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Encryption

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This documentation will guide you on how to:

  1. Encrypt a request payload before sending it to us.
  2. Decrypt and validate a webhook response from us.

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Note

Encryption is optional and specifically designed for requests sent using our payout API. Follow the steps below to ensure secure communication with our system.

Encrypting Your Payout Request

When transferring money with our Payout API, you may choose to encrypt the payload before making the request. You'll need your encryption key (found in the Settings > API section of your dashboard) to manually encrypt the payload.

Here is a Node JS and a PHP example of how to encrypt a payload.

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Note

  1. Payload contains the default parameters needed to process the request. For currency specific parameters that you may need, see the Payout API section.
  2. encryptionKey here refers to the encryption key. Get this from the settings page on the dashboard.
  3. signature holds the value of the encrypted payload that should be added to your headers. We make use of the SHA512 encryption algorithm

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Important

If you encrypt your payout request payload, please ensure:

  1. The amount is always sent in 2 decimal places.
  2. That the payload structure remains exactly the same before encryption and when sent to the API.

import crypto from "crypto";

const payload = {
    "business": "{{businessId}}",
    "sourceCurrency": "NGN",
    "destinationCurrency": "NGN",
    "amount": "20",
    "description": "i want to sha pay money",
    "paymentDestination": "bank_account",
    "beneficiary": {
        "firstName": "Alan",
        "lastName": "Ross",
        "accountHolderName": "Alan Ross",
        "country": "ng",
        "phone": "0803443433",
        "accountNumber": "012344345",
        "type": "individual",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "bankCode":"058",
        "bankName":"Guaranty Trust Bank"
    }
};

const encryptionKey="";//Get this key from the API settings page on your portal
const signature =  crypto
      .createHmac("SHA512", encryptionKey)
      .update(JSON.stringify(payload)) 
      .digest("hex");

//add generated signature to your headers as `signature` when initiating a payout

<?php

$payload = array(
    "business" => "{{businessId}}",
    "sourceCurrency" => "NGN",
    "destinationCurrency" => "NGN",
    "amount" => "20",
    "description" => "Transfer request",
    "paymentDestination" => "bank_account",
    "beneficiary" => array(
        "firstName" => "Alan",
        "lastName" => "Ross",
        "accountHolderName" => "Alan Ross",
        "country" => "ng",
        "phone" => "0803043431",
        "accountNumber" => "012344345",
        "type" => "individual",
        "email" => "[email protected]",
        "bankCode" => "058",
        "bankName" => "Guaranty Trust Bank"
    )
);

$encryptionKey = ""; // Get this key from the API settings page on your portal
$signature = hash_hmac('SHA512', json_encode($payload), $encryptionKey);

Decrypting and Validating a Webhook

When our system sends you a webhook, you’ll need to decrypt it and confirm the authenticity.

Here is a Node JS and a PHP example of how to decrypt a webhook.

<?php

$encryptedData = hash_hmac('SHA512', json_encode($payload), $merchantWebhookSecretKey);
$signatureFromWebhook = $_SERVER['HTTP_SIGNATURE'];

if ($encryptedData === $signatureFromWebhook) {
  echo "Process request";
} else {
  echo "Discard request";
}

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Note

  1. encryptedData: Your generated signature using the webhook secret key.
  2. signatureFromWebhook: Signature received in the webhook headers (HTTP_SIGNATURE).
  3. Validation: Compare encryptedData with signatureFromWebhook. If they match, process the request; otherwise, discard it.

Updated 2 months ago