Unicorn security

<!-- Last reviewed: 2026-03 -->

Security: Think Like an Attacker

Core Principle

Defense in Depth + Least Privilege. Layer multiple controls. Grant minimum permissions. Assume every layer can fail.

Security Mindset

Six Questions (Every Feature)

1. Who can access this? (Authentication)
2. Are they allowed to? (Authorization)
3. Can they see more than they should? (Data exposure)
4. Can they do more than they should? (Privilege escalation)
5. Can they break it for others? (Denial of service)
6. Will we know if they do? (Audit logging)

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OWASP Top 10 (Quick Reference)

#	Vulnerability	Key Defense
1	Broken Access Control	Auth check per resource, deny by default
2	Cryptographic Failures	Argon2/bcrypt, never MD5/SHA1 for passwords
3	Injection (SQL, XSS, Command)	Parameterized queries, escaping, allowlists
4	Insecure Design	Rate limiting, STRIDE threat modeling
5	Security Misconfiguration	Debug off in prod, generic error messages
6	Vulnerable Components	safety check / npm audit
7	Authentication Failures	Secure cookies, crypto-random session IDs
8	Data Integrity Failures	JSON with validation, never pickle
9	Logging Failures	Log security events, failed auth, admin actions
10	SSRF	URL allowlist, block internal IPs

See references/owasp-top-10.md for detailed bad/good code examples per vulnerability.

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Input Validation

Allowlist over Denylist:

# BAD: Denylist (easy to bypass)
if username in ['admin', 'root']:
    raise ValueError()

# GOOD: Allowlist (explicit)
if not re.match(r'^[a-zA-Z0-9_]{3,20}$', username):
    raise ValueError("Invalid format")

Layered Validation:

from pydantic import BaseModel, validator, constr

class UserInput(BaseModel):
    username: constr(min_length=3, max_length=20, regex=r'^[a-zA-Z0-9_]+$')
    email: str
    age: int

    @validator('email')
    def validate_email(cls, v):
        if not re.match(r'^[\w\.-]+@[\w\.-]+\.\w+$', v):
            raise ValueError('Invalid email')
        return v.lower()

    @validator('age')
    def validate_age(cls, v):
        if not (0 <= v <= 150):
            raise ValueError('Age 0-150')
        return v

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Output Encoding

Context-Aware:

from markupsafe import escape
from urllib.parse import quote

html = f"<div>{escape(username)}</div>"          # HTML context
url = f"https://example.com/search?q={quote(term)}"  # URL context
js = f"var name = {json.dumps(username)};"        # JS context
db.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE name = ?", [username])  # SQL: parameterize

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Secrets Management

# BAD: Hardcoded
API_KEY = "sk_live_abc123"

# GOOD: Environment with verification
import os
for secret in ['API_KEY', 'DATABASE_URL', 'SECRET_KEY']:
    if secret not in os.environ:
        raise RuntimeError(f"Missing: {secret}")

# .env (add to .gitignore, NEVER commit)
API_KEY=sk_live_abc123

# .env.example (commit this)
API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Production: Use AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault, or platform-native secret stores.

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Common Vulnerability Fixes

Path Traversal

from pathlib import Path
BASE_DIR = Path('/var/data')
file_path = (BASE_DIR / filename).resolve()
if not file_path.is_relative_to(BASE_DIR):
    abort(403)

Mass Assignment

# BAD: user.update(**request.json)  # Attack: {"is_admin": true}
ALLOWED = ['name', 'email', 'bio']
for field in ALLOWED:
    if field in request.json:
        setattr(user, field, request.json[field])

CSRF Protection

from flask_wtf.csrf import CSRFProtect
csrf = CSRFProtect(app)
app.config['SESSION_COOKIE_SAMESITE'] = 'Strict'

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Security Tooling

bandit -r src/ -f json -o report.json   # Static analysis
safety check                            # Python dependency scan
npm audit                               # Node dependency scan
trivy image myapp:latest                # Container scan

See references/security-tooling.md for pre-commit hooks, security headers config, and CI/CD integration.

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Quick Checklist

Auth:

• Auth required for protected endpoints
• Authorization checked per resource
• Password hashing (bcrypt/argon2)
• Secure session management
• MFA for sensitive operations

Input/Output:

• All inputs validated (allowlist)
• Parameterized queries
• Context-aware output encoding
• CSP headers set
• Generic error messages (no stack traces)

Secrets & Crypto:

• No secrets in code or git
• Environment variables or secret manager
• TLS everywhere
• secrets module for random tokens

Monitoring:

• Security events logged
• Failed auth attempts tracked
• Audit trail for admin actions
• Alerts configured

Config:

• Debug off in production
• Security headers (HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options)
• Default credentials changed
• Dependencies updated