Clerk Security Basics

Overview

Implement security best practices for Clerk authentication: environment variable protection, middleware hardening, API route defense, webhook verification, and session security.

Prerequisites

• Clerk SDK installed and configured
• Understanding of OWASP authentication best practices
• Production deployment planned or active

Instructions

Step 1: Secure Environment Variables

# .env.local — never commit this file
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=pk_live_...  # Safe to expose (public)
CLERK_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_...                    # NEVER expose client-side
CLERK_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_...                  # Server-only