Security Audit

Security Audit Skill

When auditing code for security, follow this structured process. Treat every finding seriously — a single vulnerability can compromise an entire system.

1. Secrets & Credentials

Scan the entire codebase for exposed secrets:

• Hardcoded API keys, tokens, passwords in source code
• Secrets in config files committed to Git (.env, config.json, settings.py)
• Secrets in logs — sensitive data printed in console.log, logger.info, etc.
• Secrets in error messages — stack traces or error responses leaking internals
• Secrets in comments — old credentials left in TODO or commented-out code
• Secrets in Git history — check if secrets were committed and later removed (still in history)

Check commands:

# Search for common secret patterns
grep -rn "password\|secret\|api_key\|apikey\|token\|private_key\|AWS_SECRET\|DATABASE_URL" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" --include="*.py" --include="*.env" --include="*.json" --include="*.yaml" --include="*.yml" .

# Check for .env files committed
git ls-files | grep -i "\.env"

# Check git history for secrets
git log --all --diff-filter=D -- "*.env" "*.pem" "*.key"

Verify:

• Is a .gitignore in place with .env, *.pem, *.key, *.p12?
• Are secrets loaded from environment variables or a vault (not files)?
• Is there a .env.example with placeholder values (not real secrets)?

2. Injection Attacks

SQL Injection

// 🔴 VULNERABLE — string concatenation in query
const user = await db.query(`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = '${req.params.id}'`);

// ✅ SAFE — parameterized query
const user = await db.query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $1', [req.params.id]);

NoSQL Injection

// 🔴 VULNERABLE — user input directly in query object
const user = await User.find({ username: req.body.username });

// ✅ SAFE — explicitly cast to string
const user = await User.find({ username: String(req.body.username) });

Command Injection

// 🔴 VULNERABLE — user input in shell command
exec(`convert ${req.body.filename} output.png`);

// ✅ SAFE — use execFile with arguments array
execFile('convert', [sanitizedFilename, 'output.png']);

XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

// 🔴 VULNERABLE — unsanitized HTML rendering
element.innerHTML = userInput;
// React: dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: userInput }}

// ✅ SAFE — use textContent or sanitize
element.textContent = userInput;
// React: use DOMPurify.sanitize() before dangerouslySetInnerHTML

Path Traversal

// 🔴 VULNERABLE — user controls file path
const file = fs.readFileSync(`./uploads/${req.params.filename}`);

// ✅ SAFE — resolve and validate path stays within allowed directory
const safePath = path.resolve('./uploads', req.params.filename);
if (!safePath.startsWith(path.resolve('./uploads'))) throw new Error('Invalid path');

Template Injection

• Check for user input passed directly into template engines (Jinja2, EJS, Handlebars)
• Verify auto-escaping is enabled

3. Authentication & Authorization

Authentication Flaws

• Weak password requirements — no minimum length, complexity, or breach checking
• Missing rate limiting on login endpoints (brute force risk)
• Missing account lockout after failed attempts
• Insecure password storage — plaintext, MD5, SHA1 (use bcrypt/argon2 with proper cost)
• Missing MFA on sensitive operations
• Session tokens in URLs — tokens should be in headers or httpOnly cookies
• No session expiration — tokens that never expire

Authorization Flaws

• Missing authorization checks — endpoints accessible without verifying user permissions
• IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference) — accessing other users' data by changing an ID
• Privilege escalation — regular user can access admin endpoints
• Missing resource ownership checks — user A can modify user B's data

// 🔴 VULNERABLE — IDOR: no ownership check
app.get('/api/orders/:id', async (req, res) => {
  const order = await Order.findById(req.params.id);
  res.json(order);
});

// ✅ SAFE — verify ownership
app.get('/api/orders/:id', async (req, res) => {
  const order = await Order.findById(req.params.id);
  if (order.userId !== req.user.id) return res.status(403).json({ error: 'Forbidden' });
  res.json(order);
});

4. Data Exposure

• Sensitive data in API responses — returning passwords, tokens, SSNs, full credit card numbers
• Verbose error messages in production — stack traces, database details, internal paths
• Missing field filtering — returning entire database objects instead of specific fields
• Sensitive data in client-side storage — tokens in localStorage (use httpOnly cookies)
• PII in logs — names, emails, IPs logged without redaction
• Missing data encryption — sensitive data stored unencrypted at rest
• CORS misconfiguration — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on authenticated endpoints

// 🔴 VULNERABLE — leaking sensitive fields
res.json(user);

// ✅ SAFE — explicit field selection
res.json({
  id: user.id,
  name: user.name,
  email: user.email,
});

5. Input Validation

• Missing validation — no checks on request body, params, query strings
• Type confusion — expecting a number but accepting a string
• Missing length limits — unbounded input that could cause DoS
• Missing file upload validation — no checks on file type, size, or content
• Regex DoS (ReDoS) — catastrophic backtracking on malicious input
• Missing content-type validation — accepting unexpected content types

Verify:

• Is there a validation library in use (Zod, Joi, class-validator, Pydantic)?
• Are all API endpoints validating input before processing?
• Are file uploads restricted by type, size, and scanned for malware?

6. Dependencies

Run these checks:

# Node.js
npm audit
# or
npx better-npm-audit audit

# Python
pip audit
# or
safety check

# Check for outdated packages
npm outdated
pip list --outdated

Look for:

• Known CVEs in dependencies
• Outdated packages with known vulnerabilities
• Abandoned packages — no updates in 2+ years
• Typosquatting risk — verify package names are correct
• Excessive permissions — packages requesting more access than needed
• Lockfile present — package-lock.json or yarn.lock committed

7. HTTP Security Headers

Check if these headers are set:

• Content-Security-Policy — prevents XSS and data injection
• Strict-Transport-Security — enforces HTTPS
• X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff — prevents MIME type sniffing
• X-Frame-Options: DENY — prevents clickjacking
• Referrer-Policy — controls referrer information
• Permissions-Policy — restricts browser features

# Check response headers
curl -I https://your-app.com

8. Cryptography

• Weak hashing — MD5 or SHA1 for passwords (use bcrypt, scrypt, or argon2)
• Weak encryption — DES, RC4, ECB mode (use AES-256-GCM)
• Hardcoded encryption keys — keys should be in environment variables or a vault
• Missing TLS — HTTP connections for sensitive data
• Weak JWT — using alg: none or HS256 with a short secret
• Predictable random values — using Math.random() for tokens (use crypto.randomBytes)

// 🔴 VULNERABLE — predictable token
const token = Math.random().toString(36);

// ✅ SAFE — cryptographically secure
const token = crypto.randomBytes(32).toString('hex');

9. Infrastructure & Configuration

• Debug mode in production — verbose errors, stack traces, debug endpoints
• Default credentials — admin/admin, root/root still active
• Unnecessary ports open — database ports exposed to the internet
• Missing rate limiting — no protection against DoS
• Missing request size limits — large payloads causing OOM
• Insecure CORS — wildcard origins on authenticated endpoints
• Missing CSRF protection — state-changing endpoints without CSRF tokens

10. Stack-Specific Checks

Node.js / Express

• Verify helmet middleware is installed and configured
• Check express.json() has a size limit: express.json({ limit: '10kb' })
• Verify cookie settings: httpOnly, secure, sameSite
• Check for prototype pollution in object merging (lodash.merge, Object.assign with user input)
• Verify child_process calls sanitize all inputs
• Check that express-rate-limit is applied to auth endpoints
• Look for event emitter memory leaks (missing removeListener)
• Verify no use of eval(), Function(), or vm.runInNewContext() with user input

Python / Django

• Verify DEBUG = False in production settings
• Check ALLOWED_HOSTS is not ['*']
• Verify CSRF middleware is enabled
• Check for raw SQL queries without parameterization
• Verify SECRET_KEY is loaded from environment, not hardcoded
• Check for pickle deserialization of user input (RCE risk)
• Verify django-cors-headers is configured with specific origins
• Check that @login_required or permission classes are on all protected views
• Look for unsafe YAML loading (yaml.load() without Loader=SafeLoader)
• Verify SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT, SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE, CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE are True in production

Python / Flask

• Verify app.secret_key is not hardcoded
• Check for missing @login_required decorators on protected routes
• Verify Jinja2 auto-escaping is enabled (default in Flask, but check custom templates)
• Check that flask-talisman or similar is used for security headers
• Verify flask-limiter is applied to auth and sensitive endpoints
• Check for unsafe file uploads (missing secure_filename() from werkzeug)

React / Next.js

• Check for dangerouslySetInnerHTML with unsanitized input
• Verify no tokens stored in localStorage (use httpOnly cookies)
• Check for sensitive data in client-side code or bundle
• Verify environment variables use NEXT_PUBLIC_ prefix only for non-sensitive values
• Check for open redirects in URL parameters
• Verify API routes have proper authentication middleware
• Check that Server Actions validate input and check authorization
• Look for sensitive data in getServerSideProps that leaks to pageProps
• Verify next.config.js has proper security headers configured
• Check for exposed source maps in production

Vue / Nuxt

• Check for v-html with unsanitized user input
• Verify no tokens stored in localStorage
• Check nuxt.config for exposed runtime config secrets
• Verify server middleware has authentication checks
• Check for sensitive data leaking from server to client via useAsyncData or useFetch

Ruby on Rails

• Verify config.force_ssl = true in production
• Check for html_safe or raw on user-supplied content
• Verify protect_from_forgery is enabled
• Check for mass assignment vulnerabilities (missing strong_parameters)
• Verify has_secure_password uses bcrypt
• Check for unsafe send() or constantize() with user input
• Verify config.filter_parameters includes sensitive fields

Go

• Check for SQL injection in fmt.Sprintf used in queries (use parameterized queries)
• Verify TLS configuration uses minimum TLS 1.2
• Check for path traversal in http.ServeFile or os.Open
• Verify proper error handling (no sensitive data in error responses)
• Check for race conditions on shared state (missing mutex)
• Verify crypto/rand is used instead of math/rand for security-sensitive values
• Check for unchecked type assertions that could cause panics

Java / Spring Boot

• Verify Spring Security is configured and not using permitAll() on sensitive endpoints
• Check for SQL injection in @Query annotations with string concatenation
• Verify CSRF protection is enabled (default in Spring Security)
• Check for deserialization vulnerabilities (Jackson, Java serialization)
• Verify @Valid annotation is present on request body parameters
• Check for hardcoded credentials in application.properties or application.yml
• Verify actuator endpoints are secured and not exposed publicly
• Check for Log4j/Log4Shell vulnerability in dependencies

PHP / Laravel

• Verify APP_DEBUG=false in production .env
• Check for raw SQL queries without parameter binding
• Verify CSRF middleware is applied to all POST/PUT/DELETE routes
• Check for eval(), exec(), system() with user input
• Verify file uploads use validation rules (mimes, max size)
• Check that Auth::check() or middleware guards protect sensitive routes
• Verify mass assignment protection via $fillable or $guarded
• Check for unsafe blade rendering with {!! !!} on user input

Mobile (React Native / Flutter)

• Check for sensitive data stored in AsyncStorage/SharedPreferences (use encrypted storage)
• Verify API keys are not embedded in the app bundle
• Check for certificate pinning on sensitive API calls
• Verify deep link handlers validate input before navigation
• Check for sensitive data in app logs (visible via adb logcat / Console.app)
• Verify biometric authentication properly validates server-side
• Check for insecure WebView configurations (JavaScript enabled with untrusted content)

Payment Security

• Verify PCI DSS compliance requirements are met
• Check that full credit card numbers are never stored or logged
• Verify payment processing uses tokenization
• Check that webhook endpoints validate signatures
• Verify refund endpoints have proper authorization and rate limiting
• Check that payment amounts are validated server-side (not trusted from client)
• Verify payment confirmation pages don't expose transaction details in URLs
• Check for race conditions in payment processing (double-charge risk)

AWS / Cloud Infrastructure

• Check for overly permissive IAM policies ("Action": "*", "Resource": "*")
• Verify S3 buckets are not publicly accessible
• Check for unencrypted RDS instances or EBS volumes
• Verify security groups don't allow 0.0.0.0/0 on sensitive ports
• Check for hardcoded AWS credentials (use IAM roles instead)
• Verify CloudTrail logging is enabled
• Check for publicly accessible EC2 instances with sensitive services
• Verify secrets are stored in AWS Secrets Manager or Parameter Store

Docker / Containers

• Check for containers running as root
• Verify base images are from trusted sources and pinned to specific versions
• Check for secrets baked into Docker images (use build secrets or runtime env)
• Verify .dockerignore excludes .env, .git, node_modules
• Check for unnecessary packages installed in production images
• Verify health checks are configured
• Check for exposed ports that shouldn't be public

Output Format

For each vulnerability found:

[SEVERITY] Category — File:Line

• Vulnerability: What the issue is
• Risk: What an attacker could do with this
• Proof: How to exploit it (for internal team understanding)
• Fix: Exact code change to resolve it
• Reference: CWE or OWASP link if applicable

// vulnerable code
...

// fixed code
...

Severity levels:

• 🔴 CRITICAL — Actively exploitable. Data breach, RCE, or full system compromise. Fix immediately.
• 🟠 HIGH — Exploitable with some effort. Significant data exposure or privilege escalation. Fix before next deploy.
• 🟡 MEDIUM — Requires specific conditions to exploit. Fix within current sprint.
• 🟢 LOW — Minor issue or defense-in-depth improvement. Fix when convenient.

Summary

End every audit with:

1. Risk rating — Overall security posture (Critical / High / Medium / Low risk)
2. Critical findings count — Number of issues that need immediate attention
3. Top 3 most dangerous issues — Ranked by exploitability and impact
4. Quick wins — Fixes that take <30 minutes and significantly reduce risk
5. Recommendations — Longer-term improvements (WAF, security headers, dependency scanning in CI, etc.)
6. What's done well — Security practices already in place that should be maintained