Security

Security

Security is a default posture, not a feature you add later. Two rules underpin everything:

1. Never trust input — validate on the server, at the boundary, every time.
2. Fail closed — on any doubt (auth, config, verification), deny.

Lean on your framework's built-in protections first; only hand-roll when you understand the gap.

Input validation

• Validate on the server — client validation is UX, not security.
• Allowlist, not denylist: accept known-good shapes (type, length, range, format, enum) and reject the rest. Use a schema validator (Zod, etc.).
• Validate and normalize (canonicalize) before checks to defeat encoding tricks.
• Bound everything: clamp numbers, cap string/array lengths, restrict file types/sizes.

Output encoding — stop XSS

• Encode on output, contextually: HTML body, HTML attribute, JS, URL, and CSS each need different encoding.
• In React/Vue/Angular, default text binding auto-escapes — the danger is the escape hatches: dangerouslySetInnerHTML, v-html, [innerHTML], eval, Function, injecting into <script>/<style>.
• Never put untrusted data into javascript:/data: URLs or DOM sink APIs without sanitizing.
• Sanitize rich/user HTML with a vetted library (DOMPurify) — don't regex it.
• Defense in depth: a strict Content-Security-Policy (avoid unsafe-inline/unsafe-eval).

Injection (SQL/NoSQL/command/LDAP)

• Parameterized queries / prepared statements only. Never string-concatenate input into SQL or shell commands.
• Use safe APIs over shelling out; if you must, pass args as an array, never a constructed string.
• Apply least-privilege DB accounts.

CSRF

• Use the framework's CSRF protection for cookie-authenticated state changes. If implementing tokens, validate a secret, unpredictable token bound to the session; per-request tokens are an option, not a universal requirement.
• Set cookies SameSite=Lax/Strict, Secure, HttpOnly.
• Validate request origin where appropriate and configure CORS with explicit trusted origins. CORS is not CSRF protection: browsers can send some cross-origin requests even when scripts cannot read the response.

AuthN / AuthZ

• Don't roll your own crypto or auth — use a vetted provider/library.
• Passwords: use a maintained password-hashing implementation, preferably Argon2id (or scrypt where unavailable), with tuned work factors and per-user salt. Retain bcrypt for compatible legacy systems while accounting for its input-length limit. Never store plaintext or fast hashes.
• Enforce authorization on every request server-side (object-level too — don't trust IDs from the client → IDOR).
• Sessions: rotate on privilege change, expire, invalidate on logout; short-lived tokens + refresh.
• Use constant-time comparison for secrets/tokens/signatures.

Secrets

• Never commit secrets, keys, tokens, .env, or DB URLs. Keep them in a secret manager / platform env.
• Never log secrets, bearer tokens, passwords, or full auth headers. Sanitize test fixtures.
• Rotate on exposure; scope keys to least privilege.

Transport & headers

• HTTPS everywhere; HSTS. Set Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff, Referrer-Policy, X-Frame-Options/frame-ancestors.
• Validate redirect targets (no open redirects); validate outbound URLs to prevent SSRF (block internal ranges/metadata endpoints).

Dependencies & supply chain

• Pin + lock versions; run npm audit/Dependabot/SCA; update knowingly.
• Verify integrity (lockfile, SRI for third-party scripts); minimize third-party JS.

Review checklist

• All external input validated server-side (allowlist) and bounded.
• Output encoded for its context; no unsafe HTML sinks with raw input.
• Parameterized queries everywhere; no shell string-building.
• AuthZ enforced per request incl. object ownership.
• CSRF protection + secure cookies on state-changing routes.
• No secrets in code/logs/fixtures; constant-time secret compares.
• Security headers + HTTPS/HSTS; redirects/outbound URLs validated.

Reference

• OWASP: CSRF prevention, password storage, Input Validation, XSS Prevention, SQL Injection, Auth, Secrets Management.
• MDN: CSP, SameSite cookies, Subresource Integrity.