Implementing Security Best Practices
1. Using HTTPS Everywhere
Practice Detail HSTS Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preloadTLS 1.2+ Disable 1.0/1.1; prefer 1.3 Cipher suites Modern only (Mozilla SSL Configurator) HTTP redirect 301 to HTTPS
2. Implementing Secure Password Storage
Algorithm Params (2026 OWASP) Argon2id m=19MiB, t=2, p=1 (minimum) scrypt N=2^17, r=8, p=1 bcrypt cost ≥ 12 PBKDF2-SHA256 ≥ 600,000 iter
3. Avoiding Security Through Obscurity
Hiding implementation is not security. Assume attacker knows the system; rely on cryptographic primitives and access controls.
4. Implementing Principle of Least Privilege
Layer Detail DB user Service-specific account, minimum grants Cloud IAM Scoped policies, no wildcards API tokens Per-purpose, expirable Containers Non-root user, read-only filesystem
5. Using Secure Random Number Generation
Language API Node crypto.randomBytes, crypto.randomUUIDPython secrets moduleJava SecureRandomGo crypto/randNever use Math.random, random module, java.util.Random
6. Implementing Defense in Depth
Layer Control Network WAF, DDoS protection App Auth, input validation Data Encryption at rest + in transit Monitoring SIEM, alerting Process Code review, pentest, incident response
7. Keeping Dependencies Updated
Tool Detail Dependabot / Renovate Auto-PRs for updates npm audit / pip-audit Vulnerability scan Snyk, Mend Commercial SCA SBOM SPDX / CycloneDX
Example: Modern baseline
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; ... X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff X-Frame-Options: DENY Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin Permissions-Policy: geolocation=(), camera=(), microphone=() Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy: same-origin Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy: require-corp Cross-Origin-Resource-Policy: same-origin
Validate at trust boundaries with allowlist schemas. Reject early; never sanitize as primary defense (encoding is for output, validation is for input).
10. Implementing Error Handling
Practice Detail Fail closed Default to deny on errors Generic to user Details in logs Don't leak versions Remove headers Catch all paths Top-level handlers
11. Conducting Security Audits
Activity Cadence SAST Every commit DAST Weekly / pre-release Penetration test Annual + major changes Code review Mandatory for security-sensitive changes Bug bounty Continuous external testing
12. Implementing OWASP Top 10 Mitigations
2021 Top 10 Mitigation A01 Broken Access Control Centralized authz, deny-by-default A02 Cryptographic Failures TLS 1.3, modern KDFs, AEAD ciphers A03 Injection Parameterized queries, encoding A04 Insecure Design Threat modeling, secure SDLC A05 Security Misconfig Hardened baselines, infra-as-code A06 Vulnerable Components SCA, patch SLA A07 Identification/Auth Failures MFA, rate limit, secure session A08 Software/Data Integrity Signed packages, SBOM, SLSA A09 Logging/Monitoring Centralized, alerting A10 SSRF Allowlist URLs, block metadata IPs