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Secret Management 🔑

This document explains how sensitive configuration and secrets are managed securely in ShopVerse.

Secret management is critical for protecting credentials, tokens, and third-party integrations in a production-ready microservices system.

🎯 Why Secret Management Matters​

Secrets include:

  • JWT signing keys
  • Database passwords
  • Kafka credentials
  • Razorpay API keys
  • OAuth / third-party tokens

If exposed, they can lead to:

  • Account compromise
  • Data breaches
  • Financial loss
  • Full system takeover

ShopVerse follows industry best practices to mitigate these risks.

🧠 Core Principles​

ShopVerse secret management follows these principles:

  1. Secrets never live in source code
  2. Secrets are environment-specific
  3. Secrets are injected at runtime
  4. Least privilege access
  5. Easy rotation without code changes

📦 Types of Secrets in ShopVerse​

Secret TypeExamples
AuthenticationJWT secret key
DatabasePostgreSQL, MongoDB passwords
MessagingKafka credentials
PaymentsRazorpay key & secret
InfrastructureService registry credentials

🔐 How Secrets Are Stored​

✅ Environment Variables (Primary)​

All secrets are injected via environment variables.

Example:

JWT_SECRET=shopverse_jwt_secret_key
DB_PASSWORD=strong_db_password
RAZORPAY_KEY=rzp_test_xxxxx
RAZORPAY_SECRET=xxxxxx

Spring Boot automatically resolves these values.

🧾 Spring Configuration Example​

jwt:
  secret: ${JWT_SECRET}

spring:
  datasource:
    password: ${DB_PASSWORD}

razorpay:
  key: ${RAZORPAY_KEY}
  secret: ${RAZORPAY_SECRET}

No secret values appear in application.yml.

🐳 Docker & Docker Compose​

Secrets are passed to containers via environment variables.

services:
  payment-service:
    environment:
      - RAZORPAY_KEY=${RAZORPAY_KEY}
      - RAZORPAY_SECRET=${RAZORPAY_SECRET}

Secrets remain outside the image.

🔄 Environment Separation​

ShopVerse maintains separate secrets per environment:

EnvironmentPurpose
localDevelopment
testTesting
prodProduction

Each environment uses different credentials.

🔐 JWT Secret Handling​

  • JWT secret is stored as an environment variable
  • Only Auth Service & API Gateway require access
  • Services never expose or log the secret
  • JWT secret rotation supported via redeploy

💳 Razorpay Secret Handling​

  • Razorpay secret is never sent to frontend
  • Used only in Payment Service
  • Webhook signatures are verified using the secret
  • Secrets differ for test & production modes

🛡️ What NOT to Do (Avoided in ShopVerse)​

❌ Commit secrets to GitHub ❌ Hardcode secrets in code ❌ Share secrets between services unnecessarily ❌ Log secret values ❌ Use same secret across environments

🔁 Secret Rotation Strategy​

ShopVerse supports safe secret rotation:

  1. Update secret in environment
  2. Restart affected service
  3. Old tokens naturally expire
  4. No code changes required

This ensures zero downtime rotation.

🧠 Future-Ready Improvements​

For advanced setups, ShopVerse can integrate with:

  • HashiCorp Vault
  • AWS Secrets Manager
  • Azure Key Vault
  • Kubernetes Secrets

The current design allows plug-and-play migration.

🔍 Security Auditing & Debugging​

  • Secrets are masked in logs
  • Configuration files are reviewed before commits
  • .env files are ignored via .gitignore
  • CI/CD pipelines inject secrets securely

🧠 Interview Explanation (One-Liner)​

“We manage all secrets using environment variables, never commit them to source control, and inject them at runtime to support secure rotation and environment isolation.”

📌 Summary​

ShopVerse secret management ensures:

  • Strong protection of sensitive data
  • Clean separation between code and configuration
  • Environment-specific security
  • Production-ready operational practices

Secret management is treated as a first-class security concern.