Hide sensitive data in Appium testing logs running on BrowserStack App Automate

If you are using BrowserStack SDK, you can set the following capabilities in the browserstack.yml file:

Example

The following sample shows how to configure your Appium tests using maskCommands capability:

This will replace all keystrokes and other values with REDACTED in your App Automate session logs (text and raw).

Using BrowserStack’s maskCommands capability, you can also mask the output of the screenshot command instead of uploading the image. Here is an example to do this:

Mask with regular expressions

The enhanced browserstack.maskCommands capability allows you to mask only specific portions of sensitive data by defining regular expressions (regex). This is ideal when you need to hide credentials without redacting all information passed via commands like sendKeys.

This feature supports setValues, getValues, setCookies, and getCookies commands. Masking applies to Appium logs and Text logs.

Capability format (array of JSON objects)

To enable granular masking, pass an array of JSON objects to the capability. If you omit the regex value, the platform applies full masking for that command.

Example

Disable specific logs

Apart from text and raw session logs, BrowserStack App Automate also has video and visual logs.

To prevent sensitive information from appearing in these logs, you’ll need to disable them individually.

Disabling video logs

By default, video logs are enabled for all App Automate sessions. Use the following capability to disable it.

The sample below shows how to use video capability to disable video recording in your test:

Disabling visual logs (screenshots)

BrowserStack provides a visual log for App Automate sessions. These are screenshots generated at different steps in your test script.

To prevent sensitive information from getting captured in these screenshots, make sure that visual logs are disabled. If not, set the debug capability to false.

The sample below shows how to use debug capability to disable visual log in your test:

Hide sensitive data in Appium logs

You can now use the maskCommands capability for an added layer of security, providing more robust masking directly within the appiumLogs

Appium versions 2.15.0 and 2.18.0 automatically enable this enhanced protection for both iOS and Android. Set the Appium version in your capabilities to activate it.

Example

This masks the element/send_keys command data in text logs, videos, and screenshots.

{
  'browserstack.maskCommands' => 'setValues'
}

Disabling the Appium logs

For every App Automate session, you get Appium logs by default.

You can disable Appium logs by using the following capabilities:

The sample below shows how to disable appiumLogs and capabilities for your test:

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
HashMap<String, Object> browserstackOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
browserstackOptions.put("maskCommands", "setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies");
capabilities.setCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

var capabilities = {
    'bstack:options' : {
        "maskCommands" : 'setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies'
    }
}

Dictionary<string, object> browserstackOptions = new Dictionary<string, object>();
browserstackOptions.Add("maskCommands", "setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies");
capabilities.AddAdditionalOption("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

$caps = array(
 	'bstack:options' => array(
        "maskCommands" => "setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies",
 	)
 )

desired_cap = {
 	'bstack:options' : {
        "maskCommands" : "setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies",
 	}
 }

capabilities = {
 	'bstack:options' => {
 		"maskCommands" => "setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies",
 	}
}

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
HashMap<String, Object> browserstackOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
browserstackOptions.put("maskCommands", "screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies");
capabilities.setCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

var capabilities = {
    'bstack:options' : {
        "maskCommands" : 'screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies'
    }
}

Dictionary<string, object> browserstackOptions = new Dictionary<string, object>();
browserstackOptions.Add("maskCommands", "screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies");
capabilities.AddAdditionalOption("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

$caps = array(
 	'bstack:options' => array(
        "maskCommands" => "screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies",
 	)
 )

desired_cap = {
 	'bstack:options' : {
        "maskCommands" : "screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies",
 	}
 }

capabilities = {
 	'bstack:options' => {
 		"maskCommands" => "screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies",
 	}
}

caps.setCapability("browserstack.maskCommands", "setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies");

capabilities['browserstack.maskCommands'] = 'setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies'

caps.SetCapability("browserstack.maskCommands", "setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies");

$caps["browserstack.maskCommands"] = "setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies";

caps["browserstack.maskCommands"] = "setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies"

caps["browserstack.maskCommands"] = "setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies"

caps.setCapability("browserstack.maskCommands", "screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies");

capabilities['browserstack.maskCommands'] = 'screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies'

caps.SetCapability("browserstack.maskCommands", "screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies");

$caps["browserstack.maskCommands"] = "screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies";

caps["browserstack.maskCommands"] = "screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies"

caps["browserstack.maskCommands"] = "screenshot, setValues, getValues, setCookies, getCookies"

Disable specific logs

Apart from text and raw session logs, BrowserStack App Automate also has videos, visuals, and the standard Appium logs. These logs can not be masked.

To prevent sensitive information from appearing in these logs, you’ll need to disable them individually.

Disabling video logs

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
HashMap<String, Object> browserstackOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
browserstackOptions.put("video", "false");
capabilities.setCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

var capabilities = {
 	'bstack:options' : {
 		"video" : "false",
 	}
}

Dictionary<string, object> browserstackOptions = new Dictionary<string, object>();
browserstackOptions.Add("video", "false");
capabilities.AddAdditionalOption("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

$caps = array(
'bstack:options' => array(
  "video" => "false"
     )
);

desired_cap = {
 	'bstack:options' : {
 		"video" : "false",
 	}
}

capabilities = {
 	'bstack:options' => {
 		"video" => "false",
 	}
}

caps.setCapability("browserstack.video", "false");

var capabilities = {
  'browserstack.video' : 'false'
}

caps.SetCapability("browserstack.video", "false");

$caps["browserstack.video"] = "false";

caps["browserstack.video"] = "false"

caps["browserstack.video"] = "false"

Disabling visual logs (screenshots)

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
HashMap<String, Object> browserstackOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
browserstackOptions.put("debug", "false");
capabilities.setCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

var capabilities = {
 	'bstack:options' : {
 		"debug" : "false",
 	}
}

Dictionary<string, object> browserstackOptions = new Dictionary<string, object>();
 browserstackOptions.Add("debug", "false");
 capabilities.AddAdditionalOption("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

$caps = array(
 	'bstack:options' => array(
 		"debug" => "false",
 	)
 )

desired_cap = {
 	'bstack:options' : {
 		"debug" : "false"
 	}
}

capabilities = {
 	'bstack:options' => {
 		"debug" => "false",
 	}
}

caps.setCapability("browserstack.debug", "false");

var capabilities = {
  'browserstack.debug' : 'false'
}

caps.SetCapability("browserstack.debug", "false");

$caps["browserstack.debug"] = "false";

caps["browserstack.debug"] = "false"

caps["browserstack.debug"] = "false"

Disabling the Appium logs

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
HashMap<String, Object> browserstackOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
browserstackOptions.put("appiumLogs", "false");
capabilities.setCapability("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

var capabilities = {
 	'bstack:options' : {
        "appiumLogs": "false",
 	}
 }

Dictionary<string, object> browserstackOptions = new Dictionary<string, object>();
browserstackOptions.Add("appiumLogs", "false");
capabilities.AddAdditionalOption("bstack:options", browserstackOptions);

$caps = array(
 	'bstack:options' => array(
        "appiumLogs" => "false",
 	)
 )

desired_cap = {
 	'bstack:options' : {
        "appiumLogs": "false",
 	}
 }

capabilities = {
 	'bstack:options' => {
        "appiumLogs" => "false",
 	}
 }

caps.setCapability("browserstack.appiumLogs", "false");

capabilities['browserstack.appiumLogs'] = 'false';

caps.SetCapability("browserstack.appiumLogs", "false");

$caps["browserstack.appiumLogs"] = "false";

caps["browserstack.appiumLogs"] = "false"

caps["browserstack.appiumLogs"] = "false"