Security Audit Toolkit

# Security Audit

Scan, detect, and fix security issues in codebases and infrastructure. Covers dependency vulnerabilities, secret detection, OWASP top 10, SSL/TLS verification, file permissions, and secure coding patterns.

When to Use

• Scanning project dependencies for known vulnerabilities
• Detecting hardcoded secrets, API keys, or credentials in source code
• Reviewing code for OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities (injection, XSS, CSRF, etc.)
• Verifying SSL/TLS configuration for endpoints
• Auditing file and directory permissions
• Checking authentication and authorization patterns
• Preparing for a security review or compliance audit

Dependency Vulnerability Scanning

Node.js

```bash # Built-in npm audit npm audit npm audit --json | jq '.vulnerabilities | to_entries[] | {name: .key, severity: .value.severity, via: .value.via[0]}'

# Fix automatically where possible npm audit fix

# Show only high and critical npm audit --audit-level=high

# Check a specific package npm audit --package-lock-only

# Alternative: use npx to scan without installing npx audit-ci --high ```

Python

```bash # pip-audit (recommended) pip install pip-audit pip-audit pip-audit -r requirements.txt pip-audit --format=json

# safety (alternative) pip install safety safety check safety check -r requirements.txt --json

# Check a specific package pip-audit --requirement=- <<< "requests==2.25.0" ```

Go

```bash # Built-in vuln checker go install golang.org/x/vuln/cmd/govulncheck@latest govulncheck ./...

# Check specific binary govulncheck -mode=binary ./myapp ```

Rust

```bash # cargo-audit cargo install cargo-audit cargo audit

# With fix suggestions cargo audit fix ```

Universal: Trivy (scans any project)

```bash # Install: https://aquasecurity.github.io/trivy # Scan filesystem trivy fs .

# Scan specific language trivy fs --scanners vuln --severity HIGH,CRITICAL .

# Scan Docker image trivy image myapp:latest

# JSON output trivy fs --format json -o results.json . ```

Secret Detection

Manual grep patterns

```bash # AWS keys grep -rn 'AKIA[0-9A-Z]\{16\}' --include='*.{js,ts,py,go,java,rb,env,yml,yaml,json,xml,cfg,conf,ini}' .

# Generic API keys and tokens grep -rn -i 'api[_-]\?key\|api[_-]\?secret\|access[_-]\?token\|auth[_-]\?token\|bearer ' \ --include='*.{js,ts,py,go,java,rb,env,yml,yaml,json}' .

# Private keys grep -rn 'BEGIN.*PRIVATE KEY' .

# Passwords in config grep -rn -i 'password\s*[:=]' --include='*.{env,yml,yaml,json,xml,cfg,conf,ini,toml}' .

# Connection strings with credentials grep -rn -i 'mongodb://\|mysql://\|postgres://\|redis://' --include='*.{js,ts,py,go,env,yml,yaml,json}' . | grep -v 'localhost\|127.0.0.1\|example'

# JWT tokens (three base64 segments separated by dots) grep -rn 'eyJ[A-Za-z0-9_-]*\.eyJ[A-Za-z0-9_-]*\.' --include='*.{js,ts,py,go,log,json}' . ```

Automated scanning with git

```bash # Scan git history for secrets (not just current files) # Using git log + grep git log -p --all | grep -n -i 'api.key\|password\|secret\|token' | head -50

# Check staged files before commit git diff --cached --name-only | xargs grep -l -i 'api.key\|password\|secret\|token' 2>/dev/null ```

Pre-commit hook for secrets

```bash #!/bin/bash # .git/hooks/pre-commit - Block commits containing potential secrets

PATTERNS=( 'AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16}' 'BEGIN.*PRIVATE KEY' 'password\s*[:=]\s*["\x27][^"\x27]+' 'api[_-]?key\s*[:=]\s*["\x27][^"\x27]+' 'sk-[A-Za-z0-9]{20,}' 'ghp_[A-Za-z0-9]{36}' 'xox[bpoas]-[A-Za-z0-9-]+' )

STAGED_FILES=$(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter=ACM) [ -z "$STAGED_FILES" ] && exit 0

EXIT_CODE=0 for pattern in "${PATTERNS[@]}"; do matches=$(echo "$STAGED_FILES" | xargs grep -Pn "$pattern" 2>/dev/null) if [ -n "$matches" ]; then echo "BLOCKED: Potential secret detected matching pattern: $pattern" echo "$matches" EXIT_CODE=1 fi done

if [ $EXIT_CODE -ne 0 ]; then echo "" echo "To proceed anyway: git commit --no-verify" echo "To remove secrets: replace with environment variables" fi exit $EXIT_CODE ```

.gitignore audit

```bash # Check if sensitive files are tracked echo "--- Files that should probably be gitignored ---" for pattern in '.env' '.env.*' '*.pem' '*.key' '*.p12' '*.pfx' 'credentials.json' \ 'service-account*.json' '*.keystore' 'id_rsa' 'id_ed25519'; do found=$(git ls-files "$pattern" 2>/dev/null) [ -n "$found" ] && echo " TRACKED: $found" done

# Check if .gitignore exists and has common patterns if [ ! -f .gitignore ]; then echo "WARNING: No .gitignore file found" else for entry in '.env' 'node_modules' '*.key' '*.pem'; do grep -q "$entry" .gitignore || echo " MISSING from .gitignore: $entry" done fi ```

OWASP Top 10 Code Patterns

1. Injection (SQL, Command, LDAP)

```bash # SQL injection: string concatenation in queries grep -rn "query\|execute\|cursor" --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb}' . | \ grep -i "f\"\|format(\|%s\|\${\|+ \"\|concat\|sprintf" | \ grep -iv "parameterized\|placeholder\|prepared"

# Command injection: user input in shell commands grep -rn "exec(\|spawn(\|system(\|popen(\|subprocess\|os\.system\|child_process" \ --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb}' .

# Check for parameterized queries (good) grep -rn "\\$[0-9]\|\\?\|%s\|:param\|@param\|prepared" --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb}' . ```

2. Broken Authentication

```bash # Weak password hashing (MD5, SHA1 used for passwords) grep -rn "md5\|sha1\|sha256" --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb}' . | grep -i "password\|passwd"

# Hardcoded credentials grep -rn -i "admin.*password\|password.*admin\|default.*password" \ --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb,yml,yaml,json}' .

# Session tokens in URLs grep -rn "session\|token\|jwt" --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb}' . | grep -i "url\|query\|param\|GET"

# Check for rate limiting on auth endpoints grep -rn -i "rate.limit\|throttle\|brute" --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb}' . ```

3. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

```bash # Unescaped output in templates grep -rn "innerHTML\|dangerouslySetInnerHTML\|v-html\|\|html(" \ --include='*.{js,ts,jsx,tsx,vue,html}' .

# Template injection grep -rn "{{{.*}}}\|<%=\|<%-\|\$\!{" --include='*.{html,ejs,hbs,pug,erb}' .

# Document.write grep -rn "document\.write\|document\.writeln" --include='*.{js,ts,html}' .

# eval with user input grep -rn "eval(\|new Function(\|setTimeout.*string\|setInterval.*string" \ --include='*.{js,ts}' . ```

4. Insecure Direct Object References

```bash # Direct ID usage in routes without authz check grep -rn "params\.id\|params\[.id.\]\|req\.params\.\|request\.args\.\|request\.GET\." \ --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb}' . | \ grep -i "user\|account\|profile\|order\|document" ```

5. Security Misconfiguration

```bash # CORS wildcard grep -rn "Access-Control-Allow-Origin.*\*\|cors({.*origin.*true\|cors()" \ --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb}' .

# Debug mode in production configs grep -rn "DEBUG\s*=\s*True\|debug:\s*true\|NODE_ENV.*development" \ --include='*.{py,js,ts,yml,yaml,json,env}' .

# Verbose error messages exposed to clients grep -rn "stack\|traceback\|stackTrace" --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb}' . | \ grep -i "response\|send\|return\|res\." ```

SSL/TLS Verification

Check endpoint SSL

```bash # Full SSL check openssl s_client -connect example.com:443 -servername example.com < /dev/null 2>/dev/null | \ openssl x509 -noout -subject -issuer -dates -fingerprint

# Check certificate expiry echo | openssl s_client -connect example.com:443 -servername example.com 2>/dev/null | \ openssl x509 -noout -enddate

# Check supported TLS versions for v in tls1 tls1_1 tls1_2 tls1_3; do result=$(openssl s_client -connect example.com:443 -$v < /dev/null 2>&1) if echo "$result" | grep -q "Cipher is"; then echo "$v: SUPPORTED" else echo "$v: NOT SUPPORTED" fi done

# Check cipher suites openssl s_client -connect example.com:443 -cipher 'ALL' < /dev/null 2>&1 | \ grep "Cipher :"

# Check for weak ciphers openssl s_client -connect example.com:443 -cipher 'NULL:EXPORT:DES:RC4:MD5' < /dev/null 2>&1 | \ grep "Cipher :" ```

Verify certificate chain

```bash # Download and verify full chain openssl s_client -connect example.com:443 -showcerts < /dev/null 2>/dev/null | \ awk '/BEGIN CERTIFICATE/,/END CERTIFICATE/{print}' > chain.pem

# Verify chain openssl verify -CAfile /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt chain.pem

# Check certificate details openssl x509 -in chain.pem -noout -text | grep -A2 "Subject:\|Issuer:\|Not Before\|Not After\|DNS:" ```

Check SSL from code

```bash # Verify SSL isn't disabled in code grep -rn "verify\s*=\s*False\|rejectUnauthorized.*false\|InsecureSkipVerify.*true\|CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER.*false\|NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED.*0" \ --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb,yml,yaml}' . ```

File Permission Audit

```bash # Find world-writable files find . -type f -perm -o=w -not -path '*/node_modules/*' -not -path '*/.git/*' 2>/dev/null

# Find executable files that shouldn't be find . -type f -perm -u=x -not -name '*.sh' -not -name '*.py' -not -path '*/node_modules/*' \ -not -path '*/.git/*' -not -path '*/bin/*' 2>/dev/null

# Check sensitive file permissions for f in .env .env.* *.pem *.key *.p12 id_rsa id_ed25519; do [ -f "$f" ] && ls -la "$f" done

# Find files with SUID/SGID bits (Linux) find / -type f \( -perm -4000 -o -perm -2000 \) 2>/dev/null | head -20

# Check SSH key permissions if [ -d ~/.ssh ]; then echo "--- SSH directory permissions ---" ls -la ~/.ssh/ echo "" # Should be: dir=700, private keys=600, public keys=644, config=600 [ "$(stat -c %a ~/.ssh 2>/dev/null || stat -f %Lp ~/.ssh)" != "700" ] && echo "WARNING: ~/.ssh should be 700" fi ```

Full Project Security Audit Script

```bash #!/bin/bash # security-audit.sh - Run a comprehensive security check on a project set -euo pipefail

PROJECT_DIR="${1:-.}" cd "$PROJECT_DIR"

echo "=========================================" echo "Security Audit: $(basename "$(pwd)")" echo "Date: $(date -u '+%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')" echo "=========================================" echo ""

ISSUES=0 warn() { echo " [!] $1"; ((ISSUES++)); } ok() { echo " [OK] $1"; } section() { echo ""; echo "--- $1 ---"; }

# 1. Secrets detection section "Secret Detection" for pattern in 'AKIA[0-9A-Z]\{16\}' 'BEGIN.*PRIVATE KEY' 'sk-[A-Za-z0-9]\{20,\}' \ 'ghp_[A-Za-z0-9]\{36\}' 'xox[bpoas]-'; do count=$(grep -rn "$pattern" --include='*.{js,ts,py,go,java,rb,env,yml,yaml,json,xml}' . 2>/dev/null | \ grep -v 'node_modules\|\.git\|vendor\|__pycache__' | wc -l) if [ "$count" -gt 0 ]; then warn "Found $count matches for pattern: $pattern" fi done grep -rn -i 'password\s*[:=]\s*["'"'"'][^"'"'"']*["'"'"']' \ --include='*.{js,ts,py,go,yml,yaml,json,env}' . 2>/dev/null | \ grep -v 'node_modules\|\.git\|example\|test\|mock\|placeholder\|changeme\|xxxx' | \ while read -r line; do warn "Hardcoded password: $line"; done

# 2. Dependency audit section "Dependency Vulnerabilities" if [ -f package-lock.json ] || [ -f package.json ]; then npm audit --audit-level=high 2>/dev/null && ok "npm: no high/critical vulns" || warn "npm audit found issues" fi if [ -f requirements.txt ]; then pip-audit -r requirements.txt 2>/dev/null && ok "pip: no known vulns" || warn "pip-audit found issues" fi if [ -f go.sum ]; then govulncheck ./... 2>/dev/null && ok "Go: no known vulns" || warn "govulncheck found issues" fi

# 3. Gitignore check section ".gitignore Coverage" if [ ! -f .gitignore ]; then warn "No .gitignore file" else for entry in '.env' 'node_modules' '*.key' '*.pem' '.DS_Store'; do grep -q "$entry" .gitignore 2>/dev/null && ok ".gitignore has $entry" || warn ".gitignore missing: $entry" done fi

# 4. SSL verification disabled section "SSL Verification" disabled=$(grep -rn "verify\s*=\s*False\|rejectUnauthorized.*false\|InsecureSkipVerify.*true" \ --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb}' . 2>/dev/null | \ grep -v 'node_modules\|\.git\|test\|spec\|mock' | wc -l) [ "$disabled" -gt 0 ] && warn "SSL verification disabled in $disabled location(s)" || ok "No SSL bypasses found"

# 5. CORS wildcard section "CORS Configuration" cors=$(grep -rn "Access-Control-Allow-Origin.*\*\|cors({.*origin.*true" \ --include='*.{py,js,ts,go,java,rb}' . 2>/dev/null | \ grep -v 'node_modules\|\.git' | wc -l) [ "$cors" -gt 0 ] && warn "CORS wildcard found in $cors location(s)" || ok "No CORS wildcard"

# 6. Debug mode section "Debug/Development Settings" debug=$(grep -rn "DEBUG\s*=\s*True\|debug:\s*true" \ --include='*.{py,yml,yaml,json}' . 2>/dev/null | \ grep -v 'node_modules\|\.git\|test\|jest\|vitest' | wc -l) [ "$debug" -gt 0 ] && warn "Debug mode enabled in $debug location(s)" || ok "No debug flags found"

echo "" echo "=========================================" echo "Audit complete. Issues found: $ISSUES" echo "=========================================" [ "$ISSUES" -eq 0 ] && exit 0 || exit 1 ```

Secure Coding Quick Reference

Environment variables instead of hardcoded secrets

```bash # Bad: hardcoded in source API_KEY="sk-abc123..."

# Good: from environment API_KEY="${API_KEY:?Error: API_KEY not set}"

# Good: from .env file (loaded at startup, never committed) # .env API_KEY=sk-abc123... # .gitignore .env ```

Input validation checklist

• ```
• [ ] All user input validated (type, length, format)
• [ ] SQL queries use parameterized statements (never string concat)
• [ ] Shell commands never include user input directly
• [ ] File paths validated (no path traversal: ../)
• [ ] URLs validated (no SSRF: restrict to expected domains)
• [ ] HTML output escaped (no XSS: use framework auto-escaping)
• [ ] JSON parsing has error handling (no crash on malformed input)
• [ ] File uploads checked (type, size, no executable content)
• ```

HTTP security headers

```bash # Check security headers on a URL curl -sI https://example.com | grep -i 'strict-transport\|content-security\|x-frame\|x-content-type\|referrer-policy\|permissions-policy'

# Expected headers: # Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains # Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self' # X-Frame-Options: DENY # X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff # Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin # Permissions-Policy: camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=() ```

Tips

• Run `npm audit` / `pip-audit` / `govulncheck` in CI on every pull request, not just occasionally.
• Secret detection in git history matters: even if a secret is removed from HEAD, it exists in git history. Use `git filter-branch` or `git-filter-repo` to purge, then rotate the credential.
• The most dangerous vulnerabilities are often the simplest: SQL injection via string concatenation, command injection via unsanitized input, XSS via `innerHTML`.
• CORS `Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *` is safe for truly public, read-only APIs. It's dangerous for anything that uses cookies or auth tokens.
• Always verify SSL in production. `verify=False` or `rejectUnauthorized: false` should only appear in test code, never in production paths.
• Defense in depth: validate input, escape output, use parameterized queries, enforce least privilege, and assume every layer might be bypassed.