What must be included to securely complete a payment?

To securely complete a payment, the inclusion of a client secret is essential. The client secret is a unique key associated with the API credentials of an application, and it is used to authenticate requests between the client and Stripe’s servers. This added security layer ensures that sensitive operations, such as completing a payment, are initiated by a verified source.

In a typical payment flow, the client secret confirms that the request to complete a payment comes from a legitimate origin. Without it, there would be a significant risk of transactions being processed by unauthorized parties, potentially leading to fraud or data breaches.

While a payment token is also important for initiating a payment, it does not provide the same level of authentication and authorization as the client secret does when completing the transaction. An order ID can be useful for tracking and referencing a specific transaction but does not play a direct role in the security of the payment process. Similarly, the transaction type may help categorize the payment but does not contribute to safeguarding the integrity of the transaction. Thus, the client secret is the key element needed to ensure that a payment is completed securely.