Adhering to backend development best practices is crucial for security. With an increasing number of applications, websites, and web applications on the internet, they are often the target of malicious actors and attackers. To protect against threats and attacks, backend engineers must employ certain practices to keep the backend system safe and secure.
In this blog, we will dive deep into the backend best practices to keep the system secure from malicious intent and attacks.
Backend Development Best Practices: Choosing the Appropriate and Best Backend Framework
The framework you choose provides the basics of secure backend development. Various frameworks tend to ship with certain security features pre-installed. For instance, Spring Boot provides an exhaustive suite of security features, including authentication (as general as that), authorization, and protection against a series of common vulnerabilities.
Another example is Node.js which provides a rich ecosystem of security libraries including Helmet.js. It is an excellent security library that allows you to set HTTP headers and Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) for cross-origin request management. When you choose a framework that suits the security level needed in your development process, it will provide you with a strong base for security which you can build upon if required.
Backend Development Best Practices: OWASP Top 10 Application Risks
Knowing the OWASP Top 10 Application Risks is one of the most basic backend development best practices to protect your backend systems from common vulnerabilities. The OWASP Top 10 is an up-to-date report detailing the top ten, most critical security risks to web applications.
These threats contain MSSQL Injection, through which attackers manipulate queries to reach unauthorized data, and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), which allows malicious scripts to execute in the context of web pages within users’ browsers. The list is updated regularly, so there are new threats that make the list.
A basic understanding of top security risks helps backend engineers take precautions like input validation, output encoding, and secure authentication mechanisms. To use another example, addressing Security Misconfiguration is a matter of configuring settings across application platforms to frameworks and libraries correctly. Checking these periodically to keep up with new threats helps enforce a security mindset in the development lifecycle.
Backend Development Best Practices: Secure Coding
A secure backend system is based on secure coding practices. Parameterized queries and ORMs (Object-Relational Mappers) help mitigate common pitfalls such as injection attacks that insert malicious code directly into input fields. This prevents user input from being executed as a part of the database command and includes unauthorized data access or system control.
You must carry out extensive error handling to avoid exposing sensitive information through detailed error messages. In practical terms, this means an error message should ideally read “Login Failed” instead of “Invalid Passwordâ€. Detailed error messages can give the attacker clues about the system.
It is important to implement these principles right from the start following backend development best practices. It is also crucial for developers to be well-informed of new vulnerabilities and work on improving their coding each time a fresh vulnerability emerges.
Backend Development Best Practices: Focus on Authentication and Authorization
Having robust authentication and authorization mechanisms plays the most significant role in terms of controlling access to backend systems. Authentication ensures users are who they say they are, authorization says what those identified user(s) are allowed to do.
User identity management can be made more secure with protocols such as OAuth2 and OpenID Connect. These protocols are widely used as they cater to many complex authentication scenarios supporting single sign-on (SSO) and token-based auth which are crucial for large and complex applications.
The control is performed by assigning roles to the users with capabilities they have permission for, this process is known as Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). This way users are allowed only the resources required for their role, hence minimizing unauthorized access. For fine-grained control, you can use Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) which allows you to make access decisions based on user attributes and contextual environment.
Backend Development Best Practices: Focusing on Database Security
Database security is an important subset of backend development security as a lot of crucial information is stored in databases. To protect this data, several layers are created starting with a layer of encryption.
Data should be encrypted using strong encryption algorithms like AES or its equivalent, and must not allow for decryption unless authenticated via an authorized party. Further, strict access controls must be implemented such that only the ones required to read or change data have permissions.
Additionally, regularly update the database software with security patches to address any vulnerabilities and security risks.
Backend Development Best Practices: Threat Modeling for Secure Development
Threat modeling is a proactive security process that enables analysis and early mitigation for those threats included in the design phase, or maybe while planning development. By anticipating the types of attacks that might threaten your system, you can build more secure systems and take more security precautions. The threat modeling process usually involves understanding your critical assets and implementing security measures to protect those assets.
An example is, if you are developing a finance application, unauthorized transactions are one of the biggest threats. In the threat modeling exercise, you could conclude that it makes sense to implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and encrypt all transaction data. The threat landscape keeps on evolving and updating your threat model is essential.
If you start threat modeling at the beginning of your development life cycle, security will be built into the architecture of your system. It not only increases security but also decreases the cost and complexity of implementing security measures later in the development lifecycle.
Backend Development Best Practices: Implementing Access Controls
Implementing strong access controls is essential for protecting backend systems. In addition to the traditional Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), modern systems should make use of Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) which enables more restrictive access decisions based on user attributes like department, location, or security clearance. Additionally, ABAC has the capability to dynamically adjust permissions depending on the context of the request, which adds a layer of flexibility.
For instance, access to sensitive financial information can be restricted by not only the user role but, also restricted by the location from where the request is made. Attempting to access the information from a location that is not typical of the user, the request can be flagged or blocked.
Least privilege should be employed as well, making sure users have the least amount of access they need in order to do their job. Access controls need to be routinely audited so they stay functioning and current with any changes in user roles or system needs. This prevents unauthorized access and reduces the amount of damage that can be done to a compromised account.
Backend Development Best Practices: Automated Scanning and Testing
Automated security testing is a must-have as it enables you to discover vulnerabilities in the earlier phases of development. Adding tools like OWASP ZAP for dynamic application security testing (DAST) and SonarQube for static code analysis in your CI/CD pipeline makes it possible to continuously scan for vulnerabilities and security flaws. Because of this, security checks are introduced as part of the development process rather than as an afterthought.
There are many tools that can automatically detect common vulnerabilities, like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and insecure configurations. Nevertheless, these tools are not supposed to replace manual code reviews and penetration testing. Some subtle vulnerabilities can be too complex for the automated tools to detect.
Security testing on a regular basis, supported by the use of automated tools, guarantees that your backend system is safe when new code has merged or added to an existing one. It also helps ensure compliance with security standards and backend development best practices.
Use Secure Authentication Methods
This is one of the easiest backend development practices that can go a long way to keep your backend system secure. After the software is released, the vendor may discover new security vulnerabilities and release updates or patches to address them. Not applying these updates can allow attackers to exploit known vulnerabilities in your systems.
Integrating the update process with tools such as Dependabot or Renovate will help make sure that the dependencies are always updated. However, it is very important to test the updates in a staging environment before deploying them on production as new features may bring compatibility issues or bugs.
Apart from applying new updates and security patches, backend engineers should also review their software stack for components that have exited end-of-life (EOL) regularly. This is very risky, as using unsupported code with no patches from the vendor poses a serious security threat.
Also read: Backend Interview Coding Challenges: Best Practices Makes Perfect
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FAQs: Backend Development Best Practices for Security
1. What Are The Backend Development Best Practices For Securing A Database?
Enabling encryption, parameterized queries, and controlling user access are three backend best practices to secure databases against unauthorized data readings or SQL injections.
2. What Are The Common Vulnerabilities In A Backend I Should Be Aware Of And Protect?
You need to know the OWASP Top 10 risks and adopt secure coding methodologies like input validation, and output encoding so that you can prevent your backend from common vulnerabilities.
3. Why Is It Important To Keep Software Updated At The Backend?
Keeping the backend system updated with the latest security patches is a simple yet, crucial backend development best practice to keep your systems protected against known security vulnerabilities.
4. How Do Authentication And Authorization Enhance Backend Security?
Strong authentication and authorization mechanisms, like OAuth2 and RBAC, ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive data and information.
5. What Part Does Automation Testing Play In Backend Development?
Automated testing is an important backend best practice followed by backend dev teams to detect and reduce security holes at an early stage of the development process, leading to smooth & secure application release.
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