Security Hardening — CMMC Artifact Tracker

This document describes the security measures implemented in the CMMC Artifact Tracker.

Authentication & Session Management

• Password hashing: Werkzeug's generate_password_hash (scrypt by default) — no MD5/SHA
• Password policy: Minimum 16 characters, requires uppercase, lowercase, digit, and special character
• Session fixation prevention: session.clear() on login before setting new session data
• Secure cookies: SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLY=True, SESSION_COOKIE_SAMESITE=Lax, SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE enabled when FLASK_ENV=production
• Login rate limiting: 5 attempts per IP per 5-minute window; returns "Too many login attempts" on excess
• Route protection: All routes require authentication via @app.before_request check; admin-only routes use @admin_required decorator

CSRF Protection

• Session-based CSRF tokens: Generated per session via secrets.token_hex(32)
• Form protection: All HTML forms include <input type="hidden" name="csrf_token"> field
• API protection: All state-changing fetch requests include X-CSRF-Token header
• Multipart uploads: CSRF token sent as form field in FormData uploads
• Validation: @app.before_request hook validates tokens on all POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE requests

XSS Prevention

• Jinja2 auto-escaping: Enabled by default for all {{ }} expressions in HTML context
• JavaScript context escaping: All Jinja2 variables in inline JS handlers use |tojson filter for proper JS escaping
• innerHTML sanitization: Global escapeHtml() function applied to all user-controlled data before insertion via innerHTML or template literals
• Integer coercion: All numeric IDs use parseInt() in JS template literals to prevent injection
• JSON.stringify: String values in JS onclick handlers use JSON.stringify() for safe quoting

Content Security Policy

default-src 'self';
script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline';
style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline';
img-src 'self' data: blob:;
font-src 'self';
form-action 'self';
frame-ancestors 'none';

Security Headers

All responses include: - X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff - X-Frame-Options: DENY - X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block - Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin - Content-Security-Policy (see above) - Strict-Transport-Security (production only, when FLASK_ENV=production)

File Upload Security

• Extension whitelist: Only .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp, .pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .txt, .csv, .pptx, .zip, .md are allowed
• File size limit: MAX_CONTENT_LENGTH = 100 MB — returns 413 on excess
• Path traversal protection: serve_upload validates resolved real path stays within UPLOAD_DIR
• No execution: Uploaded files are served via send_from_directory with explicit MIME types; no server-side execution

SQL Injection Prevention

• All database queries use parameterized placeholders (?) — no string interpolation of user input into SQL
• Migration queries use hardcoded column names only (not user input)
• Audit log filtering constructs WHERE clauses from hardcoded condition strings with ? placeholders

Secrets Management

• FLASK_SECRET should be set via environment variable for production
• If not set, a random key is generated per process start (logs a warning to stderr)
• Debug mode defaults to off (FLASK_DEBUG=0); must be explicitly enabled

Error Handling

• Custom error handlers for 404, 413, and 500 — no stack traces exposed to users
• API endpoints return JSON error responses; HTML pages return minimal text
• Debug mode disabled by default in production

Authorization

• Admin routes (/config, /admin/users, /audit) protected by @admin_required
• Self-protection: admins cannot remove their own admin role or delete themselves
• Role validation: only admin and user roles accepted

Deployment Recommendations

1. Set FLASK_SECRET to a strong random value: python3 -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))"
2. Set FLASK_ENV=production to enable secure cookies and HSTS
3. Run behind a reverse proxy (nginx/caddy) with TLS termination
4. Restrict UPLOAD_PATH directory permissions
5. Back up cmmc.db regularly — it contains all compliance data
6. Monitor the audit log for suspicious activity

Reporting Vulnerabilities

If you discover a security vulnerability, please report it responsibly via the project's issue tracker with the security label.