All terms

HMAC signature

An HMAC signature is a keyed hash sent with a webhook, proving to the receiver that the request is genuine and unaltered.

In detail

Here the header is formatted t=<unix-seconds>,v1=<hex>, where the v1 value is the HMAC-SHA256 of the timestamp, a dot, and the raw request body, keyed with the endpoint secret. Sign the raw bytes before any JSON parsing — a re-serialised body will not match — and compare in constant time. Reject timestamps older than five minutes so a captured delivery cannot be replayed at you later.

Also known as

  • signed webhook
  • request signature

Related terms