No. An API key authenticates your calls to the vendor. A webhook signing secret authenticates the vendor's calls to you. They protect opposite directions, they are issued separately, and a leak of one has a different impact from a leak of the other. Store, scope and rotate them separately.
Two directions, two secrets
| API key | Signing secret | |
|---|---|---|
| Direction | Your server calls the vendor | The vendor calls your endpoint |
| Proves | You are allowed to use the account | The request really came from the vendor |
| If leaked | Attacker can act in the account within the key's permissions | Attacker can forge events to your endpoint |
| Typical home | Backend config, secrets vault | The webhook handler only |
One payment provider says this directly: webhook secrets are separate from API keys, and you find them in the Webhooks section of the dashboard under each webhook endpoint. Its documentation also says the signing secret appears on the settings page when you create an endpoint.
What a forged event can do
If an attacker holds your signing secret, they can send an event that looks valid. A forged "payment succeeded" event might release goods. A forged "subscription canceled" might lock customers out. Your handler trusts the signature, so a leaked secret defeats the check.
That is why a handler that also fetches the object from the API, instead of trusting the payload, is safer. It limits the damage of a forged event to the cost of an extra call. Reasoning is in webhook events out of order.
One secret per endpoint, per environment
Each registered endpoint gets its own secret. Test and live endpoints are separate, so they have separate secrets. Keep it that way. Do not paste the live secret into a staging config because verification failed. Fix the cause. Common causes are covered in why signature verification fails.
Handling rules
- Keep the signing secret out of code, tickets and chat.
- Give the handler read access to it, and nothing else.
- Do not reuse it as an API key or a session secret.
- Rotate it on a schedule and after any suspected exposure. Overlap the old and new value so events are not dropped, as in rotating a webhook signing secret without missing events.
- Log verification failures without logging the secret or the full signature.
Do API keys and signing secrets rotate together?
Not automatically. Rotating an API key does not change webhook secrets, and the reverse. Add both to your rotation runbook, and to your incident checklist: if a developer laptop is lost, rotate every secret that was on it, not only the API key.
Where Safeguard fits
Safeguard's asset discovery and compliance evidence automation can help you list integrations and show that secrets are rotated on schedule. A free scan covers your dependencies.
Quick check
If I rotate my API key, is my webhook endpoint safe?
Not necessarily. The signing secret is separate, so rotate it too if it may have been exposed.
Can two endpoints share one secret?
Vendors typically issue one per endpoint. Keep them separate so you can rotate one without affecting the other.
Sources
- API keys, Stripe documentation
- Receive events in your webhook endpoint, Stripe documentation
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
