Security

Helm runs on your computer only. This guide tells how Helm protects the server, your credentials and your workspace.

The local server

• Helm listens only on 127.0.0.1. Other computers cannot connect to it.
• Each request to the Helm API must have the private token. Helm makes a new random token at each start, unless you set HELM_TOKEN.
• Helm accepts a request only if its Host header is 127.0.0.1:<port> or localhost:<port>. If the request has an Origin header, the origin must also be one of these two.
• Helm sends a strict Content Security Policy. The page can load scripts, styles, data and frames only from Helm itself.

Keep the Helm URL private. The token in it gives full access to Helm while that token is valid.

Credentials

Helm keeps passwords, API tokens and OAuth tokens outside your workspaces and projects.

• On Linux, Helm uses the system keychain through secret-tool.
• On macOS and Windows, or if you set HELM_KEYCHAIN=off, Helm uses the file ~/.helm/credentials.json. Only your user account can read it (mode 0600).

Helm never sends credentials to the browser, to a plugin or to a workspace.

Files in ~/.helm

Helm creates this folder so that only your user account can open it (mode 0700).

Plugins

Plugins run in a sandboxed frame. A plugin cannot send network requests or read your files directly. It can use only the connections that its manifest declares, and only after you approve them. Each write needs your confirmation in a Helm dialog. See Plugins.

Data from connections is not trusted. Helm and plugins show it as text. They do not follow instructions in it.

Terminals

A workspace terminal starts in the workspace folder. Helm refuses a start folder outside the workspace. The terminal itself is not sandboxed: commands in it run with your user permissions.