PSPDFKit Server Security

Information

PSPDFKit Server has been deprecated and replaced by PSPDFKit Document Engine. All PSPDFKit Server and PSPDFKit for Web Server-Backed licenses will work as before and be supported until 15 May 2024 (we will contact you about license migration). To start using Document Engine, refer to the migration guide. With Document Engine, you’ll have access to robust new capabilities (read the blog for more information).

We deliver PSPDFKit for Web as a Docker container deployed on-premises or in the cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and others) by you.

We have no access to a deployed instance, including documents or annotation data. PSPDFKit Server does perform regular license checks. If you have specific requirements that don’t offer internet access, ask our sales team about alternative license verification methods.

Data Access

There are three ways PSPDFKit Server can be accessed:

  1. Your backend uses the server API to get full access to all documents, annotations, and other data stored on the server. This API is protected by a configurable API access token.

  2. Your backend signs JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) asserting that the holder of such a token is allowed to access a given document. It then passes them to your client apps using PSPDFKit for Android, iOS, and Web. Your apps then pass it to PSPDFKit Server to prove they have access to the claimed document.

  3. Your team uses the optional dashboard, which gives access to all documents uploaded to PSPDFKit Server. The optional dashboard is protected with a configurable username and password.

To limit the possible attack surface area, you can disable the optional dashboard completely by setting the username and password configuration options to empty strings, or by not setting them at all.

Network

We strongly recommend following these practices to improve security and privacy from a network perspective:

  1. Enable HTTPS. Since PSPDFKit Server doesn’t support serving traffic over HTTPS, run a load balancer or reverse proxy with HTTPS support in front on Server. If you deploy to the cloud, you can rely on your cloud provider’s HTTPS termination (e.g. AWS Application Load Balancer). When running on-premises, you can set up HTTPS using nginx or Caddy.

  2. Disable dashboard and server API access from the internet. PSPDFKit Server serves its internal API used by PSPDFKit for Web, the server API, the client API, and the dashboard on the same port. However, only the internal API needs to be exposed to the internet so that your application using PSPDFKit for Web can access it. To achieve this, configure your load balancer or reverse proxy so that only HTTP requests that target paths starting with /i are allowed. In addition, if you also use the client API in your application, make sure to allow paths that start with /documents.

  3. Unless your application specifically requires it, disable document creation from a URL by setting ALLOW-REMOTE-DOCUMENTS to false. If your application uses this feature, exercise the principle of least privilege by configuring your network firewall or container service to prevent URL resolution from untrusted sources.

Data Encryption

PSPDFKit Server fully supports encryption in transit and at rest, depending on your underlying platform.

Encryption in transit is achieved by enabling HTTPS. You can read more about it in the previous section.

PSPDFKit Server delegates encryption at rest to the underlying platform: If you implement encryption at rest for your Docker and PostgreSQL hosts, PSPDFKit Server’s data will be encrypted at rest as well.