performing-security-headers-audit

name	performing-security-headers-audit
description	Auditing HTTP security headers including CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and cookie attributes to identify missing or misconfigured browser-level protections. Use when working with performing security headers audit.
domain	cybersecurity
tags	["penetration-testing","security-headers","csp","hsts","owasp","web-security","hardening"]
subdomain	web-application-security
version	1.0
author	oyi77
license	Apache-2.0
nist_csf	["PR.PS-01","ID.RA-01","PR.DS-10","DE.CM-01"]

Performing Security Headers Audit

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for performing security headers audit. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "performing security headers audit"

• "Auditing HTTP security headers including CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and cookie "

• During authorized web application security assessments as a standard configuration review

• When evaluating browser-level protections against XSS, clickjacking, and data leakage

• For compliance assessments requiring security header implementation (PCI DSS, SOC 2)

• When performing initial reconnaissance to identify easy-win security improvements

• During CI/CD pipeline security gate checks for new deployments

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• Authorization: Written scope for the target application (header review is low-risk)
• curl: For fetching response headers from target endpoints
• SecurityHeaders.com: Online scanner for quick header assessment
• Mozilla Observatory: Mozilla's web security testing tool
• Burp Suite: For comprehensive header analysis across multiple pages
• Browser DevTools: For examining headers and CSP violations in real-time

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

def extract_iocs(text: str) -> :
     {k: re.findall(v, text)  k, v  IOC_PATTERNS.items()}