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Security Best Practices

Security guidelines and best practices for Burdenoff products.

Security Principles​

Defense in Depth​

  • Multiple layers of security
  • Fail securely
  • Principle of least privilege
  • Zero trust architecture

Security by Design​

  • Security from the start
  • Threat modeling
  • Regular security reviews
  • Automated security testing

Authentication & Authorization​

JWT Tokens​

  • Short-lived access tokens (15 minutes)
  • Long-lived refresh tokens (7 days)
  • Token rotation on refresh
  • Secure storage (httpOnly cookies)

OAuth 2.0​

  • Authorization Code flow
  • PKCE for public clients
  • Scope-based permissions
  • Token revocation support

Multi-Factor Authentication​

  • TOTP (Time-based OTP)
  • SMS backup
  • Recovery codes
  • Mandatory for admin accounts

Input Validation​

Backend Validation​

from pydantic import BaseModel, validator

class UserInput(BaseModel):
    email: str
    age: int

    @validator('email')
    def validate_email(cls, v):
        # Email validation logic
        return v

Frontend Validation​

import { z } from 'zod';

const schema = z.object({
  email: z.string().email(),
  age: z.number().min(18),
});

Secrets Management​

Never Commit Secrets​

  • Use .gitignore
  • Pre-commit hooks
  • Secret scanning in CI/CD

Environment Variables​

# .env.local (never commit)
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://...
JWT_SECRET=...
API_KEY=...

Azure Key Vault​

  • Production secrets
  • Automatic rotation
  • Access policies
  • Audit logging

Security Scanning​

Dependency Scanning​

# Python
poetry run safety check
poetry run pip-audit

# Node.js
npm audit
npm audit fix

Code Scanning​

# Python
poetry run bandit -r src/

# TypeScript
npm run lint -- --fix

Container Scanning​

  • Trivy for image scanning
  • ACR vulnerability scanning
  • Base image updates

OWASP Top 10 Protection​

1. Injection​

  • Parameterized queries
  • ORM usage
  • Input validation
  • Output encoding

2. Broken Authentication​

  • Strong password policies
  • MFA enforcement
  • Session management
  • Account lockout

3. Sensitive Data Exposure​

  • Encryption at rest
  • Encryption in transit (TLS)
  • Secure key management
  • Data minimization

4. XML External Entities (XXE)​

  • Disable XML external entities
  • Use safe parsers
  • Input validation

5. Broken Access Control​

  • RBAC implementation
  • Authorization checks
  • Principle of least privilege

6. Security Misconfiguration​

  • Secure defaults
  • Minimal attack surface
  • Regular updates
  • Configuration reviews

7. XSS​

  • Output encoding
  • Content Security Policy
  • Input sanitization
  • Framework protections

8. Insecure Deserialization​

  • Avoid deserializing untrusted data
  • Integrity checks
  • Type validation

9. Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities​

  • Automated dependency updates
  • Vulnerability scanning
  • Patch management

10. Insufficient Logging & Monitoring​

  • Comprehensive logging
  • Real-time alerts
  • Security event monitoring
  • Incident response

API Security​

Rate Limiting​

from fastapi_limiter import FastAPILimiter

@app.get("/api/users")
@limiter.limit("100/minute")
async def get_users():
    ...

CORS Configuration​

const corsOptions = {
  origin: process.env.ALLOWED_ORIGINS.split(','),
  credentials: true,
  maxAge: 86400,
};

API Authentication​

  • API keys for service-to-service
  • JWT for user sessions
  • OAuth for third-party access

Security Headers​

Essential Headers​

Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'
X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000
Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
Permissions-Policy: geolocation=(), microphone=()

Incident Response​

Detection​

  • Automated alerts
  • Log monitoring
  • Anomaly detection

Response Plan​

  1. Identify and contain
  2. Investigate and analyze
  3. Remediate and recover
  4. Post-incident review

Communication​

  • Internal notification
  • Customer communication (if needed)
  • Regulatory reporting (if required)

Compliance​

Data Protection​

  • GDPR compliance
  • Data retention policies
  • Right to deletion
  • Privacy by design

Audit Trails​

  • User actions logged
  • System changes tracked
  • Immutable logs
  • Regular audits

Security Training​

Developer Training​

  • Secure coding practices
  • OWASP Top 10
  • Threat modeling
  • Security tools usage

Regular Reviews​

  • Code reviews
  • Security audits
  • Penetration testing
  • Vulnerability assessments

Next Steps​