Smishing Detection – Backend

Welcome to the backend of the Smishing Detection project — a mobile security solution designed to combat SMS phishing (smishing) attacks. This repository powers the server-side logic, including user management, database interactions, middleware, and third-party service integrations.

📂 Project Structure

smishing-backend/
├── .husky/         # Git pre-commit hooks
|
├── docs/           # API documentation
|   └── research/   # Research papers
|   └── technical/  # Architectural diagrams, API documentation etc.
|
├── machine-learning/   # Machine Learning & AI (TO-DO: Move to seperate repo)
|   ├── datasets/       # CSV, parquet files (training data, test sets)
|   ├── notebooks/      # Jupyter notebooks (Model training, evaluation)
|   └── projects/       # Partially complete/completed student projects
|
├── src/
│   ├── configs/        # MongoDB connection, environment config
│   ├── controllers/    # Functions handling request logic for user routes
│   ├── middlewares/    # Auth checks, logging, or other Express middleware
│   ├── models/         # Mongoose schema/models (e.g., user, post, etc.)
│   ├── routes/         # Express route definitions (e.g. /users, /login)
│   ├── services/       # Business logic, 3rd-party integrations (e.g., code for sending emails, external APIs)
│   ├── utils/          # Utility/helper functions (e.g., JWT generation, password hashing, etc.)
│   └── index.js        # Entry point, Express app setup, registering routes/middleware
│
├── tests/          # Unit/integration tests (Jest/Mocha, etc.)
│
├── .env            # Environment variables (DB URI, secrets) - NOT committed
├── .env.example    # Example .env
├── .gitattributes
├── .gitignore
├── .prettierrc     # Prettier config file
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── README.md
└── Dockerfile      # (TO-DO) Docker setup for containerizing backend to host in GCP

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+
• MongoDB or MongoDB Atlas

1. Fork this Repository

2. Clone your Fork

git clone https://github.com/your-username/smishing-backend.git
cd smishing-backend

2. Install Dependencies

npm install

3. Setup Environment Variables

Create a .env file using the provided .env.example template:

cp .env.example .env

Fill in required values:

• MONGO_URI=<your_mongodb_connection_string>
• PORT (optional, default 3000)
• EMAIL_USER=<your_email_address>
• EMAIL_PASS=<your_app_password> (generate here)
• JWT_SECRET= (optional, default mysecret)
• OTP_EXPIRY_MINUTES= (optional, default 10)
• OTP_LENGTH= (optional, default 6)
• OTP_LIMIT= (optional, default 5)
• OTP_LOCKOUT_TIME= (optional, default 10 * 60 * 1000)

4. Running the Server

npm run dev

This launches the backend with nodemon on http://localhost:3000.

📜 Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start in development mode
npm run test	Run tests
npm run format	Run code formatter (Prettier)

🤝 Contribution Guidelines

Please refer to the contributing guide for more details