log'
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:20]i000: Setting string variable 'WixBundleInProgressName' to value ''
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:20]i000: Setting string variable 'WixBundleName' to value 'XXXX'
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:20]i000: Setting string variable 'WixBundleManufacturer' to value 'XXXXX'
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:20]i000: Loading managed bootstrapper application.
[6278:65E0][2024-03-01T10:08:20]i000: Creating BA thread to run asynchronously.

This happens even before the BA is loaded. So, in this case the encryption won't work. Can anyone please comment on this ?

Log when using persisted and hidden variable using WiX v3:
[64FC:0FCC][2024-03-01T10:09:47]i009: Command Line: '"-burn.clean.room=XXXXXXXXXX\SetupRTMToHideSerialNum.exe" -burn.filehandle.attached=552 -burn.filehandle.self=676 /install /silent SLAACCEPT=YES FEATUREASERIALNUM=***** FEATUREBSERIALNUM=***** ADDLOCAL=ALL'

[barnson]

Mark them hidden and handle persistence in the BA.

[yuvnith]

Hello, Barnson. Thank you for the suggestion. Is there a sample to refer to?

[yuvnith]

Hello, Barnson. I didn't find a way to deal with persistence in the BA. Could you please provide more information here?