Initial commit - Project start (July 17, 2025)

Original: feat: enhance security logging and ensure rate limit blocks are properly tracked

- Add comprehensive logging for rate limit blocks with full request details
  - IP address (with proper proxy detection), user agent, headers, timestamps
  - Rate limit info (current count, limit, remaining, reset time)
  - Separate tracking for auth vs general endpoints

- Enhance authentication failure logging
  - JWT validation failures with detailed error info
  - Admin auth attempts without token
  - Failed token validation with user context
  - All events include IP, path, method, user agent

- Improve Winston logger configuration for production
  - Add automatic log rotation (10MB errors, 50MB combined)
  - Create separate security.log for auth/rate limit events
  - Ensure logs directory exists automatically
  - Add structured JSON format for log aggregation
  - Support container logging with LOG_TO_CONSOLE env var

- Create comprehensive documentation
  - Security logging guide with examples
  - Monitoring recommendations
  - Configuration reference

- Add test script to verify logging functionality

All rate limit settings remain configurable via admin panel:
- Window duration, max requests, auth limits
- Skip authenticated requests option
- Public endpoints only option

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.ai/code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

backend/src/config/validateEnv.js

@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+const logger = require('../utils/logger');
+
+/**
+ * Validates required environment variables are set
+ * Exits the process if critical variables are missing
+ */
+function validateEnvironment() {
+  const requiredVars = [
+    {
+      name: 'JWT_SECRET',
+      description: 'Secret key for JWT token signing',
+      critical: true
+    }
+  ];
+
+  const warnings = [];
+  const errors = [];
+
+  // Check each required variable
+  requiredVars.forEach(({ name, description, critical }) => {
+    const value = process.env[name];
+    
+    if (!value || value.trim() === '') {
+      const message = `Missing required environment variable: ${name} - ${description}`;
+      
+      if (critical) {
+        errors.push(message);
+      } else {
+        warnings.push(message);
+      }
+    }
+    
+    // Additional validation for JWT_SECRET
+    if (name === 'JWT_SECRET' && value) {
+      // Check for the insecure default value
+      if (value === 'your-secret-key') {
+        errors.push('CRITICAL: JWT_SECRET is set to the insecure default value. Please set a secure secret key.');
+      }
+      
+      // Check minimum length (should be at least 32 characters for security)
+      if (value.length < 32) {
+        warnings.push(`JWT_SECRET should be at least 32 characters long for better security (current: ${value.length} characters)`);
+      }
+    }
+  });
+
+  // Log warnings
+  warnings.forEach(warning => logger.warn(warning));
+
+  // If there are critical errors, log them and exit
+  if (errors.length > 0) {
+    logger.error('=== CRITICAL CONFIGURATION ERRORS ===');
+    errors.forEach(error => logger.error(error));
+    logger.error('=====================================');
+    logger.error('Server cannot start due to missing or invalid configuration.');
+    logger.error('Please set the required environment variables and try again.');
+    
+    // Exit with error code
+    process.exit(1);
+  }
+
+  // Log successful validation
+  logger.info('Environment validation passed');
+}
+
+module.exports = { validateEnvironment };