scanning-input-validation-practices

Overview

This skill automates the process of identifying potential input validation flaws within a codebase. By analyzing how user-provided data is handled, it helps developers proactively address security vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. This skill streamlines security audits and improves the overall security posture of applications.

How It Works

1. Initiate Scan: The user requests an input validation scan, triggering the skill.
2. Code Analysis: The skill uses the input-validation-scanner plugin to analyze the specified codebase or file.
3. Vulnerability Identification: The plugin identifies instances where input validation may be missing or insufficient.
4. Report Generation: The skill presents a report highlighting potential vulnerabilities and their locations in the code.

When to Use This Skill

This skill activates when you need to:

• Audit a codebase for input validation vulnerabilities.
• Review newly written code for potential XSS or SQL injection flaws.
• Harden an application against common web security exploits.
• Ensure compliance with security best practices related to input handling.

Examples

Example 1: Identifying XSS Vulnerabilities

User request: "Scan the user profile module for potential XSS vulnerabilities."

The skill will:

1. Activate the input-validation-scanner plugin on the specified module.
2. Generate a report highlighting areas where user input is directly rendered without proper sanitization, indicating potential XSS vulnerabilities.

Example 2: Checking for SQL Injection Risks

User request: "Check the database access layer for potential SQL injection risks."

The skill will:

1. Use the input-validation-scanner plugin to examine the database access code.
2. Identify instances where user input is used directly in SQL queries without proper parameterization or escaping, indicating potential SQL injection vulnerabilities.

Best Practices

• Regular Scanning: Integrate input validation scanning into your regular development workflow.
• Contextual Analysis: Always review the identified vulnerabilities in context to determine their actual impact and severity.
• Comprehensive Validation: Ensure that all user-supplied data is validated, including data from forms, APIs, and external sources.

Integration

This skill can be used in conjunction with other security-related skills to provide a more comprehensive security assessment. For example, it can be combined with a static analysis skill to identify other types of vulnerabilities or with a dependency scanning skill to identify vulnerable third-party libraries.

Prerequisites

• Access to codebase and configuration files in {baseDir}/
• Security scanning tools installed as needed
• Understanding of security standards and best practices
• Permissions for security analysis operations

Instructions

1. Identify security scan scope and targets
2. Configure scanning parameters and thresholds
3. Execute security analysis systematically
4. Analyze findings for vulnerabilities and compliance gaps
5. Prioritize issues by severity and impact
6. Generate detailed security report with remediation steps

Output

• Security scan results with vulnerability details
• Compliance status reports by standard
• Prioritized list of security issues by severity
• Remediation recommendations with code examples
• Executive summary for stakeholders

Error Handling

If security scanning fails:

• Verify tool installation and configuration
• Check file and directory permissions
• Validate scan target paths
• Review tool-specific error messages
• Ensure network access for dependency checks

Resources

• Security standard documentation (OWASP, CWE, CVE)
• Compliance framework guidelines (GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS)
• Security scanning tool documentation
• Vulnerability remediation best practices