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Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

Hasty Treat - Front End Security

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about front end security and what to do in order to avoid hacking.

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Show Notes

2:53 - SSL

  • Encrypted transfer of information
  • Digitally binds a cryptographic key to an organization’s details
  • Web-cam, geolocation, etc.

6:15 - innerHTML

  • React’s dangerouslySetInnerHTML
    • Name intentionally chosen to be frightening
    • Allows you to write HTML to the DOM
    • Data should be sanitized before used in prop
      • Removes unexpected data from string
      • Used to prevent cross site scripting attacks

10:25 - Don’t trust the client

  • The client can be manipulated to send any info to your server
  • E-commerce example — don’t take the price total from the front end to make the charge, DB call and calculate on the server
  • Validate form inputs via HTML 5 field validation/check data types on the server
    • Don’t allow your users to send an object when it should just be a string
    • Get this for free with GraphQL via types

13:41 - PCI Compliance

  • Protect card holder data
    • SSL or Secure iFrame
  • Encrypt transmission of card data
  • Restrict access to card holder data
  • Restrict physical access
    • Front of front-end

16:44 - Tips

  • Don’t put a name on sensitive fields if you are using JS
  • HTTP only cookies
  • Local Storage tokens
  • XSS
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