backend-api-security

name	backend-api-security
description	Technical skill for implementing robust API security, authentication, and authorization patterns.

Backend API Security Skill

This skill provides comprehensive guidelines and patterns for securing backend APIs and handling sensitive authentication logic. It is based on the wshobson/agents security-auditor workflows.

Core Capabilities

• Secure Authentication: Implementation of OAuth2, OpenID Connect, and JWT (JSON Web Tokens) with proper signing and rotation.
• Granular Authorization: Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) patterns.
• API Hardening:
  • Rate limiting and throttling.
  • Input validation and sanitization to prevent injection (SQLi, NoSQLi).
  • Proper CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) and CSP (Content Security Policy) configuration.
• Secret Management: Best practices for storing and accessing API keys, certificates, and environment variables (e.g., HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager).
• Security Auditing: SAST (Static Application Security Testing) and automated dependency scanning.

Usage Guidelines

1. Defense in Depth: Never rely on a single security measure. Combine authentication, authorization, and validation.
2. Principle of Least Privilege: Ensure users and services only have the minimum permissions required.
3. Fail Securely: Systems should default to a secure state in case of an error.
4. Encrypt at Rest and in Transit: Use TLS for all API communications and encrypt sensitive data in the database.

Example Prompts

• "Implement a JWT-based authentication flow for the ExifTool service."
• "Apply rate limiting to the metadata injection endpoint to prevent brute-force attacks."
• "Perform a security audit of the current Python backend and suggest hardening measures."
• "Configure secure CORS settings for the frontend-to-backend communication."