Top 10 Best Practices For Securing Your Node.js Application

Node JS is loved by developers worldwide, more so in the U.S. According to W3Techs, Node JS is used by over 2.1% of websites whose web servers are known. Comparing this number to 1.9 billion, the number of websites available today, according to the figures provided by Internet Live Stats, means that over 40 million websites use Node JS. Recognized companies such as PayPal, eBay, AliExpress, and Netflix use the Node JS application.

You would expect any popular application today to have security vulnerabilities. Node JS is no different. Suppose you are using a Node JS application or plan to start using it. In that case, you must know the best security practices that will help to protect yourself from several security vulnerabilities. This article explores these security measures. But for the sake of the newbies, let us begin from the foundational level. We will explain what Node JS is before moving down to the security aspect.

What is Node.js?

It is not easy to mention Node.js without saying something about JavaScript. As we know, JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages. This programming language is used to power millions of websites. JavaScript is arguably the best programming language to get under your belt. For over two decades since its inception, the programming language was primarily used for client-side scripting.

Later on, there Node.js came to address the server-side programming needs. Node.js is an open-source, single-threaded, cross-platform runtime environment developed in 2009 by a guy called Ryan Dahla. It is used for running web applications residing outside the client’s browsers. Developers and programmers use Node.js to develop server-side web applications.

Web Application Security in Node.js

No day passes without us hearing about “so and so company’s systems have been compromised, and hackers got in.” Hackers leverage security weaknesses existing in web applications to force their way into web applications. In a research report published by Positive Technologies, 17% of hackers target web applications. To secure Node.js, a server admin needs an SSL certificate. It can be a single domain or wildcard SSL certificate or any other SSL cert. SSL certificate can be installed on Node.js easily.

So like all web applications and programming languages, Node JS is vulnerable to various security risks. While developing any web application using Node.JS, developers will need to use several third-party open-source packages through the Node Package Manager. It is from the Node Package Manager that the security issues start appearing. According to a previous survey, 14% of the Node Package Manager (NPM)  ecosystem is susceptible to security issues. Ultimately, the security issues emerging in the Node Package Manager ecosystem become transferred to the Node.js web application.

Some of the top Node.js security threats and issues include the following:

• Code injection
• Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attack
• Default cookie names
• X-Powered-By header
• Brute force and other forms of password attacks
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks
• Cross-site Scripting attack

Node.js security best practices

The security threats and concerns mentioned above can cause serious harm, such as substantial financial losses and reputational damages. In this section, we will go through some of the effective techniques you can use to secure Node.js application.

1. User Input Validation

SQL injection is one of the most popular attacks your Node.js application will likely face. As the name suggests, an SQL attack occurs when an attacker executes SQL statements on your database. But SQL injection attacks mostly happen as a result of negligence from the owner of the database. Database owners who fail to sanitize user inputs from the frontend are more likely to fall prey to SQL injection attacks.

There are many ways to avoid SQL injections in the Node.js application, but the basic one is to not blindly pass every parameter from the front end to your database query. It will be a great idea to validate all user inputs and escape some. Doing so will protect your Node.js application from SQL attacks.

2. Strong Authentication

One of the common aspects that will make your Node.js application susceptible to attacks is weak, broken, or incomplete authentication. Attackers will find it easy to bypass such authentication; sooner or later, your application will face a devastating attack from brute force or dictionary attackers.

There are a few things to understand when dealing with Node.js authentication. They are as follows:

• Avoid using Node.js built-in crypto library when creating your usernames and passwords. Instead, use Bcrypt or Scrypt.
• Configure the application in such a way that it does not tell the user if a password is correct or incorrect
• Limit the login attempts and other proper session management policies
• Implement good password practices
• Implement two-factor authentication using modules such as speakeasy and node-2fa

3. Conduct Frequent Vulnerability Scanning

One thing I love about the Node.js application is that it allows you to use multiple libraries, modules, and codes written by a third party. Whereas this is a good thing, it creates a security problem because some codes and libraries might be insecure.

You do not have to do away with third-party libraries and codes. Instead, conducting frequent vulnerability scans will be a great idea to help you unearth and fix possible security threats. You can set up automatic scanning to help save you time and all the troubles that come with manual scanning.

4. Set Up Robust Logging and Monitoring

Most people believe that the aspect of logging and monitoring has nothing to do with security. However, you will be thrilled to learn that logging and monitoring play a significant role in web application security. For that reason, you need to set up logging and monitoring. With logging, it becomes easy to discover hacking schemes that intend to make your application unavailable and ones that want to remain undetected for long periods. Monitoring logs and metrics make it easy to identify things wrong with your applications.

5. Using Security Linters to Protect Your Node.js Application

We have already mentioned the aspect of automatic security vulnerability scanning as one of the top Node.js security best practices. But you do not have to leave it at that. It is wise to go further and capture notorious security vulnerabilities during code writing. And you can do so by using security linters. Several linter plugins, such as eslint-plugin-security - npm, will do the job for you. The security linter plugin does notify you every time you implement an unsafe code practice, thereby saving you from the security vulnerabilities that come with such practices.

6. Execute HTTP Response Headers

The Express framework is very common with Node.js applications. Important to note is that this framework was not developed with security in mind. To ensure the safety of your Node.js application, especially when using the Express framework, it would be a great idea to execute HTTP response headers. Doing so will help to protect your application from various less-known security vulnerabilities.

It would be great if you considered using modules such as Helmet to add more headers and secure your application. This module can implement eleven header-based security mechanisms with a single code line.

7. Use Anti-forgery Tokens to Prevent Cross-Site Forgery Requests

As we saw earlier, Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks are among the most rampant and severe attacks associated with Node.js applications. The major aim of Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attackers is to make changes in application state requests. Attackers can leverage social-engineering attacks to trick users into executing unnecessary actions, such as sending downloading malicious links sent via email. For administrative users, Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks hold enough power to compromise the entire web application.

Anti-forgery tokens are the best strategy to protect your application against these attacks. The tokens will help monitor and validate user requests' authenticity, thereby preventing one-click attacks.

8. Avoid Running the Node.js Application as a Root

It is easy to forget or overlook how Node.js should be executed, especially in a world where docker and microservices have taken center stage. Most programmers spin up a docker container and assume it has been isolated from the host, protecting it from security vulnerabilities. But does a docker mean running the Node.js application as root isn't a problem? The answer is no. Avoid running Node.js as a root, and you will end up with minimal security threats.

9. Session Management Through Cookie Flags

Today’s web applications rely heavily on session management to handle multiple requests and boost their cybersecurity. Using cookies on your Node.js application is great as it will collect and send data about different users' sessions on the application. Here are some more things you can do to secure your sessions:

• Set up the HTTPOnly cookie flags to your cookie file
• Setting up HTTPOnly will help to prevent cross-site scripting attacks
• Keep and transmit all interactions through HTTP
• Use the SameSite flag to prevent Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks

10. Utilize Security Tools To Enhance the Security of Your Node.js Application

Other than adhering to the nine security practices explained above, it is also an excellent idea to adopt various security tools that will help to boost the security of your Node.js application. These security tools will guard you against potential attackers and help to point out security loopholes in your Node.js application. Some of the tools you can use to enhance the security of your Node.js application include the following:

• Snyk
• Source Clear
• Retire.js
• Helmet
• Acunetix

Conclusion

This article has covered the top ten security practices you can adopt to enhance the security of Node.js. It also explained what a Node.js application means and its security threats. It is now time to go ahead and implement these measures. Adopting all the security practices mentioned herein to have vibrant security walls protecting your Node.js applications is a great idea.