Security Checklist

Comprehensive security checklist based on OWASP Top 10 (2021) and industry best practices.

Quick Reference

• /aif-security-checklist — Full audit checklist
• /aif-security-checklist auth — Authentication & sessions
• /aif-security-checklist injection — SQL/NoSQL/Command injection
• /aif-security-checklist xss — Cross-site scripting
• /aif-security-checklist csrf — Cross-site request forgery
• /aif-security-checklist secrets — Secrets & credentials
• /aif-security-checklist api — API security
• /aif-security-checklist infra — Infrastructure security
• /aif-security-checklist prompt-injection — LLM prompt injection
• /aif-security-checklist race-condition — Race conditions & TOCTOU
• /aif-security-checklist ignore <item> — Ignore a specific check item

Ignored Items (SECURITY.md)

Before running any audit, always read the file .ai-factory/SECURITY.md in the project root. If it exists, it contains a list of security checks the team has decided to ignore.

How ignoring works

When the user runs `/aif-security-checklist ignore <item>`:

1. Read the current .ai-factory/SECURITY.md file (create if doesn't exist)
2. Ask the user for the reason why this item should be ignored
3. Add the item to the file following the format below
4. Confirm the item was added

When running any audit (`/aif-security-checklist` or a specific category):

1. Read .ai-factory/SECURITY.md at the start
2. For each ignored item that matches the current audit scope:

• Do NOT flag it as a finding
• Instead, show it in a separate section at the end: "⏭️ Ignored Items"
• Display each ignored item with its reason and date, so the team stays aware

1. Non-ignored items are audited as usual

.ai-factory/SECURITY.md format

# Security: Ignored Items

Items below are excluded from security-checklist audits.
Review periodically — ignored risks may become relevant.

| Item | Reason | Date | Author |
|------|--------|------|--------|
| no-csrf | SPA with token auth, no cookies used | 2025-03-15 | @dev |
| no-rate-limit | Internal microservice, behind API gateway | 2025-03-15 | @dev |

Item naming convention — use short kebab-case IDs:

• no-csrf — CSRF tokens not implemented
• no-rate-limit — Rate limiting not configured
• no-https — HTTPS not enforced
• no-xss-csp — CSP header missing
• no-sql-injection — SQL injection not fully prevented
• no-prompt-injection — LLM prompt injection not mitigated
• no-race-condition — Race condition prevention missing
• no-secret-rotation — Secrets not rotated
• no-auth-{route} — Auth missing on specific route
• verbose-errors — Detailed errors exposed
• Or any custom descriptive ID

Output example for ignored items

When audit results are shown, append this section at the end:

⏭️ Ignored Items (from .ai-factory/SECURITY.md)
┌─────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┬────────────┐
│ Item            │ Reason                               │ Date       │
├─────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┤
│ no-csrf         │ SPA with token auth, no cookies used │ 2025-03-15 │
│ no-rate-limit   │ Internal service, behind API gateway │ 2025-03-15 │
└─────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┴────────────┘
⚠️  2 items ignored. Run `/aif-security-checklist` without ignores to see full audit.

Quick Automated Audit

Run the automated security audit script:

bash ~/.github/skills/security-checklist/scripts/audit.sh

This checks:

• Hardcoded secrets in code
• .env tracked in git
• .gitignore configuration
• npm audit (vulnerabilities)
• console.log in production code
• Security TODOs

🔴 Critical: Pre-Deployment Checklist

Must Fix Before Production

• [ ] No secrets in code or git history
• [ ] All user input is validated and sanitized
• [ ] Authentication on all protected routes
• [ ] HTTPS enforced (no HTTP)
• [ ] SQL/NoSQL injection prevented
• [ ] XSS protection in place
• [ ] CSRF tokens on state-changing requests
• [ ] Rate limiting enabled
• [ ] Error messages don't leak sensitive info
• [ ] Dependencies scanned for vulnerabilities
• [ ] LLM prompt injection mitigated (if using AI)
• [ ] Race conditions prevented on critical operations (payments, inventory)

Authentication & Sessions

Password Security

✅ Requirements:
- [ ] Minimum 12 characters
- [ ] Hashed with bcrypt/argon2 (cost factor ≥ 12)
- [ ] Never stored in plain text
- [ ] Never logged
- [ ] Breach detection (HaveIBeenPwned API)

For implementation patterns (argon2, bcrypt, PHP, Laravel) → read references/AUTH-PATTERNS.md

Session Management

✅ Checklist:
- [ ] Session ID regenerated after login
- [ ] Session timeout implemented (idle + absolute)
- [ ] Secure cookie flags set
- [ ] Session invalidation on logout
- [ ] Concurrent session limits (optional)

For secure cookie settings example → read references/AUTH-PATTERNS.md

JWT Security

✅ Checklist:
- [ ] Use RS256 or ES256 (not HS256 for distributed systems)
- [ ] Short expiration (15 min access, 7 day refresh)
- [ ] Validate all claims (iss, aud, exp, iat)
- [ ] Store refresh tokens securely (httpOnly cookie)
- [ ] Implement token revocation
- [ ] Never store sensitive data in payload

Injection Prevention

SQL Injection

// ❌ VULNERABLE: String concatenation
const query = `SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${userId}`;

// ✅ SAFE: Parameterized query
const user = await db.query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $1', [userId]);

// ✅ SAFE: ORM (Prisma/Eloquent/SQLAlchemy)
const user = await prisma.user.findUnique({ where: { id: userId } });

NoSQL Injection

// ❌ VULNERABLE: Direct user input — attack: { "$ne": "" }
const user = await db.users.findOne({ username: req.body.username });

// ✅ SAFE: Type validation
const username = z.string().parse(req.body.username);

Command Injection

// ❌ VULNERABLE: exec(`convert ${userFilename} output.png`);
// ✅ SAFE: execFile('convert', [userFilename, 'output.png']);

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Prevention Checklist

- [ ] All user output HTML-encoded by default
- [ ] Content-Security-Policy header configured
- [ ] X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
- [ ] Sanitize HTML if allowing rich text
- [ ] Validate URLs before rendering links

Output Encoding

// ❌ VULNERABLE: element.innerHTML = userInput; / dangerouslySetInnerHTML
// ✅ SAFE: element.textContent = userInput; / React: <div>{userInput}</div>
// ✅ If HTML needed: DOMPurify.sanitize(userInput)

// ❌ VULNERABLE: <?= $userInput ?> / {!! $userInput !!}
// ✅ SAFE: {{ $userInput }} (Blade) / htmlspecialchars($input, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8')

Content Security Policy

Set CSP header: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'; img-src 'self' data: https:; frame-ancestors 'none'; base-uri 'self'; form-action 'self'

CSRF Protection

Checklist

- [ ] CSRF tokens on all state-changing requests
- [ ] SameSite=Strict or Lax on cookies
- [ ] Verify Origin/Referer headers
- [ ] Don't use GET for state changes

Implementation

• Server-rendered: Use csurf middleware, embed token in hidden form field and AJAX headers
• SPAs: Double-submit cookie pattern — set readable cookie with sameSite: 'strict', client sends token in header, server compares

Secrets Management

Never Do This

❌ Secrets in code
const API_KEY = "sk_live_abc123";

❌ Secrets in git
.env committed to repository

❌ Secrets in logs
console.log(`Connecting with password: ${password}`);

❌ Secrets in error messages
throw new Error(`DB connection failed: ${connectionString}`);

Checklist

- [ ] Secrets in environment variables or vault
- [ ] .env in .gitignore
- [ ] Different secrets per environment
- [ ] Secrets rotated regularly
- [ ] Access to secrets audited
- [ ] No secrets in client-side code

Git History Cleanup

# If secrets were committed, remove from history
git filter-branch --force --index-filter \
  "git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch path/to/secret-file" \
  --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all

# Or use BFG Repo-Cleaner (faster)
bfg --delete-files .env
bfg --replace-text passwords.txt

# Force push (coordinate with team!)
git push origin --force --all

# Rotate ALL exposed secrets immediately!

API Security

Authentication

- [ ] API keys not in URLs (use headers)
- [ ] Rate limiting per user/IP
- [ ] Request signing for sensitive operations
- [ ] OAuth 2.0 for third-party access

Input Validation

// ✅ Validate all input with schema
import { z } from 'zod';

const CreateUserSchema = z.object({
  email: z.string().email().max(255),
  name: z.string().min(1).max(100),
  age: z.number().int().min(0).max(150).optional(),
});

app.post('/users', (req, res) => {
  const result = CreateUserSchema.safeParse(req.body);
  if (!result.success) {
    return res.status(400).json({ error: result.error });
  }
  // result.data is typed and validated
});

Response Security

// ✅ Don't expose internal errors
app.use((err, req, res, next) => {
  console.error(err); // Log full error internally

  // Return generic message to client
  res.status(500).json({
    error: 'Internal server error',
    requestId: req.id, // For support reference
  });
});

// ✅ Don't expose sensitive fields
const userResponse = {
  id: user.id,
  name: user.name,
  email: user.email,
  // ❌ Never: password, passwordHash, internalId, etc.
};

Infrastructure Security

Headers Checklist

app.use(helmet()); // Sets many security headers

// Or manually:
res.setHeader('X-Content-Type-Options', 'nosniff');
res.setHeader('X-Frame-Options', 'DENY');
res.setHeader('X-XSS-Protection', '0'); // Disabled, use CSP instead
res.setHeader('Strict-Transport-Security', 'max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains');
res.setHeader('Referrer-Policy', 'strict-origin-when-cross-origin');
res.setHeader('Permissions-Policy', 'camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()');

Dependency Security

# Check for vulnerabilities
npm audit
pip-audit
cargo audit

# Auto-fix where possible
npm audit fix

# Keep dependencies updated
npx npm-check-updates -u

Deployment Checklist

- [ ] HTTPS only (redirect HTTP)
- [ ] TLS 1.2+ only
- [ ] Security headers configured
- [ ] Debug mode disabled
- [ ] Default credentials changed
- [ ] Unnecessary ports closed
- [ ] File permissions restricted
- [ ] Logging enabled (but no secrets)
- [ ] Backups encrypted
- [ ] WAF/DDoS protection (for public APIs)

Race Conditions

For detailed race condition patterns (double-spend, TOCTOU, optimistic locking, idempotency keys, distributed locks) → read references/RACE-CONDITIONS.md

Prevention Checklist

- [ ] Financial operations use database transactions with proper isolation
- [ ] Inventory/stock checks use atomic decrement (not read-then-write)
- [ ] Idempotency keys on payment and mutation endpoints
- [ ] Optimistic locking (version column) on concurrent updates
- [ ] File operations use exclusive locks where needed
- [ ] No TOCTOU gaps between permission check and action
- [ ] Rate limiting to reduce exploitation window

Prompt Injection (LLM Security)

For detailed prompt injection patterns (direct, indirect, tool safety, output validation, RAG) → read references/PROMPT-INJECTION.md

Prevention Checklist

- [ ] User input never concatenated directly into system prompts
- [ ] Input/output boundaries clearly separated (delimiters, roles)
- [ ] LLM output treated as untrusted (never executed as code/commands)
- [ ] Tool calls from LLM validated and sandboxed
- [ ] Sensitive data excluded from LLM context
- [ ] Rate limiting on LLM endpoints
- [ ] Output filtered for PII/secrets leakage
- [ ] Logging & monitoring for anomalous prompts

Quick Audit Commands

# Find hardcoded secrets
grep -rn "password\|secret\|api_key\|token" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" .

# Check for vulnerable dependencies
npm audit --audit-level=high

# Find TODO security items
grep -rn "TODO.*security\|FIXME.*security\|XXX.*security" .

# Check for console.log in production code
grep -rn "console\.log" src/

# Find prompt injection risks (unsanitized input in LLM calls)
grep -rn "system.*\${.*}" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" .
grep -rn "innerHTML.*llm\|innerHTML.*response\|innerHTML.*completion" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" .

Severity Reference

Tip: Context is heavy after security audit. Consider /clear or /compact before continuing with other tasks.