The security of your Blnk server is very important, especially when dealing with financial applications where data integrity and privacy are critical.

This guide will walk you through the steps to run your Blnk server in secure mode and implement best practices for maintaining a secure environment.

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Before you start

Make sure you that the Blnk server has been successfully deployed and is running on your machine.

Deploy Blnk

Start here to run your Blnk server
1

Enable secure mode

Modify your blnk.json configuration file to enable secure mode. Set server.secure to true and provide a strong server.secret_key

blnk.json
{
  "server": {
    "secure": true,
    "secret_key": "your_strong_secret_key"
  }
}
2

Secure your secret key

The server.secret_key is important for the security of your Blnk server. It is used to encrypt data and authenticate requests to/from the Blnk server.

Follow these guidelines to manage your secret key securely:

  1. Generate a strong key: Use a strong, random value for your secret key. Avoid using easily guessable or common strings.

  2. Keep it confidential: Never share your secret key or commit it to a public repository. Consider using environment variables or secret management tools to manage your key securely.

  3. Regular rotation: Periodically change your secret key to mitigate the risk of it being compromised. Ensure you update all necessary configurations and restart your server accordingly.

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Sending secure HTTP requests to your Blnk server

When making HTTP requests to your Blnk server running in secure mode, it’s required to include the X-Blnk-Key header with your secret key:

bash
curl -H "X-Blnk-Key: your_strong_secret_key" https://yourdomain.com:5001 -I

This header authenticates all your requests, ensuring that only clients with the correct secret key can interact with your server.

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Security precautions

There’s a lot more you can do to improve the security of your Blnk server beyond your configuration settings. Adhere to the following precautions to maintain a more secure environment:

  1. Configuration management: Avoid committing sensitive information, like your blnk.json configuration file with the secret key to version control systems. Use .gitignore or its equivalent to exclude such files.

  2. Access control: Limit access to your Blnk server and its configurations to authorized personnel only. Implement role-based access control and audit logs to monitor access and activities on your server.

  3. Update regularly: Keep your server software, including Docker, Compose, and Blnk, up to date to protect against known vulnerabilities.

  4. Monitor and audit: Regularly monitor your server for unauthorized access attempts and audit logs for suspicious activity. Implement alerting mechanisms for anomalous behaviour.

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Need help?

We are very happy to help you make the most of Blnk, regardless of whether it is your first time or you are switching from another tool.

To ask questions or discuss issues, please join our Discord community.

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