adilkalam/security-basics

Security Basics

OWASP Top 10 Quick Reference

1. Injection - SQL, NoSQL, OS, LDAP injection
2. Broken Authentication - Weak session management
3. Sensitive Data Exposure - Missing encryption
4. XML External Entities (XXE) - XML parser attacks
5. Broken Access Control - Missing authorization
6. Security Misconfiguration - Default configs, verbose errors
7. XSS - Cross-Site Scripting
8. Insecure Deserialization - Untrusted data execution
9. Vulnerable Components - Outdated dependencies
10. Insufficient Logging - Missing audit trails

Input Validation

Always Validate

• User input (forms, query params)
• File uploads (type, size, content)
• API request bodies
• URL parameters

Validation Patterns

// Whitelist approach (preferred)
const allowedFields = ['name', 'email', 'age'];
const sanitized = pick(input, allowedFields);

// Schema validation
const schema = z.object({
  email: z.string().email(),
  age: z.number().min(0).max(150),
  name: z.string().min(1).max(100)
});

SQL Injection Prevention

// BAD - SQL Injection vulnerable
const query = `SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${userId}`;

// GOOD - Parameterized query
const query = 'SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?';
db.query(query, [userId]);

// GOOD - ORM
await User.findOne({ where: { id: userId } });

XSS Prevention

// BAD - Direct HTML insertion
element.innerHTML = userInput;

// GOOD - Text content
element.textContent = userInput;

// GOOD - Sanitize HTML if needed
import DOMPurify from 'dompurify';
element.innerHTML = DOMPurify.sanitize(userInput);

// React handles this automatically
<div>{userInput}</div>  // Safe

// But not this
<div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{__html: userInput}} />  // DANGEROUS

Authentication Checklist

• [ ] Hash passwords with bcrypt/argon2 (cost factor >= 10)
• [ ] Implement rate limiting on login
• [ ] Use secure session tokens (random, sufficient length)
• [ ] Set secure cookie flags (HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite)
• [ ] Implement proper logout (invalidate session)
• [ ] Consider 2FA for sensitive operations

Authorization Checklist

• [ ] Check permissions on every request
• [ ] Use role-based access control (RBAC)
• [ ] Validate resource ownership
• [ ] Don't rely on hidden fields/URLs for security
• [ ] Log authorization failures

Security Headers

Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: DENY
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin

Secrets Management

• Never commit secrets to version control
• Use environment variables
• Rotate secrets regularly
• Use secrets managers (AWS Secrets Manager, Vault)
• Different secrets per environment

Dependency Security

# Check for vulnerabilities
npm audit
pip-audit
bundler-audit

# Keep dependencies updated
npm update
dependabot/renovate for automation

Code Review Security Checklist

• [ ] No hardcoded secrets
• [ ] Input validation present
• [ ] Parameterized queries used
• [ ] Proper error handling (no stack traces)
• [ ] Authorization checks in place
• [ ] Sensitive data not logged