Intercom Security Basics

Overview

Security best practices for Intercom access tokens, webhook signature verification, Identity Verification (HMAC), and least-privilege OAuth scopes.

Prerequisites

• Intercom access token or OAuth credentials
• Understanding of HMAC cryptographic signatures
• Access to Intercom Developer Hub

Instructions

Step 1: Secure Token Storage

# .env (NEVER commit to git)
INTERCOM_ACCESS_TOKEN=dG9rOmFiY2RlZmdoaQ==
INTERCOM_WEBHOOK_SECRET=your-webhook-signing-secret
INTERCOM_IDENTITY_SECRET=your-identity-verification-secret

# .gitignore (mandatory entries)
.env
.env.local
.env.*.local

Verify no tokens are committed:

# Scan git history for leaked tokens
git log --all -p | grep -i "INTERCOM_ACCESS_TOKEN\|dG9r" | head -5
# If found: rotate token immediately, then use git-filter-repo to remove

Step 2: Webhook Signature Verification (X-Hub-Signature)

Intercom signs webhook notifications with HMAC-SHA1 using

X-Hub-Signature

import crypto from "crypto";
import express from "express";

function verifyIntercomWebhook(
  payload: Buffer,
  signature: string,
  secret: string
): boolean {
  // Intercom uses X-Hub-Signature with HMAC-SHA1
  const expectedSignature = "sha1=" + crypto
    .createHmac("sha1", secret)
    .update(payload)
    .digest("hex");

  // Timing-safe comparison to prevent timing attacks
  return crypto.timingSafeEqual(
    Buffer.from(signature),
    Buffer.from(expectedSignature)
  );
}

const app = express();

app.post(
  "/webhooks/intercom",
  express.raw({ type: "application/json" }),
  (req, res) => {
    const signature = req.headers["x-hub-signature"] as string;

    if (!signature) {
      return res.status(401).json({ error: "Missing signature" });
    }

    if (!verifyIntercomWebhook(req.body, signature, process.env.INTERCOM_WEBHOOK_SECRET!)) {
      return res.status(401).json({ error: "Invalid signature" });
    }

    const event = JSON.parse(req.body.toString());
    // Process verified webhook...
    res.status(200).json({ received: true });
  }
);

Step 3: Identity Verification (User Hash)

Intercom Identity Verification prevents impersonation by requiring an HMAC of the user's identifier.

import crypto from "crypto";

// Server-side: generate user hash
function generateIntercomUserHash(userId: string): string {
  return crypto
    .createHmac("sha256", process.env.INTERCOM_IDENTITY_SECRET!)
    .update(userId)
    .digest("hex");
}

// Pass to frontend for Messenger initialization
app.get("/api/intercom-settings", (req, res) => {
  const userId = req.user.id;
  res.json({
    app_id: process.env.INTERCOM_APP_ID,
    user_id: userId,
    user_hash: generateIntercomUserHash(userId),
  });
});

Step 4: Least-Privilege OAuth Scopes

Only request scopes your app actually needs:

Read contacts

Read conversations

Write conversations

Write messages

Read articles

Write articles

Read/write contacts

Read/write conversations

Read/write tags

Step 5: Token Rotation Procedure

# 1. Generate new token in Developer Hub
#    Settings > Developer Hub > Your App > Authentication

# 2. Update in secret manager (examples)
# AWS
aws secretsmanager update-secret \
  --secret-id intercom/access-token \
  --secret-string "new_token_here"

# GCP
echo -n "new_token_here" | gcloud secrets versions add intercom-token --data-file=-

# Vault
vault kv put secret/intercom access_token="new_token_here"

# 3. Verify new token
curl -s https://api.intercom.io/me \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NEW_TOKEN" | jq '.type'
# Should return "admin"

# 4. Deploy updated config
# 5. Revoke old token in Developer Hub

Security Checklist

• Access tokens stored in environment variables or secret manager

• .env

  files in

  .gitignore

• Different tokens for dev/staging/production workspaces
• Webhook signatures verified on every request (X-Hub-Signature)
• Identity Verification enabled (user_hash)
• OAuth scopes are minimal (least privilege)
• Token rotation procedure documented and tested
• Git history scanned for leaked credentials
• HTTPS enforced for all webhook endpoints

Error Handling

git log -p | grep dG9r

Resources

• Authentication
• OAuth Scopes
• Webhook Notifications
• Identity Verification

Next Steps

For production deployment, see

intercom-prod-checklist