security: refuse to boot in production if secret env vars are unset#549
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xpoes123 wants to merge 1 commit into
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security: refuse to boot in production if secret env vars are unset#549xpoes123 wants to merge 1 commit into
xpoes123 wants to merge 1 commit into
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The app silently falls back to publicly-known placeholder values (
'secret','salt','secretKey1','secretKey2') whenSECRET,SALT,SECRET_KEY_1, orSECRET_KEY_2are unset. Anyone who reads the source can forge session cookies and JWT tokens outright if the app is ever deployed without those variables set.Problem
server/authentication.jsusesprocess.env.SALT ? process.env.SALT : 'salt'and similar fallbacks for all four secrets. A production deployment missing any of these variables would run with trivially-known signing material while appearing healthy.Changes
app.js— adds a production-only startup guard immediately after imports. IfNODE_ENV === 'production'and any ofSECRET,SALT,SECRET_KEY_1, orSECRET_KEY_2is falsy, the process throws before the Express app is created. The existing?? 'default'fallbacks inserver/authentication.jsare left untouched sonpm run devcontinues to work without a local.env.Risk & testing
The guard only runs when
NODE_ENV === 'production', so local development and CI are unaffected.Before merging: confirm that all four variables —
SECRET,SALT,SECRET_KEY_1, andSECRET_KEY_2— are set in the production environment (e.g. Heroku config vars). If any one is absent, the dyno will refuse to start after this deploy.