SveltyCMS

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Security Documentation

Comprehensive security documentation for SveltyCMS covering authentication, cryptography, widget security, and best practices

Last updated: 11/14/2025

Security Documentation

SveltyCMS implements enterprise-grade security measures across all system components to protect data, prevent vulnerabilities, and ensure compliance with security standards.

🛡️ Security Overview

SveltyCMS security architecture includes:

  • 🔐 Authentication & Authorization - Multi-factor authentication, session management, RBAC
  • 🔒 Cryptography - Quantum-resistant password hashing, AES-256 encryption
  • 🛡️ Widget Security - XSS prevention, injection protection, file validation
  • 🔍 Security Monitoring - Audit logging, threat detection, security dashboards
  • 🚀 Secure Development - Build-time security checks, vulnerability scanning

📚 Security Documentation

Authentication & Access Control

Cryptography & Encryption

  • Cryptography Module - Enterprise-grade cryptography for password hashing and data encryption

    • Argon2id password hashing (quantum-resistant)
    • AES-256-GCM encryption
    • Secure token generation
    • Timing attack prevention

  • Quantum Security - Future-proof security measures against quantum computing threats

Widget & Content Security

  • Widget Security ⭐ - Comprehensive security measures across all widgets
    • XSS prevention
    • Injection attack protection
    • File upload validation
    • SSRF prevention
    • IDOR protection
    • Input sanitization

Application Security

  • Security Plugin - Build-time plugin preventing accidental exposure of private settings

    • Environment variable protection
    • Secret detection
    • Build-time validation

  • Login Error Handling - Secure error handling for authentication flows

    • Rate limiting
    • Timing attack prevention
    • Information disclosure prevention

Infrastructure Security

  • Cloud Storage Implementation - Secure cloud storage integration patterns

    • Signed URLs
    • Access control
    • Encryption at rest

  • Database Resilience - Database security and reliability

    • Connection pooling
    • Query timeout protection
    • Injection prevention

🔒 Security Features by Category

1. Authentication Security

Features:

  • ✅ Argon2id password hashing (125ms+ computational cost)
  • ✅ Automatic session rotation every 15 minutes for active users
  • ✅ 3-layer session caching (memory, Redis, database)
  • ✅ Two-factor authentication (TOTP)
  • ✅ Account lockout after failed attempts
  • ✅ Secure password reset with time-limited tokens
  • ✅ API token generation with granular permissions
  • ✅ Website Tokens with expiration policies and granular access control
  • ✅ Internal System Authorization using shared secrets (JWT_SECRET_KEY) for system-to-system calls

Implementation:

  • Password validation with entropy requirements
  • Session fixation prevention
  • CSRF Protection: Multi-layer origin and referer validation for all mutation requests (POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH)
  • Secure cookie attributes (httpOnly, secure, sameSite: Lax)

2. Data Protection

Features:

  • ✅ AES-256-GCM encryption for sensitive data
  • ✅ Field-level encryption support
  • ✅ SHA-256 checksums for data integrity
  • ✅ Encrypted database backups
  • ✅ Secure cloud storage with signed URLs

Implementation:

  • Encryption at rest and in transit
  • Key rotation support
  • Secure key storage
  • HTTPS enforcement

3. Input Validation & Sanitization

Features:

  • ✅ Schema-based validation (Valibot)
  • ✅ HTML sanitization (DOMPurify)
  • ✅ File upload validation (type, size, extension)
  • ✅ Path traversal prevention
  • ✅ SQL injection prevention (parameterized queries)
  • ✅ ReDoS prevention (input length limits)

Implementation:

  • Whitelist-based validation
  • Multi-layer validation (client + server)
  • Content Security Policy
  • X-Content-Type-Options header

4. Widget-Specific Security

Features:

  • ✅ XSS prevention in RichText and MegaMenu widgets
  • ✅ SSRF prevention in RemoteVideo widget
  • ✅ IDOR prevention in Relation widget
  • ✅ CSS injection prevention in ColorPicker widget
  • ✅ Meta tag injection prevention in SEO widget
  • ✅ File validation in MediaUpload widget
  • ✅ Format validation in Email, PhoneNumber, Currency widgets

Implementation Details: See Widget Security Documentation

5. Access Control

Features:

  • ✅ Role-based access control (RBAC)
  • ✅ Permission-based authorization
  • ✅ Multi-tenant isolation
  • ✅ Resource-level permissions
  • ✅ Admin privilege separation
  • ✅ Automated Setup Guard (blocks installation endpoints after initialization)

Implementation:

  • Permission checks at API layer
  • Database query filtering by tenant
  • Cache key prefixing for isolation
  • Tamper-Evident Audit Logging: Immutable, database-backed audit trail for all sensitive operations

6. Monitoring & Auditing

Features:

  • ✅ Comprehensive database-backed audit logging
  • ✅ Security event tracking (login failures, permission violations)
  • ✅ Real-time security dashboards and widgets
  • ✅ Audit statistics and anomaly detection
  • ✅ Automatic log retention and cleanup policies

Implementation:

  • Structured logging with correlation IDs
  • Security event aggregation
  • Anomaly detection
  • Alert thresholds

🧪 Security Testing

Test Coverage

SveltyCMS includes comprehensive security testing:

# Run security-specific tests
bun test tests/bun/security/

# Widget security tests
bun test tests/bun/widgets/widget-security.test.ts

# Authentication tests
bun test tests/bun/auth/

Security Test Categories:

  • ✅ Authentication flows (50+ tests)
  • ✅ Authorization checks (40+ tests)
  • ✅ Input validation (80+ tests)
  • ✅ XSS prevention (30+ tests)
  • ✅ Injection prevention (40+ tests)
  • ✅ File upload security (20+ tests)

Penetration Testing

Recommended security testing tools:

  • OWASP ZAP - Web application security scanner
  • Burp Suite - Security testing platform
  • SQLMap - SQL injection testing
  • XSStrike - XSS vulnerability scanner

📋 Security Checklist

Application Deployment

  • HTTPS enabled with valid SSL certificate
  • Environment variables secured (no secrets in code)
  • Database credentials rotated
  • API tokens with minimal required permissions
  • Content Security Policy configured
  • Security headers enabled (HSTS, X-Frame-Options, etc.)
  • Rate limiting configured
  • CORS policies defined

User Management

  • Default admin account password changed
  • User roles and permissions reviewed
  • 2FA enabled for admin accounts
  • Password complexity requirements enforced
  • Account lockout policy configured
  • Session timeout configured
  • API access logs monitored

Data Protection

  • Sensitive data encrypted at rest
  • Backup encryption enabled
  • Key rotation schedule defined
  • Data retention policies configured
  • PII handling compliant with regulations
  • Audit logging enabled

Widget Security

  • All widgets reviewed for security
  • Custom widgets follow security guidelines
  • File upload restrictions configured
  • Input validation enabled
  • Output encoding verified
  • Widget permissions configured

🚨 Security Incident Response

Incident Detection

Monitor for:

  • Multiple failed login attempts
  • Unusual API access patterns
  • Permission violation attempts
  • File upload anomalies
  • SQL injection attempts
  • XSS payload detection

Response Procedure

  1. Identify - Detect and confirm security incident
  2. Contain - Isolate affected systems
  3. Investigate - Analyze logs and determine scope
  4. Remediate - Fix vulnerabilities
  5. Recover - Restore normal operations
  6. Document - Record incident details and lessons learned

Reporting

Security issues should be reported to:

  • Email: security@sveltycms.org
  • GitHub: Private security advisory
  • Severity Levels: Critical, High, Medium, Low

🔐 Security Best Practices

Development

  1. Never commit secrets - Use environment variables
  2. Validate all input - Client and server side
  3. Sanitize all output - Prevent XSS
  4. Use parameterized queries - Prevent SQL injection
  5. Implement least privilege - Minimal permissions
  6. Log security events - Enable audit trail
  7. Keep dependencies updated - Regular security patches

Deployment

  1. Use HTTPS everywhere - Encrypt all traffic
  2. Enable security headers - CSP, HSTS, etc.
  3. Configure CORS properly - Restrict origins
  4. Implement rate limiting - Prevent abuse
  5. Monitor security logs - Real-time alerts
  6. Regular security audits - Quarterly reviews
  7. Backup encryption - Protect data at rest

Operations

  1. Rotate credentials regularly - Passwords, tokens, keys
  2. Review permissions - Audit user access
  3. Monitor failed logins - Detect brute force
  4. Update security policies - Keep current with threats
  5. Train users - Security awareness
  6. Test disaster recovery - Backup restoration
  7. Maintain audit logs - Compliance requirements

📊 Compliance

SveltyCMS security features support compliance with:

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

  • ✅ Data encryption
  • ✅ User consent management
  • ✅ Right to erasure
  • ✅ Data portability
  • ✅ Audit logging
  • ✅ Data breach notification

SOC 2 (Service Organization Control)

  • ✅ Access controls
  • ✅ Audit logging
  • ✅ Change management
  • ✅ Risk assessment
  • ✅ Incident response
  • ✅ Monitoring and alerting

OWASP Top 10

  • ✅ Injection prevention
  • ✅ Broken authentication protection
  • ✅ Sensitive data exposure prevention
  • ✅ XML external entities (XXE) prevention
  • ✅ Broken access control prevention
  • ✅ Security misconfiguration prevention
  • ✅ XSS prevention
  • ✅ Insecure deserialization prevention
  • ✅ Using components with known vulnerabilities (dependency scanning)
  • ✅ Insufficient logging and monitoring (comprehensive audit logs)

7. Supply Chain Security

Features:

  • ✅ Pinned GitHub Actions to specific commit SHAs
  • ✅ Enforced frozen lockfiles in CI/CD
  • ✅ Automated dependency updates with verification

Implementation:

  • All GitHub workflows use immutable action references (e.g., actions/checkout@11bd7...) to prevent tag hijacking.
  • bun install --frozen-lockfile is enforced in all CI jobs to prevent lockfile poisoning.
  • Secure update scripts ensure lockfile integrity during maintenance.

🔗 Related Documentation

Architecture

API Security

Widget Security

Testing

📞 Security Contact

For security-related questions or to report vulnerabilities:

Response Time:

  • Critical vulnerabilities: 24 hours
  • High severity: 48 hours
  • Medium severity: 1 week
  • Low severity: 2 weeks

Last Updated: November 14, 2025
Security Review Status: ✅ All Critical Components Reviewed
Next Review: Quarterly (February 2026)

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