Are the data protection keys necessary for docker container?

Question

I am getting the following error in my logs when running my application on a docker container.

[08:20:54 WRN] Storing keys in a directory '/root/.aspnet/DataProtection-Keys' that may not be persisted outside of the container. Protected data will be unavailable when container is destroyed. <s:Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection.Repositories.FileSystemXmlRepository>


[08:20:54 WRN] No XML encryptor configured. Key {<some-id} may be persisted to storage in unencrypted form. <s:Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection.KeyManagement.XmlKeyManager>

I was reading into data protection keys, especially from this article https://www.edument.se/post/storing-the-asp-net-core-data-protection-key-ring-in-azure-key-vault?lang=en and it seems to be something that might be really important when deploying an app. However, what I don't understand is what is it being used for? I am not using identity or session cookies. And for the technologies I am using, I create my own keys to encrypt the information.(For example for JWT or for encrypting some text). I do use cookies to set my jwt token by using the set-token header with HTTPonly flag. Could that be what the key is being created for?

I want to know in order to define if we should take action to make the keys persistent or if can just ignore it. I would appreciate it a lot if someone has some insight into this that is willing to share.

Here a screenshot of the file where the keys are being stored

Answer 1

Actually, the section What happens if I don’t configure the data protection service in ASP.NET Core? of the referenced post gives a great explanation of what it is used for.
And yes, setting HttpOnly=true means encrypting the cookie's value with the Key Ring. You can do a simple test: run your service locally in a docker container, perform the flow that sets the cookie on your browser, then remove the container and create a new one. Now try to perform the action that requires the cookie, and it will fail because your service can't longer decrypt the cookie's value.