security-best-practices

name	security-best-practices
description	Security best practices and vulnerability prevention guidelines

Security Best Practices Skill

When writing code, follow these security best practices to prevent common vulnerabilities.

Input Validation

Always validate and sanitize user input:

# ❌ Bad - trusting user input
user_id = request.args.get('id')
query = f"SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = {user_id}"

# ✅ Good - parameterized query
user_id = request.args.get('id')
cursor.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?", (user_id,))

Validation Checklist

• Validate type, length, format, and range
• Use allowlists over denylists
• Sanitize for the specific output context
• Never trust client-side validation alone

Authentication

Implement secure authentication:

• Use established libraries (e.g., bcrypt, argon2)
• Never store passwords in plain text
• Implement rate limiting on login attempts
• Use secure session management
• Implement proper logout handling

# ✅ Good - using bcrypt
import bcrypt

def hash_password(password: str) -> bytes:
    return bcrypt.hashpw(password.encode(), bcrypt.gensalt())

def verify_password(password: str, hash: bytes) -> bool:
    return bcrypt.checkpw(password.encode(), hash)

Authorization

Check permissions on every request:

# ✅ Good - checking authorization
def delete_post(post_id: int, user: User):
    post = get_post(post_id)
    if post.author_id != user.id and not user.is_admin:
        raise PermissionError("Not authorized")
    delete_post_from_db(post_id)

Secrets Management

Never hardcode secrets:

# ❌ Bad
API_KEY = "sk-1234567890abcdef"

# ✅ Good
import os
API_KEY = os.environ.get('API_KEY')

Environment Variables

• Use .env files for development (in .gitignore)
• Use secrets managers in production
• Rotate secrets regularly
• Use different secrets per environment

SQL Injection Prevention

Always use parameterized queries:

# ❌ Bad - string concatenation
cursor.execute(f"SELECT * FROM users WHERE name = '{name}'")

# ✅ Good - parameterized
cursor.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE name = ?", (name,))

# ✅ Good - ORM
User.query.filter_by(name=name).first()

XSS Prevention

Escape output and use Content Security Policy:

# ✅ Good - escaping in templates (Jinja2)
{{ user_input }}  # Auto-escaped

# ✅ Good - explicit escaping
from markupsafe import escape
safe_output = escape(user_input)

// ❌ Bad
element.innerHTML = userInput;

// ✅ Good
element.textContent = userInput;

CSRF Protection

Implement CSRF tokens:

<form method="POST">
    <input type="hidden" name="csrf_token" value="{{ csrf_token }}">
    ...
</form>

Secure Headers

Set security headers:

# Flask example
@app.after_request
def set_secure_headers(response):
    response.headers['X-Content-Type-Options'] = 'nosniff'
    response.headers['X-Frame-Options'] = 'DENY'
    response.headers['X-XSS-Protection'] = '1; mode=block'
    response.headers['Content-Security-Policy'] = "default-src 'self'"
    return response

Error Handling

Don't expose sensitive information in errors:

# ❌ Bad - exposing stack trace
except Exception as e:
    return {"error": str(e), "stack": traceback.format_exc()}

# ✅ Good - generic error message
except Exception as e:
    logger.error(f"Error: {e}", exc_info=True)
    return {"error": "An internal error occurred"}

Dependency Security

Keep dependencies updated:

# Check for vulnerabilities
pip-audit
npm audit
snyk test

File Operations

Validate file paths to prevent path traversal:

import os

# ✅ Good - validate path is within allowed directory
def safe_read(user_path: str, base_dir: str) -> str:
    full_path = os.path.realpath(os.path.join(base_dir, user_path))
    if not full_path.startswith(os.path.realpath(base_dir)):
        raise ValueError("Path traversal attempt")
    return open(full_path).read()

Logging

Log security events but not sensitive data:

# ❌ Bad - logging passwords
logger.info(f"Login attempt: user={username}, password={password}")

# ✅ Good - logging without sensitive data
logger.info(f"Login attempt: user={username}, success={success}")

Quick Reference

Vulnerability	Prevention
SQL Injection	Parameterized queries
XSS	Output encoding, CSP
CSRF	CSRF tokens
Path Traversal	Path validation
Command Injection	Avoid shell=True
Hardcoded Secrets	Environment variables
Weak Passwords	bcrypt/argon2, complexity rules