Pass my local environment variables values to my ec2 user data - amazon-web-services

Question

As simple as it sounds, I would like to pass my local environment variable value inside my ec2 user data script. So for instance I run this locally:
export PASSWORD=mypassword
printenv PASSWORD
mypassword
then once I ssh to my ec2 and run
printenv PASSWORD
I should see the same value mypassword. I haven't found a way to inject the right codes in my user data script. Please help if you can.
This is my user data, I am basically installing some packages then authenticate to my vault with the password value I would like to upload from my laptop to my ec2. I just don't want to hardcode mypassword in my user dat script. (not even sure if it's doable?)
# User Data for ASG
user_data = <<EOF
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -x -v
exec > >(tee -i user-data.log 2>/dev/console) 2>&1
# Install latest AWS cli
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install --update
# Install VAULT cli
sudo wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/vault/1.8.2/vault_1.8.2_linux_amd64.zip
sudo unzip vault_1.8.2_linux_amd64.zip
sudo mv vault /usr/local/bin/vault
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/vault
vault -v
# Vault env var
export VAULT_ADDR=https://myvault.test
export VAULT_SKIP_VERIFY=true
export VAULT_NAMESPACE=test
# Vault login (to authenticate to vault must export local value of $PASSWORD
export VAULT_PASSWORD=$PASSWORD
vault login -namespace=test -method=userpass username=myuser password=$VAULT_PASSWORD

Answer 1

user_data runs under root user and it has its own shell environment. Thus when you ssh to the instance as an ec2-user or ubuntu, you have your own, different local environment. This is the reason why your export does not work.
To rectify the issue, your user_data must modify .bashrc (or equivalent depending on the OS) of your ssh user (often ec2-user or ubuntu). Only then your exports will take effect.

Answer 2

I was able to make it work by setting up locally all variables for my sensitive data and defined them my variables.tf. Then on my user data field I just exported the TF var name. See below:
Local setup
export TF_VAR_password=password
TF code --> variables.tf
variable "password" {
description = "my password"
type = string
default = ""
}
Now in my app user data script
export MYPASSWORD=${var.password}
VOILA :)
Here is the website as a point of reference --> https://learn.hashicorp.com/tutorials/terraform/sensitive-variables?in=terraform/0-14 ( look for Set values with environment variables)