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checklists

Quick reference checklists for security audits. Use alongside vulnerability-scanner principles.


  • Authorization on all protected routes
  • Deny by default
  • Rate limiting implemented
  • CORS properly configured
  • Passwords hashed (bcrypt/argon2, cost 12+)
  • Sensitive data encrypted at rest
  • TLS 1.2+ for all connections
  • No secrets in code/logs
  • Parameterized queries
  • Input validation on all user data
  • Output encoding for XSS
  • No eval() or dynamic code execution
  • Threat modeling done
  • Security requirements defined
  • Business logic validated
  • Unnecessary features disabled
  • Error messages sanitized
  • Security headers configured
  • Default credentials changed
  • Dependencies up to date
  • No known vulnerabilities
  • Unused dependencies removed
  • MFA available
  • Session invalidation on logout
  • Session timeout implemented
  • Brute force protection
  • Dependency integrity verified
  • CI/CD pipeline secured
  • Update mechanism secured
  • Security events logged
  • Logs protected
  • No sensitive data in logs
  • Alerting configured
  • URL validation implemented
  • Allow-list for external calls
  • Network segmentation

  • Strong password policy
  • Account lockout
  • Secure password reset
  • Session management
  • Token expiration
  • Logout invalidation

  • Authentication required
  • Authorization per endpoint
  • Input validation
  • Rate limiting
  • Output sanitization
  • Error handling

  • Encryption at rest
  • Encryption in transit
  • Key management
  • Data minimization
  • Secure deletion

HeaderPurpose
Content-Security-PolicyXSS prevention
X-Content-Type-OptionsMIME sniffing
X-Frame-OptionsClickjacking
Strict-Transport-SecurityForce HTTPS
Referrer-PolicyReferrer control

CheckWhat to Look For
Secrets in codepassword, api_key, secret
Dangerous patternseval, innerHTML, SQL concat
Dependency issuesnpm audit, snyk

Usage: Copy relevant checklists into your PLAN.md or security report.