Skip to main content

Key Management Policy

Key Management Policy

Organization: Bilko — Balkan Accounting SaaS Policy Number: POL-SEC-KM-001 Version: 1.0 Date: 2026-02-23 Author: CTO Status: Final Reviewers: DPO, Engineering Lead Classification: Confidential — Restricted

Document History

Version Date Author Changes
0.1 2026-02-23 CTO Initial key management policy for Bilko

1. Purpose & Scope

This policy defines the lifecycle management for all cryptographic keys and secrets used by Bilko. It covers key generation, storage, rotation, revocation, and destruction.

Scope: All Bilko production and staging environments. All personnel with access to Railway environment variables or Vaultwarden.

2. Key Inventory

Key ID Key Type Purpose Storage Rotation Period Owner
JWT_PRIVATE_KEY RSA 2048-bit private key JWT access token signing (RS256) Railway secret (production) Annual CTO
JWT_PUBLIC_KEY RSA 2048-bit public key JWT access token verification Railway secret (production) Annual (with private) CTO
REFRESH_TOKEN_SECRET 64-byte random hex Refresh token HMAC signing Railway secret Annual CTO
FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY 32-byte random hex (AES-256) Field-level encryption of PIB/JMBG/OIB/JIB/IBAN Railway secret Annual CTO
FIELD_HMAC_KEY 32-byte random hex Deterministic HMAC for searchable hash on encrypted fields Railway secret Annual (with FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY) CTO
DATABASE_URL PostgreSQL connection string with credentials Database access Railway secret On compromise / quarterly review CTO
SEF_API_KEY API key string Serbia SEF e-invoice portal (per org) DB (encrypted) per org Per SEF portal policy Per organization
FINA_CERT X.509 certificate + private key HR-FISK e-invoice signing (FINA PKI) DB (encrypted) per org Per FINA PKI (1-3 years) Per organization
SENTRY_DSN DSN string Error tracking Railway secret / env var On compromise CTO

3. Key Hierarchy

graph TD
    ROOT["Root Secrets\n(CTO personal Vaultwarden vault)"]
    RAILWAY["Railway Environment Secrets\n(production / staging / dev)"]
    ORG_SECRETS["Per-Organization Secrets\n(DB encrypted, L4 Restricted)\nSEF API keys, FINA certs"]
    APP["Application Runtime\n(keys loaded from env at startup)"]

    ROOT -->|"Provision"| RAILWAY
    RAILWAY -->|"Load at boot"| APP
    ROOT -->|"Rotation authority"| ORG_SECRETS
    ORG_SECRETS -->|"Decrypt on request"| APP

Principle: No key material is ever committed to source code. No key is stored in plaintext outside Railway secrets or Vaultwarden.

4. Key Generation Standards

Key Type Generation Method Entropy Requirements
RSA (JWT) openssl genrsa 2048 2048-bit minimum
Symmetric (AES-256) openssl rand -hex 32 256 bits (32 bytes)
HMAC key openssl rand -hex 32 256 bits
Refresh token secret openssl rand -hex 64 512 bits
API keys (external) Generated by external portal (SEF/FINA) Per external system

Commands:

# Generate JWT key pair
openssl genrsa -out jwt_private.pem 2048
openssl rsa -in jwt_private.pem -pubout -out jwt_public.pem

# Generate AES-256 field encryption key
openssl rand -hex 32

# Generate HMAC key
openssl rand -hex 32

All generated keys must be imported to Railway and Vaultwarden within 1 hour. Local files deleted securely after import.

5. Key Storage

Production Keys (Railway)

  • All production keys stored as Railway environment variables
  • Railway EU West region — encrypted at rest by Railway (AES-256)
  • Access: CTO + one designated backup (CEO) only
  • Two-factor authentication mandatory for Railway account
  • Railway account uses ALAI SSO / strong password (≥20 chars, in Vaultwarden)

Staging/Dev Keys

  • Separate Railway project (staging) — different keys from production
  • Dev: .env.local files excluded from git via .gitignore
  • Dev keys may use weaker entropy but must still be valid format

Vaultwarden (Backup & Documentation)

  • URL: https://vault.basicconsulting.no
  • Stores: production key material as secure notes (encrypted)
  • Access: CTO + CEO (break-glass access)
  • Purpose: Recovery if Railway secrets are lost; rotation documentation

Per-Organization Secrets (SEF API Keys, FINA Certificates)

  • Stored in PostgreSQL OrganizationSecret table
  • Value encrypted with FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY before storage
  • Decrypted in-memory only when needed for API call
  • FINA private keys additionally protected with password (stored separately)

6. Key Rotation Procedures

6.1 Annual Rotation (Standard)

Schedule: First Monday of each calendar year.

FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY rotation (most sensitive — requires re-encryption):

1. Generate new FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY (openssl rand -hex 32)
2. Deploy a migration job that:
   a. Reads each encrypted field with old key
   b. Decrypts
   c. Re-encrypts with new key
   d. Writes back to DB
3. Migration must be atomic per record (read old → write new in transaction)
4. Only after 100% migration: update Railway secret to new key
5. Delete old key from Vaultwarden (add to archive note with date)
6. Test: attempt decryption with both old (should fail) and new (should succeed) keys

JWT key pair rotation (zero-downtime):

1. Generate new RSA key pair
2. Add new public key to JWKS endpoint alongside old (support both during rotation window)
3. Begin issuing new tokens signed with new private key
4. Wait for all old tokens to expire (15 minutes max)
5. Remove old public key from JWKS
6. Update JWT_PRIVATE_KEY and JWT_PUBLIC_KEY in Railway
7. Invalidate all refresh tokens (users will re-login)

6.2 Emergency Rotation (On Compromise)

If a key is suspected compromised:

  1. Immediately invalidate: all user sessions (clear RefreshToken table)
  2. Generate new key within 15 minutes
  3. Update Railway secret
  4. Deploy new application instance (Railway auto-deploys on env var change)
  5. Document in Vaultwarden: old key, date of compromise, date of rotation
  6. Assess whether breach notification is required (see data-breach-response-plan.md)

6.3 FINA Certificate (HR-FISK) Rotation

FINA X.509 certificates for HR-FISK e-invoicing have a defined validity period (1-3 years per FINA PKI).

1. FINA certificate expiry alert fires 60 days before expiry
2. Organization admin is notified to renew via FINA portal
3. New certificate uploaded through Bilko settings → HR eRačun → Certificate
4. Old certificate archived (not deleted — needed to verify past submissions)
5. Test: submit a test e-invoice via HR-FISK test environment with new certificate

7. Key Access Control

Key Who Can Access How
JWT_PRIVATE_KEY Application only (Railway env) Never exposed via API; loaded at startup
FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY Application only Never logged; never returned in API response
DATABASE_URL Application + CTO Railway secret; CTO can view in Railway dashboard
SEF API keys Application + org owner Decrypted only for SEF API calls; org owner can rotate via settings
FINA certificates Application + org owner Decrypted only for HR-FISK submissions

Access log: All Railway secret views logged in Railway audit trail. Any access outside normal deployment is reviewed by CTO.

8. Escrow & Recovery

FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY Escrow (Critical)

The FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY is the most critical key — loss means permanent loss of all L4 Restricted field data (tax IDs, IBAN).

Escrow procedure:

  • FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY stored in Vaultwarden secure note accessible to: CTO, CEO
  • Vaultwarden has its own backup (see system infrastructure docs)
  • Key material noted with: creation date, rotation date, description

If FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY is lost and not recoverable: All encrypted field data is permanently unreadable. This is a catastrophic data loss event. Contact legal counsel and affected supervisory authorities.

Railway Account Recovery

  • Railway root account: [email protected] (password in Vaultwarden)
  • 2FA recovery codes: Vaultwarden secure note
  • Designated backup access: CEO has view access to Railway (read-only)

9. Key Destruction

When a key is retired (superseded by rotation):

  1. Remove from Railway environment variables
  2. Remove from active Vaultwarden entries
  3. Archive to Vaultwarden secure note: "Retired Keys" with date and reason
  4. Old FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY versions: retained for 3 months after rotation (in case rollback needed), then permanently deleted from Vaultwarden

Approval

Role Name Signature Date
Author CTO 2026-02-23
Reviewer (DPO)
Reviewer (Engineering Lead)
Approver CEO
Back to top