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name: cc-skill-security-review description: "This skill ensures all code follows security best practices and identifies potential vulnerabilities. Use when implementing authentication or authorization, handling user input or file uploads, or creating new API endpoints." risk: unknown source: community date_added: "2026-02-27"

Security Review Skill

This skill ensures all code follows security best practices and identifies potential vulnerabilities.

When to Use

• Implementing authentication or authorization
• Handling user input or file uploads
• Creating new API endpoints
• Working with secrets or credentials
• Implementing payment features
• Storing or transmitting sensitive data
• Integrating third-party APIs

Security Checklist

1. Secrets Management

❌ NEVER Do This

const apiKey = "sk-proj-xxxxx"  // Hardcoded secret
const dbPassword = "password123" // In source code

✅ ALWAYS Do This

const apiKey = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY
const dbUrl = process.env.DATABASE_URL

// Verify secrets exist
if (!apiKey) {
  throw new Error('OPENAI_API_KEY not configured')
}

Verification Steps

• [ ] No hardcoded API keys, tokens, or passwords
• [ ] All secrets in environment variables
• [ ] .env.local in .gitignore
• [ ] No secrets in git history
• [ ] Production secrets in hosting platform (Vercel, Railway)

2. Input Validation

Always Validate User Input

import { z } from 'zod'

// Define validation schema
const CreateUserSchema = z.object({
  email: z.string().email(),
  name: z.string().min(1).max(100),
  age: z.number().int().min(0).max(150)
})

// Validate before processing
export async function createUser(input: unknown) {
  try {
    const validated = CreateUserSchema.parse(input)
    return await db.users.create(validated)
  } catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof z.ZodError) {
      return { success: false, errors: error.errors }
    }
    throw error
  }
}

File Upload Validation

function validateFileUpload(file: File) {
  // Size check (5MB max)
  const maxSize = 5 * 1024 * 1024
  if (file.size > maxSize) {
    throw new Error('File too large (max 5MB)')
  }

  // Type check
  const allowedTypes = ['image/jpeg', 'image/png', 'image/gif']
  if (!allowedTypes.includes(file.type)) {
    throw new Error('Invalid file type')
  }

  // Extension check
  const allowedExtensions = ['.jpg', '.jpeg', '.png', '.gif']
  const extension = file.name.toLowerCase().match(/\.[^.]+$/)?.[0]
  if (!extension || !allowedExtensions.includes(extension)) {
    throw new Error('Invalid file extension')
  }

  return true
}

Verification Steps

• [ ] All user inputs validated with schemas
• [ ] File uploads restricted (size, type, extension)
• [ ] No direct use of user input in queries
• [ ] Whitelist validation (not blacklist)
• [ ] Error messages don't leak sensitive info

3. SQL Injection Prevention

❌ NEVER Concatenate SQL

// DANGEROUS - SQL Injection vulnerability
const query = `SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = '${userEmail}'`
await db.query(query)

✅ ALWAYS Use Parameterized Queries

// Safe - parameterized query
const { data } = await supabase
  .from('users')
  .select('*')
  .eq('email', userEmail)

// Or with raw SQL
await db.query(
  'SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = $1',
  [userEmail]
)

Verification Steps

• [ ] All database queries use parameterized queries
• [ ] No string concatenation in SQL
• [ ] ORM/query builder used correctly
• [ ] Supabase queries properly sanitized

4. Authentication & Authorization

JWT Token Handling

// ❌ WRONG: localStorage (vulnerable to XSS)
localStorage.setItem('token', token)

// ✅ CORRECT: httpOnly cookies
res.setHeader('Set-Cookie',
  `token=${token}; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=Strict; Max-Age=3600`)

Authorization Checks

export async function deleteUser(userId: string, requesterId: string) {
  // ALWAYS verify authorization first
  const requester = await db.users.findUnique({
    where: { id: requesterId }
  })

  if (requester.role !== 'admin') {
    return NextResponse.json(
      { error: 'Unauthorized' },
      { status: 403 }
    )
  }

  // Proceed with deletion
  await db.users.delete({ where: { id: userId } })
}

Row Level Security (Supabase)

-- Enable RLS on all tables
ALTER TABLE users ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY;

-- Users can only view their own data
CREATE POLICY "Users view own data"
  ON users FOR SELECT
  USING (auth.uid() = id);

-- Users can only update their own data
CREATE POLICY "Users update own data"
  ON users FOR UPDATE
  USING (auth.uid() = id);

Verification Steps

• [ ] Tokens stored in httpOnly cookies (not localStorage)
• [ ] Authorization checks before sensitive operations
• [ ] Row Level Security enabled in Supabase
• [ ] Role-based access control implemented
• [ ] Session management secure

5. XSS Pr