/security-review

name: security-review
description: Use this skill when adding authentication, handling user input, working with secrets, creating API endpoints, or implementing payment/sensitive features. Provides comprehensive security checklist and patterns.
metadata:
  origin: ECC

Security Review Skill

This skill ensures all code follows security best practices and identifies potential vulnerabilities.

When to Activate

• Implementing authentication or authorization
• Handling user input or file uploads
• Creating new API endpoints
• Working with secrets or credentials
• Implementing payment features
• Storing or transmitting sensitive data
• Integrating third-party APIs

Security Checklist

1. Secrets Management

FAIL: NEVER Do This

const apiKey = "sk-proj-xxxxx"  // Hardcoded secret
const dbPassword = "password123" // In source code

PASS: ALWAYS Do This

const apiKey = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY
const dbUrl = process.env.DATABASE_URL

// Verify secrets exist
if (!apiKey) {
  throw new Error('OPENAI_API_KEY not configured')
}

Verification Steps

• [ ] No hardcoded API keys, tokens, or passwords
• [ ] All secrets in environment variables
• [ ] `.env.local` in .gitignore
• [ ] No secrets in git history
• [ ] Production secrets in hosting platform (Vercel, Railway)

2. Input Validation

Always Validate User Input

import { z } from 'zod'

// Define validation schema
const CreateUserSchema = z.object({
  email: z.string().email(),
  name: z.string().min(1).max(100),
  age: z.number().int().min(0).max(150)
})

// Validate before processing
export async function createUser(input: unknown) {
  try {
    const validated = CreateUserSchema.parse(input)
    return await db.users.create(validated)
  } catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof z.ZodError) {
      return { success: false, errors: error.issues }
    }
    throw error
  }
}

File Upload Validation

function validateFileUpload(file: File) {
  // Size check (5MB max)
  const maxSize = 5 * 1024 * 1024
  if (file.size > maxSize) {
    throw new Error('File too large (max 5MB)')
  }

  // Type check
  const allowedTypes = ['image/jpeg', 'image/png', 'image/gif']
  if (!allowedTypes.includes(file.type)) {
    throw new Error('Invalid file type')
  }

  // Extension check
  const allowedExtensions = ['.jpg', '.jpeg', '.png', '.gif']
  const extension = file.name.toLowerCase().match(/\.[^.]+$/)?.[0]
  if (!extension || !allowedExtensions.includes(extension)) {
    throw new Error('Invalid file extension')
  }

  return true
}

Verification Steps

• [ ] All user inputs validated with schemas
• [ ] File uploads restricted (size, type, extension)
• [ ] No direct use of user input in queries
• [ ] Whitelist validation (not blacklist)
• [ ] Error messages don't leak sensitive info

3. SQL Injection Prevention

FAIL: NEVER Concatenate SQL

// DANGEROUS - SQL Injection vulnerability
const query = `SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = '${userEmail}'`
await db.query(query)

PASS: ALWAYS Use Parameterized Queries

// Safe - parameterized query
const { data } = await supabase
  .from('users')
  .select('*')
  .eq('email', userEmail)

// Or with raw SQL -- the value goes in the params array, never in the
// string. Use your driver's placeholder syntax (Postgres numbers its
// placeholders, MySQL uses "?").
await db.query(
  'SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = ?',
  [userEmail]
)

<!-- Do not write a literal dollar-sign-N placeholder anywhere in this file. Invoking this skill with arguments substitutes it away, and the example above then renders as concatenated SQL -- the exact anti-pattern this section warns against. Use "?" and name the Postgres form in prose. -->

Verification Steps

• [ ] All database queries use parameterized queries
• [ ] No string concatenation in SQL
• [ ] ORM/query builder used correctly
• [ ] Supabase queries properly sanitized

4. Authentication & Authorization

JWT Token Handling

// FAIL: WRONG: localStorage (vulnerable to XSS)
localStorage.setItem('token', token)

// PASS: CORRECT: httpOnly cookies
res.setHeader('Set-Cookie',
  `token=${token}; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=Strict; Max-Age=3600`)

Authorization Checks

export async function deleteUser(userId: string, requesterId: string) {
  // ALWAYS verify authorization first
  const requester = await db.users.findUnique({
    where: { id: requesterId }
  })

  if (requester.role !== 'admin') {
    return NextResponse.json(
      { error: 'Unauthorized' },
      { status: 403 }
    )
  }

  // Proceed with deletion
  await db.users.delete({ where: { id: userId } })
}

Row Level Security (Supabase)

-- Enable RLS on all tables
ALTER TABLE users ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY;

-- Users can only view their own data
CREATE POLICY "Users view own data"
  ON users FOR SELECT
  USING (auth.uid() = id);

-- Users can only update their own data
CREATE POLICY "Users update own data"
  ON users FOR UPDATE
  USING (auth.uid() = id);

Verification Steps

• [ ] Tokens stored in httpOnly cookies (not localStorage)
• [ ] Authorization checks before sensitive operations
• [ ] Row Level Security enabled in Supabase
• [ ] Role-based access control implemented
• [ ] Session management secure

5. XSS Prevention

Sanitize HTML

import DOMPurify from 'isomorphic-dompurify'

// ALWAYS sanitize user-provided HTML
function renderUserContent(html: string) {
  const clean = DOMPurify.sanitize(html, {
    ALLOWED_TAGS: ['b', 'i', 'em', 'strong', 'p'],
    ALLOWED_ATTR: []
  })
  return <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: clean }} />
}

Content Security Policy

Start strict and loosen only with a documented removal plan. Do not default to `'unsafe-inline'` or `'unsafe-eval'`; they neutralize much of CSP's protection and should be treated