flexport-security-basics

Flexport Security Basics

Overview

Flexport manages global freight logistics containing shipping manifests, customs declarations, commercial invoices, and supply chain partner data. A breach exposes trade routes, commodity values, importer/exporter identities, and customs brokerage details. Secure API credentials, webhook endpoints, and any pipeline that processes shipment tracking or purchase order data.

API Key Management

function createFlexportClient(): { apiKey: string; baseUrl: string } {
  const apiKey = process.env.FLEXPORT_API_KEY;
  if (!apiKey) {
    throw new Error("Missing FLEXPORT_API_KEY — store in secrets manager, never in .env in production");
  }
  // Never log the key; log only a hash suffix for debugging
  console.log("Flexport client initialized (key suffix:", apiKey.slice(-4), ")");
  return { apiKey, baseUrl: "https://api.flexport.com/v2" };
}

Webhook Signature Verification

import crypto from "crypto";
import { Request, Response, NextFunction } from "express";

function verifyFlexportWebhook(req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction): void {
  const signature = req.headers["x-hub-signature"] as string;
  const secret = process.env.FLEXPORT_WEBHOOK_SECRET!;
  const expected = "sha256=" + crypto.createHmac("sha256", secret).update(req.body).digest("hex");
  if (!signature || !crypto.timingSafeEqual(Buffer.from(signature), Buffer.from(expected))) {
    res.status(401).send("Invalid signature");
    return;
  }
  next();
}

Input Validation

import { z } from "zod";

const ShipmentQuerySchema = z.object({
  shipment_id: z.string().regex(/^FLEX-\d+$/),
  container_number: z.string().regex(/^[A-Z]{4}\d{7}$/).optional(),
  origin_port: z.string().length(5).optional(),
  destination_port: z.string().length(5).optional(),
  hs_code: z.string().regex(/^\d{6,10}$/).optional(),
});

function validateShipmentQuery(data: unknown) {
  return ShipmentQuerySchema.parse(data);
}

Data Protection

const FLEXPORT_SENSITIVE_FIELDS = ["customs_value", "commercial_invoice", "importer_tax_id", "broker_credentials", "hs_code"];

function redactFlexportLog(record: Record<string, unknown>): Record<string, unknown> {
  const redacted = { ...record };
  for (const field of FLEXPORT_SENSITIVE_FIELDS) {
    if (field in redacted) redacted[field] = "[REDACTED]";
  }
  return redacted;
}

Security Checklist

• API keys stored in secrets manager, .env files in .gitignore
• Webhook signatures verified on every inbound request
• Different keys for dev/staging/prod environments
• Key rotation scheduled quarterly with dual-key transition
• Git history scanned for leaked keys
• HTTPS enforced for all API calls
• Request/response logging redacts auth headers and customs values
• Least-privilege access: read-only tokens for dashboards, run tokens for operations

Error Handling

Vulnerability	Risk	Mitigation
Leaked API key	Full shipment and customs data exposure	Secrets manager + quarterly rotation
Unverified webhooks	Spoofed shipment status updates	HMAC-SHA256 signature verification
Customs data in logs	Trade compliance violation	Field-level redaction pipeline
Overly broad API scope	Access to unrelated shipment data	Role-scoped tokens per team
Unencrypted commercial invoices	Financial data breach	TLS 1.2+ in transit, AES at rest

Resources

• Flexport Webhooks
• OWASP API Security Top 10

Next Steps

See flexport-prod-checklist.