firecrawl-security-basics

Firecrawl Security Baseline

Overview

Protect both directions of the integration: credentials and requests sent to Firecrawl, and hostile or sensitive content returned from target sites.

Prerequisites

• The target repository or integration path and the requested operator outcome.
• The source authorization, data classification, and environment policy.
• Current Firecrawl documentation, credentials only when needed, and an owner for approvals.

Current Contract

Cloud uses Bearer API keys; enterprise controls can restrict key endpoints/formats and source IPs and can add threat protection and SIEM evidence. Webhooks use X-Firecrawl-Signature with sha256=hex over the raw body. Cache, ZDR, lockdown, headers/actions, profiles, screenshots, and self-hosting have distinct data and threat boundaries.

Authentication

For authenticated Cloud operations, inject FIRECRAWL_API_KEY from an approved secret manager. REST requests use Authorization: Bearer with the key. Never print, commit, transmit, or place a key in a URL. Keyless access is suitable only where the current documentation explicitly allows it and the workload accepts its limits; production workflows should make identity and team ownership explicit.

Instructions

1. Inventory secrets, teams/roles, key owners, environments, source networks, allowed endpoints/formats, domains, custom headers, retained data, webhooks, stores, and downstream actions.
2. Move every key and webhook secret to an approved secret manager; use workload identity, least privilege, rotation, revocation, and separate environments.
3. Canonicalize and authorize targets before requests. Block private/link-local networks, embedded credentials, disallowed redirects/ports, lookalike hosts, and unauthorized authenticated pages.
4. Minimize formats, actions, headers, profiles, proxies, and retention. Apply key/IP/threat controls where available and keep application policy fail closed.
5. Verify every webhook against raw bytes, require the sha256 prefix, decode equal-length hex, compare timing-safely, deduplicate webhookId, and acknowledge only accepted work.
6. Treat scraped content and extracted JSON as untrusted. Sanitize active content, isolate it from privileged prompts/actions, validate schemas, and scan stored artifacts.
7. For self-hosting, add supported authentication, network controls, TLS, durable stores, patching, backups, monitoring, and provider data-flow review before exposure.

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect code, configuration, tests, and evidence. Use Write/Edit only for approved implementation or documentation changes. Do not call Firecrawl, rotate keys, change account settings, scrape a target, or deploy merely because this skill was invoked.

Approval Boundaries

Require security/data approval before authenticated scraping, custom headers, browser profiles/actions, sensitive retention, restriction changes, self-host exposure, or adding external providers.

Output

Return a threat model, identity and secret inventory, target and request controls, webhook verification design, content trust boundary, retention decision, self-host posture, tests, and residual risks.

Error Handling

• A secret appears in logs or artifacts: revoke/rotate as required and invoke incident handling.
• Webhook raw bytes are unavailable or signature malformed: reject the delivery.
• Target resolution or redirect escapes policy: stop before sending headers or credentials.

Examples

• "Verify Firecrawl webhooks" validates the exact signed raw body and sha256 format.
• "Pass customer cookies to any URL" is rejected until target, secret, retention, and session controls are approved.

Resources

Read official Firecrawl evidence before relying on an endpoint, SDK method, plan limit, price, retention option, or self-hosted release.