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Security: boussecsou/shopify-order-n8n-automation

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docs/SECURITY.md

Security

This document covers the security measures implemented on the production stack. It serves as both a reference for operators and a transparency document for auditors.

Network Layer

Firewall (UFW)

Default policy: deny all inbound, allow all outbound. Only three ports are open:

Port Protocol Service
22 TCP SSH
80 TCP HTTP → redirected to HTTPS by Caddy
443 TCP HTTPS

n8n runs internally on port 5678 and is never exposed directly — all traffic goes through Caddy.

TLS / SSL

Managed by Caddy with automatic certificate provisioning via Let's Encrypt / ZeroSSL. Certificates auto-renew before expiry — no manual intervention required.

HTTP security headers enforced on all responses:

Header Value
Strict-Transport-Security max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains
X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN
X-Content-Type-Options nosniff
Referrer-Policy strict-origin-when-cross-origin
Permissions-Policy camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()
Server Removed (-Server directive) — no version disclosure

SSH

Setting Value
Authentication Public key only
Password authentication Disabled (PasswordAuthentication no)
Root login Key only (PermitRootLogin prohibit-password)
Authorized keys 2 keys registered

Brute-force protection (Fail2Ban)

Fail2Ban monitors SSH login attempts and bans offending IPs automatically.

Parameter Value
Jail sshd — active
Max retries Default (5 attempts)
Ban duration Default (10 minutes, escalating)

Docker

Network isolation

All containers communicate over a dedicated bridge network (n8n_network). No container ports are bound to 0.0.0.0 except through Caddy (80/443).

Container Internal port External exposure
n8n-container 5678 Via Caddy only
redis-container 6379 None — internal network only
caddy-proxy 80, 443 Public

Redis authentication

Redis requires password authentication (requirepass via .env). The password is never hardcoded — injected at runtime from the .env file.

Redis is not reachable from outside the Docker network.

n8n resource limits

deploy:
  resources:
    limits:
      memory: 4g
    reservations:
      memory: 256m

Prevents runaway memory consumption from affecting other services.

Log rotation

All containers use json-file logging with rotation:

logging:
  driver: "json-file"
  options:
    max-size: "10m"
    max-file: "3"

Maximum log footprint per container: 30 MB.

Secrets Management

All secrets are stored in a .env file at ~/n8n-automation/.env.

Secret Storage Exposure
N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY .env Never logged, never committed
N8N_LICENSE_ACTIVATION_KEY .env Never logged, never committed
REDIS_PASSWORD .env Never logged, never committed
OAuth2 credentials n8n encrypted database Encrypted at rest via N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY
API keys (OpenRouter, Hostinger) n8n encrypted database Encrypted at rest

.env is listed in .gitignore — it is never committed to the repository. The repository contains only .env.example with empty values.

n8n credential storage is encrypted using AES-256 with the N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY.

File System Access

n8n's file system access is restricted via:

N8N_RESTRICT_FILE_ACCESS_TO=/data/metrics

n8n can only read from /data/metrics — the directory mounted read-only from /home/adlin/metrics on the host. It cannot access any other path on the host file system.

Malware Scanning (Monarx)

Monarx agent runs continuously on the host and scans for malware and suspicious activity. Scan results are collected daily by vps_metrics.sh and evaluated by WF-04:

  • malicious > 0 → immediate alert (Gmail + Telegram)

Automatic Security Updates

unattended-upgrades is configured and active. Security patches are applied automatically without manual intervention. Non-security updates remain manual to avoid uncontrolled regressions.

Backups

Parameter Value
Frequency Daily at 02:00 UTC
Target ~/n8n-automation/n8n_data/
Format tar.gz — n8n_backup_YYYYMMDD.tar.gz
Retention 7 days (older files deleted automatically)
Storage Local only — ~/backups/

Known limitation: Backups are stored on the same disk as the data. A full disk failure would result in data and backup loss simultaneously. Off-site backup (e.g. rclone → Google Drive or S3) is planned for v2.

Pre-update backup

update-n8n.sh creates an additional timestamped backup before every n8n update. If the backup fails, the update is aborted — the production instance is never touched without a safety net.

Credential Rotation

Credential Recommended rotation Notes
N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY On compromise only Changing requires re-entering all credentials in n8n
REDIS_PASSWORD Annually or on compromise Update .env + restart stack
OAuth2 tokens Managed by Google/Shopify Auto-refreshed by n8n
OpenRouter API key On compromise Revoke and reissue from OpenRouter dashboard
Hostinger API key Annually or on compromise Revoke and reissue from Hostinger panel
SSH keys On compromise or team change Remove old key from authorized_keys

Known Limitations & Planned Improvements

Limitation Impact Planned fix
Local backups only Full loss on disk failure Off-site backup via rclone (v2)
SQLite database Performance degradation at scale Migration to PostgreSQL (v2)
Telegram alerts disabled Delayed alert delivery on Gmail failure Enable after confirming chat ID
No intrusion detection beyond Fail2Ban Limited visibility on non-SSH attacks Evaluate auditd or OSSEC (v2)

Reporting a Vulnerability

If you discover a security vulnerability in this project, please report it privately:

Email: me@ali-n8n.com
Subject: [SECURITY] shopify-order-n8n-automation

Do not open a public GitHub issue for security vulnerabilities.

Author: Ali Boussecsou — ali-n8n.com
Project: Shopify Order n8n Automation

There aren't any published security advisories