In Depth
In Depth: What Actually Is MFA?
[In Depth #34] MFA, 2FA, 2SV, DFA... Something you know/have/are... Let's figure out this MFA thing and why it's so important.
Stephen Rees-Carter
Friendly Hacker, Speaker, and PHP & Laravel Security Specialist.🕵️ I hack stuff on stage for fun. 😈
Security Tips
Security Tip: Temporary Local File URLs!
[Tip #108] Temporary URLs for file access is an essential piece of the security puzzle, which up until recently were only available out-of-the-box for the S3 driver. Now you can easily generate them for local files too!
Security Tips
Security Tip: Excluding SVGs from Image Validation!
[Tip #107] Laravel 12 introduced a seemingly minor change - image validation now excludes SVGs by default. 🤔 Let's take a look at why this is so important! 🤓
Security Tips
Security Tip: Limiting bcrypt Passwords to 72 Bytes!
[Tip #106] Laravel 12 gives us the ability to reject passwords longer than 72 bytes for bcrypt, but you need to turn it on manually. Oh, and don't forget to add a validation rule, or you'll be throwing suspicious 500 server errors! 😱
Security Tips
Security Tip: Run Your CSP in Local Development!
[Tip #105] These are my top 3 tips for getting started with a Content Security Policy - as proven by a friend who went from failing security scans to passing with flying colours.
Security Tips
Security Tip: Type Coercion in Broadcast Routes!
[Tip #104] It's easy for type juggling to sneak into authorisation callbacks, especially when types are ambiguous, and if you're not careful, you may be leaving a massive hole waiting to be exploited! 😱
In Depth
In Depth: Common Authorisation Failures!
[In Depth #33] Let's explore a number of common ways developers fail authorisation in Laravel apps, and what you need to watch out for so you don't make the same mistakes!
Security Tips
Security Tip: Don't Roll Your Own Crypto!
[Tip #103] It's story time! Let's look at the SHA-3 competition as a reminder that crypto is hard... 😱
Security Tips
Security Tip: Do You Have an Upgrade Plan?
[Tip #102] In less than 2 weeks, Laravel 10.x will no longer be supported, and PHP 8.1 has less than 12 months left! Do you have an upgrade plan?
Security Tips
Security Tip: Should You Limit Password Lengths?
[Tip #101] Password length limits are often a sign of a legacy backend or insecure hashing, but did you know bcrypt only hashes the first 72 characters? It raises the question, should we be limiting password lengths when using bcrypt too? 🤔
In Depth
In Depth: Five Ways to Fail at Authentication
[In Depth #32] Let's explore 5 different "Authentication Fails" that I've come across, as a reminder for why it's so important to get authentication right.
Security Tips
Security Tip: What If You Hashed Null?
[Tip #100] One of the fun parts of doing my security audits is coming across unexpected code that looks exploitable, and trying it out myself to see what possibilities exist.