Adobe Security Basics

Overview

Security best practices for Adobe OAuth Server-to-Server credentials, I/O Events webhook signature verification, and least-privilege access control across Adobe APIs.

Prerequisites

• Adobe Developer Console access
• Understanding of OAuth 2.0 client_credentials flow
• Access to secret management solution (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, GCP Secret Manager)

Instructions

Step 1: Secure Credential Storage

# .env (NEVER commit to git)
ADOBE_CLIENT_ID=abc123def456
ADOBE_CLIENT_SECRET=p8_XYZ_your_secret_here
ADOBE_SCOPES=openid,AdobeID,firefly_api

# .gitignore — MUST include these
.env
.env.local
.env.*.local
*.pem
*.key

# Production: use your cloud provider's secret manager
# AWS Secrets Manager
aws secretsmanager create-secret \
  --name adobe/production/credentials \
  --secret-string '{"client_id":"...","client_secret":"..."}'

# GCP Secret Manager
echo -n "your-client-secret" | gcloud secrets create adobe-client-secret --data-file=-

# HashiCorp Vault
vault kv put secret/adobe/prod client_id="..." client_secret="..."

Step 2: Credential Rotation

Adobe OAuth Server-to-Server credentials support multiple client secrets simultaneously, enabling zero-downtime rotation:

# 1. In Adobe Developer Console, generate a NEW client_secret
#    (old secret remains valid)

# 2. Update your secret manager with the new secret
aws secretsmanager update-secret \
  --secret-id adobe/production/credentials \
  --secret-string '{"client_id":"...","client_secret":"NEW_SECRET"}'

# 3. Deploy application with new secret

# 4. Verify new secret works
curl -X POST 'https://ims-na1.adobelogin.com/ims/token/v3' \
  -d "client_id=${ADOBE_CLIENT_ID}&client_secret=${NEW_SECRET}&grant_type=client_credentials&scope=${ADOBE_SCOPES}"

# 5. Delete old client_secret in Developer Console

Step 3: Least-Privilege Scope Selection

Scope	Grants	Use When
openid	Basic identity	Always required
AdobeID	Adobe identity info	Always required
firefly_api	Firefly image generation	Firefly workflows only
ff_apis	Firefly Services (Photoshop, Lightroom)	Creative API workflows
read_organizations	Org info access	Multi-tenant apps

// Per-environment scope restriction
const SCOPES_BY_ENV: Record<string, string> = {
  development: 'openid,AdobeID',                     // Minimal for testing
  staging: 'openid,AdobeID,firefly_api',              // Only APIs being tested
  production: 'openid,AdobeID,firefly_api,ff_apis',   // Full production access
};

Step 4: I/O Events Webhook Signature Verification

Adobe I/O Events uses RSA-SHA256 digital signatures, not HMAC. The public keys are served from static.adobeioevents.com:

// src/adobe/webhook-verify.ts
import crypto from 'crypto';

interface AdobeWebhookHeaders {
  'x-adobe-digital-signature-1': string;
  'x-adobe-digital-signature-2': string;
  'x-adobe-public-key1-path': string;
  'x-adobe-public-key2-path': string;
}

// Cache public keys (they rotate infrequently)
const publicKeyCache = new Map<string, string>();

async function getPublicKey(keyPath: string): Promise<string> {
  if (publicKeyCache.has(keyPath)) return publicKeyCache.get(keyPath)!;

  const response = await fetch(`https://static.adobeioevents.com${keyPath}`);
  const publicKey = await response.text();
  publicKeyCache.set(keyPath, publicKey);
  return publicKey;
}

export async function verifyAdobeWebhookSignature(
  rawBody: Buffer,
  headers: Record<string, string>
): Promise<boolean> {
  // Try both signatures (Adobe sends two for key rotation)
  for (const i of [1, 2]) {
    const signature = headers[`x-adobe-digital-signature-${i}`];
    const keyPath = headers[`x-adobe-public-key${i}-path`];

    if (!signature || !keyPath) continue;

    try {
      const publicKey = await getPublicKey(keyPath);
      const verifier = crypto.createVerify('RSA-SHA256');
      verifier.update(rawBody);
      if (verifier.verify(publicKey, signature, 'base64')) {
        return true;
      }
    } catch (err) {
      console.warn(`Signature ${i} verification failed:`, err);
    }
  }

  return false;
}

// Express middleware
import express from 'express';

app.post('/webhooks/adobe',
  express.raw({ type: 'application/json' }),
  async (req, res) => {
    // Handle challenge verification (registration handshake)
    if (req.query.challenge) {
      return res.json({ challenge: req.query.challenge });
    }

    // Verify digital signature
    if (!await verifyAdobeWebhookSignature(req.body, req.headers as any)) {
      return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Invalid signature' });
    }

    const event = JSON.parse(req.body.toString());
    await processEvent(event);
    res.status(200).json({ received: true });
  }
);

Step 5: Git Secret Scanning

# .github/workflows/secret-scan.yml
name: Adobe Secret Scan
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  scan:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Scan for Adobe credentials
        run: |
          # Client secrets start with p8_ (OAuth Server-to-Server)
          if grep -rE "p8_[A-Za-z0-9_-]{20,}" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" --include="*.py" .; then
            echo "ERROR: Potential Adobe client secret found in source code"
            exit 1
          fi
          echo "No Adobe secrets detected"

Security Checklist

• OAuth credentials in secret manager, not source code
• .env files in .gitignore
• Different credentials per environment (dev/staging/prod)
• Minimal scopes per environment
• Webhook signatures verified with RSA-SHA256
• Secret rotation procedure documented and tested
• Git secret scanning enabled in CI
• Access tokens cached (not re-generated per request)

Error Handling

Security Issue	Detection	Mitigation
Exposed client_secret	Git scanning alert	Rotate in Developer Console immediately
Wrong scopes	invalid_scope error	Review product profile assignments
Unverified webhooks	Missing signature check	Implement RSA-SHA256 verification
Stale credentials	Auth failures in monitoring	Schedule periodic rotation

Resources

• Adobe I/O Events Signature Verification
• OAuth Server-to-Server Guide
• Adobe Admin Console Roles

Next Steps

For production deployment, see adobe-prod-checklist.