Security, Privacy, and Compliance
Threat modeling, safe input/output handling, secrets, abuse controls, audit logs, and incident response
Threat Modeling and Least Privilege
Identify assets, trust boundaries, entry points, abuse cases, and controls before implementation.
How to apply it
Consider account takeover, cross-tenant exposure, webhook forgery, malicious uploads, denial of service, and privilege escalation. Record prevention, detection, response, and residual risk. Apply least privilege to people, services, CI, and support tools.
Worked example
Provide support staff time-limited, audited access rather than permanent database administrator access.
Common mistakes to avoid
Assuming a compliance checklist alone proves security or ignoring abuse by authenticated users.
Practice task
Implement this concept in the capstone. Add one positive test, one negative or failure-path test, and a short note explaining the trade-off you chose.
- Identify assets, trust boundaries, entry points, abuse cases, and controls before implementation.
- Consider account takeover, cross-tenant exposure, webhook forgery, malicious uploads, denial of service, and privilege escalation.
What is the strongest production practice for Threat Modeling and Least Privilege?
Input Validation and Browser Security
Treat URL parameters, bodies, uploads, imports, webhooks, and third-party responses as untrusted.
How to apply it
Validate shape, type, length, allowed values, and business rules. Use parameterized database operations, safe output encoding, appropriate CSP, HTTPS, and CSRF protections where relevant. CORS is not authentication. Validate upload size and content and store files privately.
Worked example
Map accepted query fields into a new MongoDB filter rather than passing a raw request query object directly.
Common mistakes to avoid
Trusting arbitrary database operators from input, unsafe HTML insertion, or assuming CORS prevents direct API calls.
Practice task
Implement this concept in the capstone. Add one positive test, one negative or failure-path test, and a short note explaining the trade-off you chose.
- Treat URL parameters, bodies, uploads, imports, webhooks, and third-party responses as untrusted.
- Validate shape, type, length, allowed values, and business rules.
What is the strongest production practice for Input Validation and Browser Security?
Secrets, Privacy, and Incident Response
Use TLS, managed encryption, secret stores, data minimization, protected audit trails, and practiced incident procedures.
How to apply it
Keep secrets out of source, browser bundles, images, and logs. Record actor, action, target, timestamp, outcome, and correlation ID for sensitive events. Prepare containment, evidence preservation, communication, recovery, and post-incident review steps.
Worked example
If a token leaks, rotate and revoke it, inspect where it propagated, assess the exposure window, and document remediation.
Common mistakes to avoid
Treating public frontend variables as secret or logging request headers indiscriminately.
Practice task
Implement this concept in the capstone. Add one positive test, one negative or failure-path test, and a short note explaining the trade-off you chose.
- Use TLS, managed encryption, secret stores, data minimization, protected audit trails, and practiced incident procedures.
- Keep secrets out of source, browser bundles, images, and logs.
What is the strongest production practice for Secrets, Privacy, and Incident Response?