Understanding HMAC signatures and how they work
HMAC, short for Hash-based Message Authentication Code, is a method used to check that a message is both authentic and unmodified. It's a common tool in webhooks, APIs, and any place where secure communication between systems matters. The idea behind HMAC is to use a shared secret key along with a hashing algorithm to create a unique signature for a message. This signature acts like a stamp of trust, if anything changes in the message or if the wrong key is used, the signature won't match.