ai-wpa/todo/SECURITY_IMPROVEMENTS.md

Security Improvements Checklist

Current Status: Basic security implemented, several gaps identified
Target: Production-ready security standards
Priority: 🟡 Medium - Important for production deployment

---

🔐 Authentication Security

Rate Limiting Implementation

Impact: Prevent brute force attacks
Current: No rate limiting on auth endpoints
Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Install rate limiting middleware (express-rate-limit or similar)
• Add rate limiting to /api/auth/login (5 attempts/5min)
• Add rate limiting to /api/auth/register (3 attempts/hour)
• Add rate limiting to /api/auth/refresh (10 attempts/5min)
• Implement progressive delays for repeated failures
• Add IP-based and user-based rate limiting

// ADD TO lib/rate-limit.ts:
import rateLimit from 'express-rate-limit'

export const authRateLimit = rateLimit({
  windowMs: 5 * 60 * 1000, // 5 minutes
  max: 5, // 5 attempts per window
  message: { error: 'Too many login attempts, try again later' },
  standardHeaders: true,
  legacyHeaders: false,
})

Password Security Enhancement

Impact: Stronger password requirements
Current: Only 6 character minimum
Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Update password validation schema in models/user.ts
• Require minimum 8 characters
• Require at least one uppercase letter
• Require at least one number
• Require at least one special character
• Add password strength indicator in UI
• Implement password history (prevent reuse)

// UPDATE models/user.ts:
const passwordSchema = z
  .string()
  .min(8, 'Password must be at least 8 characters')
  .regex(/[A-Z]/, 'Password must contain at least one uppercase letter')
  .regex(/[0-9]/, 'Password must contain at least one number')
  .regex(/[^A-Za-z0-9]/, 'Password must contain at least one special character')

Email Verification System

Impact: Prevent fake account creation
Current: No email verification
Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Create email verification token system
• Add emailVerified and verificationToken fields to user model
• Create /api/auth/verify-email endpoint
• Create /api/auth/resend-verification endpoint
• Block unverified users from protected actions
• Set up email service (SendGrid, AWS SES, etc.)
• Create email templates for verification

---

🛡️ API Security

Environment Variables Security

Impact: Secure sensitive configuration
Current: Default secrets in code
Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Remove default JWT secrets from code
• Add environment validation in lib/env.ts
• Require strong secrets in production
• Add secret rotation documentation
• Use key management service for production

// CREATE lib/env.ts:
const JWT_SECRET = process.env.JWT_SECRET
if (!JWT_SECRET || JWT_SECRET.length < 32) {
  throw new Error('JWT_SECRET must be at least 32 characters long')
}

if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production') {
  if (JWT_SECRET.includes('change-in-production')) {
    throw new Error('Must change default JWT secrets in production')
  }
}

Request Validation Enhancement

Impact: Prevent malicious input
Current: Basic Zod validation
Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Add request size limits
• Implement input sanitization middleware
• Add CORS configuration
• Validate content-type headers
• Add request ID tracking for audit logs

// ADD TO lib/security-middleware.ts:
export const securityMiddleware = {
  requestSizeLimit: '1mb',
  cors: {
    origin: process.env.ALLOWED_ORIGINS?.split(',') || ['http://localhost:4023'],
    credentials: true,
  },
  contentTypeValidation: ['application/json'],
}

---

🔒 Session Security

Session Configuration Hardening

Impact: Secure session management
Current: Basic session config
Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Review and harden session configuration in lib/session.ts
• Add session rotation on privilege escalation
• Implement session timeout warnings
• Add concurrent session limits
• Log session activities for audit

Cookie Security Enhancement

Impact: Prevent cookie-based attacks
Current: Basic HTTP-only cookies
Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Add Secure flag enforcement in production
• Review SameSite configuration
• Add cookie integrity checking
• Implement cookie rotation
• Add domain restriction in production

---

📊 Monitoring & Logging

Security Logging Implementation

Impact: Detect and track security events
Current: Basic console logging
Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Implement structured security logging
• Log failed authentication attempts
• Log privilege escalations
• Log sensitive data access
• Set up log aggregation and alerting
• Implement audit trail for user actions

// CREATE lib/security-logger.ts:
export const securityLog = {
  authFailure: (email: string, ip: string, reason: string) => {
    console.log(
      JSON.stringify({
        event: 'AUTH_FAILURE',
        email,
        ip,
        reason,
        timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
      })
    )
  },
  // ... other security events
}

Vulnerability Monitoring

Impact: Proactive security management
Current: No vulnerability monitoring
Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Set up dependency vulnerability scanning
• Add npm audit to CI/CD pipeline
• Configure Snyk or similar tool
• Set up security headers monitoring
• Implement uptime and security monitoring

---

🧪 Security Testing

Penetration Testing Checklist

Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Test SQL injection resistance
• Test XSS prevention
• Test CSRF protection
• Test authentication bypass attempts
• Test authorization bypass attempts
• Test session fixation attacks
• Test rate limiting effectiveness

Security Headers Validation

Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Add Content Security Policy (CSP)
• Add X-Frame-Options header
• Add X-Content-Type-Options header
• Add Referrer-Policy header
• Add Permissions-Policy header
• Test headers with security scanning tools

// ADD TO next.config.js:
const securityHeaders = [
  {
    key: 'Content-Security-Policy',
    value: "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-eval'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline';",
  },
  {
    key: 'X-Frame-Options',
    value: 'DENY',
  },
  // ... other headers
]

---

📈 Compliance & Standards

OWASP Top 10 Compliance

Priority: 🟡 Medium

• Review against OWASP Top 10 2021
• Implement broken access control prevention
• Add cryptographic failures protection
• Prevent injection attacks
• Secure design principles implementation
• Security misconfiguration prevention
• Vulnerable components identification
• Authentication failures prevention
• Software integrity failures prevention
• Logging and monitoring improvements

---

🚀 Implementation Timeline

Phase 1 (Immediate - Production Blockers)

• Environment variables security
• Basic rate limiting
• Security headers

Phase 2 (Short Term - 2-4 weeks)

• Password security enhancement
• Email verification system
• Security logging

Phase 3 (Long Term - 1-3 months)

• Comprehensive monitoring
• Advanced threat protection
• Compliance auditing

---

Status: ⏳ Pending Implementation
Owner: Development Team
Security Review: Required before production deployment
Compliance Check: Annual security audit recommended