How to manage third-party keys in React-Native?

Introduction

There’s no doubt that a myriad of toolkits improve lives as devs or software developers, and that’s common.

There are billions of awesome developers all over the world who put in the effort and never stop creating and trying to make development even better with even more apps and resources, whether it’s in DevOps, frontend, server-side tools, or service, you could presumably testify to a magnificent tool or service you use now that makes life easier for you.

In most cases, you’ll be interacting with a backend and using a third-party service in your React-Native app, and you’ll be given private keys to use in the mobile app. React native development solutions utilize third-party API keys to integrate external services and their apps, enhancing user experience and extending app capabilities.

When building an application in React Native, you’ll need to take care to protect your private keys when you transfer them to the store and then to the user’s device, which brings up the question of how to implement a similar setup of the web/backend as.env files in our React-Native apps.

In this blog, we will give a brief introduction to the react native API key and will show you how to create a .env file in your React-Native application.

What Are API Keys?

Third-party keys in React Native refer to External API key setup in React-Native or authentication tokens provided by services or platforms outside your app. Furthermore, they access specific features, services, or data such as maps, analytics, or social media integrations. These keys ensure secure communication between your app and external service.

Upon signing up for an API, you will receive an API key. API keys are secret passwords that prove to providers that your app or you are accessing the API. Because most API keys have zero expiration dates, it’s frightening not to be concerned about the security of your keys when some APIs are free while others charge a fee for access.

Types of Keys In React and Various Strategies

• React Native Secure Authentication With Third-Party Keys
• React-Native Key Lifecycle Management
• Store Api Key
• React-Native Key Versioning And Updates
• React-Native Key Migration Strategies
• Key In React
• React Key Attribute
• Key Prop React
• Props Key
• React Hide Api Key
• Encrypting Communication Using Third-Party Keys In React-Native
• React Map Key
• React Hide Api Key
• Store Api Key
• API key security best practices

Most Frequent Question that May Arise For Third-party keys

• How To Store Api Keys Securely
• How To Keep Api Key Secret
• Where To Store Api Keys
• Api Key Rotation Best Practices
• How To Share Api Keys Securely
• How To Hide Api Keys In React
• React Hide Api Key
• Where To Store Api Keys React
• What Are Debugging Key-Related Issues In React-Native
• What are api key best practices

Create React-Native Project

npx react-native init myTestProject
This command will create a folder containing react-native files.

Now, let’s create our .env file, where we’ll keep all third-party API keys kept.

Now that our project is fully operational, it’s ready to implement react-native-dotenv, an excellent package that enables us to read .env files in our app.

To install it, we need to run the following command

yarn add react-native-dotenv

In the root directory create a babel.config.js file if it does not exist and copy-paste the below snippet.

module.exports = {
          presets: ['module:metro-react-native-babel-preset'],
          plugins: [
            ["module:react-native-dotenv", {
              "moduleName": "@env",
              "path": ".env",
              "blacklist": null,
              "whitelist": null,
              "safe": false,
              "allowUndefined": true
            }]
          ]
          };

Now everything is done then we can try to put the key in the .env file and access it to the project file.

Put this private key to the .env file:

PRIVATE_KEY=’myprivate_keys’

You can import this key to a file like this:

Import React from ‘react’
          Import {Text,View} from ‘react-native’
          Import {PRIVATE_KEY} from ‘@env’
      
          const App=()=>{
              return(
              <View style={{flex:1,justifyContent:’center’,alignItems:’center’}}>
                <Text>{PRIVATE_KEY}</Text>
              </View>
            ) 
          }

That’s how you can use this key more privately and can access it on any page of your application.

Securing third-party keys in React-Native apps

It may also be wise for security and integrity of the application to protect your api keys for your application. As a basic guideline to React-Native key governance, below we discussed the reasons why you should follow it:

1. 1. 1. To prevent unauthorized API requests.

Perhaps this should not be surprising since, in a worst-case scenario, an individual with your API key could make unauthorized requests to your API, particularly if the API contains sensitive data.

1. 1. 2. Financial insecurity.

APIs can be expensive. Your API key can also be misused to go beyond your set budget executions and since anyone you share it with can make another budget request, you stand a high risk of ending up with a huge bill that may potentially put you out of business.

1. 1. 3. Data theft, manipulation, or deletion.

Manipulation or even complete deletion of your data, or stealing your data to use it for negative things is possible whenever you use this API key.

Best practices for handling third-party keys in a React Application

Below, we highlighted a few of the react key best practices for handling API keys:

Environment Variable

Making use of keys in environment variables in react native is one of the ways of storing keys in the environment variable in that you are able to separate it from teh code. In addition, the system erases the visibility of yours to the public in the internet thereby allowing you to hide some important documentations like the API keys, tokens and even passwords. Env is a software that is used to enhance the protection of data from security criminals and among env the most famous one is Dotenv package.

2. Git Ignore

To prevent accidental exposure, exclude environmental files containing keys from version control. Before staging your commits or pushing your code to GitHub, add the .env file to the .gitignore file.

3. Secure storage

For errors associated with the API key, be sure to handle these in a secure manner thereby avoiding the revelation of sensitive information.

4. Error handling

For errors associated with the API key, be sure to handle these in a secure manner thereby avoiding the revelation of sensitive information.

5. Documentation and regular review

Explain how keys are handled for your team/ Explian the procedures of creating and handling keys for your team. Make routine checks for the key management processes to check if the keys are workable and therefore needs to be updated.

Conclusion

The above blog offers expert insights on the role of third-party keys in React-Native projects, instilling confidence in data security. It highlights the React-Native key management tools that shield APIs from unauthorized access, ensuring robust protection against breaches.

FAQ