Website Checklist (Security)

A checklist of security considerations for a website with sessions and user accounts. For much more detail, please see the info and cheat sheets at https://www.owasp.org/.

CSRF protection for all requests that effect server side changes
User-generated content
Prefer checking for valid input (whitelisting) rather than trying to refuse invalid (blacklisting)
Use a trusted vs untrusted data policy in the application code
Prefer parameterised database queries (prepared statements)
Escape all user data
Check escape syntax correct for use in
html element content
html attributes
javascript
style elements
url attributes
Sites with user accounts / logins
User cookies use the secure flag
User cookies use the HttpOnly flag
Session ID long enough not to prevent brute force attacks
Session ID random enough not to be predictable
Session ID must look random, i.e not leak information
Renew session ID after privilege level changes
Treat session IDs as untrusted data that requires validation before using in database queries
Prefer as short a session expiration as makes sense for the application
Consider automatic timeout of idle sessions
Enforcement of password strength
Consider bland authentication failure messages that don't say what failed
Automatic account lockouts after repeated authentication failures
Passwords only sent over HTTPS connections
Authenticated pages all sent over HTTPS
Sensitive data is transmitted between servers over secured connections (TLS)
No sensitive data in URLs
Pages with sensitive data are not cached
Passwords (and other sensitive data) are stored encrypted in the database
PCI compliance/certification if storing cardholder data
Process for forgotten passwords reviewed
HTTPS / TLS
SSL certificates are for the live domain, not any staging domains
No SSL errors or warnings in all main browsers
SSL certificates have meta-data consistent with the brand and website
All content loaded via HTTPS links, including off-site links, no mixed secure/insecure content
Servers configured to only accept strong encryption
Server only supports TLS version 1.0 or greater
Private keys are strong, well stored and protected
Preferably no redirect from HTTP to HTTPS (e.g. on / or /login)

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