security

Security

A guide for practicing safe web.

Think

Security is important, and you can't practice these guidelines without understanding them. Make sure you understand each guideline, why it exists, and how to follow it.

Failing to follow these guidelines will likely put you, your team, and your deployed services at risk of compromise or loss of privacy.

Using Passwords

• Use a unique password for every account you create.
• Use a tool like pwgen or 1password to generate random passwords.
• Use a tool like GnuPG to encrypt passwords if you need to share them with somebody.

Accepting Passwords

• Don't store passwords in plain text.
• Don't hash passwords using a reversible cipher.
• Don't hash passwords using a broken cipher, such as MD5 or SHA1.
• Don't accept passwords or session tokens over HTTP.

HTTPS

• Use HTTPS for all web traffic.
• Use HTTPS in the beginning; it's harder to introduce later.
• Use HTTPS redirects for HTTP traffic.
• Use HSTS headers to enforce HTTPS traffic.
• Use secure cookies.
• Avoid protocol-relative URLs.

PGP and GnuPG

• Use a PGP signature in an email if you want somebody to trust that you wrote it.
• Use PGP to check email signatures if you want to know who wrote it.
• Use PGP to encrypt emails if you want to be sure nobody but the recipient is reading it.
• Use ultimate trust for your own keys.
• Use full trust for keys you have verified in person or via a secure video chat.
• Don't share your private key with anyone, including services like Keybase.
• Keep at least one backup of your private key and revocation certificate in a secure location, such as a thumb drive.