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Nitin Ranganath
Nitin Ranganath

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5 NPM Packages to Secure Your Node.js Backend in 5 Minutes

When you start to focus on the performance and security of your backend alongside the other features, you know that you're growing and maturing as a developer. It goes without saying but having some sort of security measure against common attacks is essential, even if it's just a hobby project.

If you're new to security or want to quickly get started with some basic protection, these 5 NPM packages will help you get started in just a few minutes. The best part about these packages is that all you have to do is just install them and use them as middleware. It's that easy!

In a hurry or just need the list of packages? Here are the 5 NPM packages that I'll be going over:

Package Name Package Link
helmet NPM Link
xss-clean NPM Link
hpp NPM Link
express-mongo-sanitize NPM Link
express-rate-limit NPM Link

Helmet

What it does: Sets security-related HTTP response headers to protect against some well-known web vulnerabilities.

What does it protect against: Cross-site scripting attacks, cross-site injections, clickjacking, MIME sniffing and targeted attacks towards Express servers by disabling the X-Powered-By header.

How to use it:



npm install helmet


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const app = require('express')();
const helmet = require('helmet');

// Using helmet middleware
app.use(helmet());

app.listen(1337);


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GitHub logo helmetjs / helmet

Help secure Express apps with various HTTP headers

Helmet

Help secure Express apps by setting HTTP response headers.

import helmet from "helmet";

const app = express();

app.use(helmet());
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Helmet sets the following headers by default:

XSS-Clean

What it does: Sanitizes user input coming from POST request body (req.body), GET request query (req.query) and URL parameters (req.params).

What does it protect against: Cross-site scripting / XSS attacks.

How to use it:



npm install xss-clean


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const app = require('express')();
const xssClean = require('xss-clean');

// Protect against XSS attacks, should come before any routes
app.use(xssClean());

app.listen(1337);


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GitHub logo jsonmaur / xss-clean

Middleware to sanitize user input

Announcement

This library has been deprecated. The implementation is quite simple, and I would suggest you copy the source code directly into your application using the xss-filters dependency, or look for alternative libraries with more features and attention. Thanks for your support.


Node.js Connect middleware to sanitize user input coming from POST body, GET queries, and url params. Works with Express, Restify, or any other Connect app.

How to Use

npm install xss-clean --save
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const restify = require('restify')
const xss = require('xss-clean')

const app = restify.createServer()

app.use(restify.bodyParser())

// make sure this comes before any routes
app.use(xss())

app.listen(8080)
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This will sanitize any data in req.body, req.query, and req.params. You can also…

HPP

What it does: Puts the array parameters in req.query and/or req.body asides and just selects the last parameter value to avoid HTTP Parameter Pollution attacks.

What does it protect against: Bypassing input validations and denial of service (DoS) attacks by uncaught TypeError in async code, leading to server crash.

How to use it:



npm install hpp


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const app = require('express')();
const hpp = require('hpp');

// Protect against HPP, should come before any routes
app.use(hpp());

app.listen(1337);


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GitHub logo analog-nico / hpp

Express middleware to protect against HTTP Parameter Pollution attacks

HPP

Express middleware to protect against HTTP Parameter Pollution attacks

Build Status Coverage Status Dependency Status

Why?

Let Chetan Karande's slides do the explaining:

Slide 48 Slide 49 Slide 50 Slide 54

...and exploits may allow bypassing the input validation or even result in denial of service.

And HPP solves this how exactly?

HPP puts array parameters in req.query and/or req.body aside and just selects the last parameter value. You add the middleware and you are done.

Installation

NPM Stats

This is a module for node.js and io.js and is installed via npm:

npm install hpp --save
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Getting Started

Add the HPP middleware like this:

// ...
var hpp = require('hpp');
// ...
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded()); // Make sure the body is parsed beforehand.

app.use(hpp()); // <- THIS IS THE NEW LINE

// Add your own middlewares afterwards, e.g.:
app.get('/search',
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Express Mongo Sanitize

What it does: Searches for any keys in objects that begin with a $ sign or contain a . from req.body, req.query or req.params and either removes such keys and data or replaces the prohibited characters with another allowed character.

What does it protect against: MongoDB Operator Injection. Malicious users could send an object containing a $ operator, or including a ., which could change the context of a database operation.

How to use it:



npm install express-mongo-sanitize


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const app = require('express')();
const mongoSanitize = require('express-mongo-sanitize');

// Remove all keys containing prohibited characters
app.use(mongoSanitize());

app.listen(1337);


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GitHub logo fiznool / express-mongo-sanitize

Sanitize your express payload to prevent MongoDB operator injection.

Express Mongo Sanitize

Express 4.x middleware which sanitizes user-supplied data to prevent MongoDB Operator Injection.

Build Status npm version npm downloads per week Dependency Status

What is this module for?

This module searches for any keys in objects that begin with a $ sign or contain a ., from req.body, req.query, req.headers or req.params. It can then either:

  • completely remove these keys and associated data from the object, or
  • replace the prohibited characters with another allowed character.

The behaviour is governed by the passed option, replaceWith. Set this option to have the sanitizer replace the prohibited characters with the character passed in.

The config option allowDots can be used to allow dots in the user-supplied data. In this case, only instances of $ will be sanitized.

See the spec file for more examples.

Why is it needed?

Object keys starting with a $ or containing a . are reserved for use by MongoDB as operators…

Express Rate Limit

What does it do: Used to limit IP addresses from making repeated requests to API endpoints. An example would be to rate limit an endpoint that is responsible for sending password reset emails, which can incur additional fees.

What does it protect against: Brute force, denial of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

How to use it:



npm install express-rate-limit


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const app = require('express')();
const rateLimit = require('express-rate-limit');

// Restrict all routes to only 100 requests per IP address every 1o minutes
const limiter = rateLimit({
    windowMs: 10 * 60 * 1000,    // 10 minutes
    max: 100                     // 100 requests per IP
});
app.use(limiter);

app.listen(1337);


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GitHub logo express-rate-limit / express-rate-limit

Basic rate-limiting middleware for the Express web server

express-rate-limit

tests npm version npm downloads license

Basic rate-limiting middleware for Express. Use to limit repeated requests to public APIs and/or endpoints such as password reset Plays nice with express-slow-down and ratelimit-header-parser.

Usage

The full documentation is available on-line.

import { rateLimit } from 'express-rate-limit'

const limiter = rateLimit({
    windowMs: 15 * 60 * 1000, // 15 minutes
    limit: 100, // Limit each IP to 100 requests per `window` (here, per 15 minutes).
    standardHeaders: 'draft-7', // draft-6: `RateLimit-*` headers; draft-7: combined `RateLimit` header
    legacyHeaders: false, // Disable the `X-RateLimit-*` headers.
    // store: ... , // Redis, Memcached, etc. See below.
})

// Apply the rate limiting middleware to all requests.
app.use(limiter)
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Data Stores

The rate limiter comes with a built-in memory store, and supports a variety of external data stores.

Configuration

All function options may be async…


With these 5 NPM packages, you can make your Node.js + Express.js application much more secure in just 5 minutes. All of the packages above are extremely easy to use, just export and use as a middleware.

What security precautions do you take? Or did I miss any of your favorite packages? Let me know in the discussion below and I'll be happy to hear your thoughts.

Top comments (10)

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graemegrant profile image
Graeme Grant

Awesome article thank you…also side note love your VScode theme portfolio, so clever!

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geobrodas profile image
Georgey

I'm a Web developer, and I recently took up a ethical hacking course to see how I can combine the knowledge to my expertise in web dev. And one thing which actually worried me was the Man in the middle attack. Good to see there is a way to prevent this. Thanks a ton for sharing this!!! Great job!

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itsnitinr profile image
Nitin Ranganath

Oh wow, I'm really glad you found the article to be helpful. Could you link me to the course you're talking about, curious about the content. Thanks for reading!

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geobrodas profile image
Georgey

Sure actually it's an internship course I'm doing, which I got after answering the exam NEO. It happens once in a year.

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darkmg73 profile image
DarkMG73

Thanks. This is concise and immediately usable. Well done.

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evieskinner18 profile image
Evie

Very helpful and educational article thanks Nitin!

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itsnitinr profile image
Nitin Ranganath

Thank you so much for reading :)

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ridaehamdani profile image
Ridae HAMDANI

I am using mongo as database for a while and I was worried about malicious data which can change my initial query , I think mongo sanitize will help me ... Thanks @itsnitinr for you article

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itsnitinr profile image
Nitin Ranganath

I'm sure it will. Glad to have helped you out and thank you for reading.

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mattdclarke profile image
Matt • Edited

node-rate-limiter-flexible is good for more specific rate limiting. You can rate limit by IP, user or IP and user.