Mohit Aggarwal Security Review Skill
A security review is a focused pass for the ways a change could be abused — before it reaches production. This skill reviews a design, PR, or feature against the recurring risk areas, ranks findings by severity, and gives a clear verdict with concrete fixes. It's for code/systems you own or are authorized to review, and it complements (not replaces) automated scanners and a formal pentest.
Required Inputs
Ask for these only if they aren't already provided:
- What's under review — the design/diff/feature, and what it does.
- Context — the stack, where it runs, what data/permissions it touches, who can reach it (internet-facing? authenticated?).
- Sensitivity — the assets involved (PII, credentials, money, admin capability) and the threat context.
Output Format
Security review: [change/feature]
Summary & verdict — one-line read and a call: ✅ ship / 🔁 fix-first / ⛔ block, with the gating issue(s).
Review by risk area — scan each and note findings:
- AuthN / AuthZ — is identity verified, and is every action authorized (incl. object-level / IDOR, privilege escalation)?
- Input handling — validation/encoding; injection (SQL/command/template), SSRF, path traversal, deserialization, XSS.
- Secrets & crypto — hard-coded secrets, key handling, weak/absent crypto, tokens in logs/URLs.
- Data exposure — over-broad responses, PII in logs/errors, missing encryption in transit/at rest, verbose errors.
- Dependencies & config — known-vuln libraries, insecure defaults, missing security headers, CORS, permissions.
- Abuse & availability — rate-limiting, resource exhaustion, business-logic abuse, missing audit logging.
Findings (ranked) — each with severity, where, why it's exploitable, and the fix:
| Severity | Area | Finding (how it's exploited) | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🔴 Critical/High | |||
| 🟡 Medium | |||
| 🔵 Low / hardening |
What's done well — controls already in place (so they're kept).
Follow-ups — anything needing a scanner, a pentest, or a deeper look.
Quality Checks
- Every standard risk area is considered (authz incl. IDOR, input/injection, secrets, data exposure, deps, abuse)
- Findings are ranked by severity with a concrete, actionable fix each
- Exploitability is explained — why it's a real issue in this context, not a generic warning
- A clear ship / fix-first / block verdict names the gating issues
- Existing good controls are acknowledged; deeper follow-ups (scanner/pentest) are flagged
Anti-Patterns
- Do not produce a generic checklist — tie each finding to this code/design and its exploit path
- Do not rank everything the same — separate critical from hardening nits
- Do not report an issue without a fix — give the concrete remediation
- Do not miss authorization (IDOR/privilege) — it's the most common real-world web flaw
- Do not review code you don't own or aren't authorized to assess
Based On
Secure code/design review practice (OWASP Top 10 & ASVS risk areas, severity-ranked findings, actionable remediation).