.NET Security

Priority: P0 (CRITICAL)

Security standards for .NET applications based on OWASP guidelines.

Implementation Guidelines

• •Authentication: ASP.NET Identity for users, JWT Bearer for APIs, Cookie auth for web apps.
• •Authorization: Policy-based over role-based. Resource-based for fine-grained control.
• •Input Validation: FluentValidation or DataAnnotations. Validate at API boundaries.
• •SQL Injection: Always use parameterized queries. EF Core and Dapper handle this automatically.
• •XSS Prevention: Razor auto-encodes by default. Use HtmlEncoder for manual encoding.
• •CSRF: Anti-forgery tokens for forms. SameSite=Strict cookies.
• •Secrets: Never hardcode. Use User Secrets (dev), Azure Key Vault (prod).
• •HTTPS: Always UseHttpsRedirection(). Enable HSTS in production.
• •Headers: Use security headers middleware (CSP, X-Frame-Options, etc.).
• •Rate Limiting: Use built-in RateLimiter middleware (.NET 7+).

Anti-Patterns

• •No hardcoded secrets: Never commit API keys, connection strings, passwords.
• •No [AllowAnonymous] on sensitive endpoints: Review all anonymous access.
• •No raw SQL with interpolation: $"SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Id = {id}" is vulnerable.
• •No * CORS in production: Specify allowed origins explicitly.
• •No disabled SSL validation: Never ServerCertificateCustomValidationCallback = (_, _, _, _) => true.

Code

// JWT Bearer configuration
builder.Services.AddAuthentication(JwtBearerDefaults.AuthenticationScheme)
    .AddJwtBearer(options =>
    {
        options.TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters
        {
            ValidateIssuer = true,
            ValidateAudience = true,
            ValidateLifetime = true,
            ValidateIssuerSigningKey = true,
            ValidIssuer = builder.Configuration["Jwt:Issuer"],
            ValidAudience = builder.Configuration["Jwt:Audience"],
            IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(
                Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(builder.Configuration["Jwt:Key"]!))
        };
    });

// Policy-based authorization
builder.Services.AddAuthorization(options =>
{
    options.AddPolicy("AdminOnly", policy => policy.RequireRole("Admin"));
    options.AddPolicy("CanEditOrder", policy =>
        policy.Requirements.Add(new ResourceOwnerRequirement()));
});

// Parameterized query (safe from SQL injection)
var user = await connection.QuerySingleAsync<User>(
    "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Id = @Id AND Status = @Status",
    new { Id = userId, Status = "Active" });

// Rate limiting
builder.Services.AddRateLimiter(options =>
{
    options.AddFixedWindowLimiter("api", cfg =>
    {
        cfg.Window = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1);
        cfg.PermitLimit = 100;
    });
});

Reference & Examples

For JWT patterns, Identity configuration, and security headers: See references/REFERENCE.md.

Related Topics

language | best-practices | aspnet-core