Node.js security checklist for design assurance

Security design assurance is a critical component of professional Node.js development. In 2026, with over 55% of security incidents originating from the software supply chain, a "detect-and-patch" approach is no longer sufficient. Security must be an architectural foundation. This checklist provides a structured approach to ensuring your Node.js applications meet essential security standards throughout the design and development lifecycle.

1. Core Platform & Runtime Integrity

• [ ] Active LTS Versioning: Ensure the service runs on the latest patched release of an active LTS version (currently v20.x, v22.x, or v24.x).

• 2026 Note: Verify protection against CVE-2026-21636 (UDS bypass) and the January 2026 Async Hooks DoS vulnerability.

• [ ] Experimental Permission Model: Implement the --permission flag to restrict access to the file system, network, and child processes.

• Constraint: Avoid using relative symlinks or Unix Domain Sockets (UDS) without explicit allow-lists, as these were primary bypass vectors in early 2026.

• [ ] Environment Hardening: Disable non-essential Node.js features in production (e.g., --inspect, --experimental-repl-await).

2. Authentication & Zero-Trust Access

• [ ] Identity-First Service Communication: In microservice architectures, use mTLS or SPIFFE/SPIRE for service-to-service authentication.
• [ ] Strong Auth Patterns: Prioritize Passkeys (WebAuthn) or OpenID Connect (OIDC) over traditional password-based systems.
• [ ] JWT Lifecycle Management: If using JSON Web Tokens, enforce short expiry times, mandatory asymmetric signing (RS256/ES256), and implement a revocation/denylist for compromised tokens.
• [ ] Least Privilege RBAC/ABAC: Ensure every API endpoint enforces a strict Role-Based or Attribute-Based Access Control check at the controller level.

3. Supply Chain & Dependency Security

• [ ] Immutable Lockfiles: Always use npm ci or pnpm install --frozen-lockfile in CI/CD to prevent unexpected package updates.

• [ ] SCA & Risk Detection: Use Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools (e.g., Snyk, Dependency-Check).

• Proactive Control: Implement tools like Socket to detect "malicious intent" in dependencies (e.g., telemetry, shell execution) before they are merged.

• [ ] Dependency Pinning: Pin direct dependencies to exact versions (e.g., 1.2.3 instead of ^1.2.3) to mitigate the risk of compromised patch versions.

• [ ] SBOM Generation: Automatically generate a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for every production build to support long-term auditability.

4. Input Validation & Defense-in-Depth

• [ ] Boundary Schema Validation: Use Zod or AJV to validate the structure and type of every incoming request (body, params, query) at the application boundary.
• [ ] Output Encoding: Ensure all dynamic content rendered in the frontend is contextually encoded to prevent XSS.
• [ ] Parameterized Queries: Use ORMs (e.g., Prisma, Drizzle) or prepared statements exclusively to prevent SQL and NoSQL Injection.
• [ ] Security Headers: Use Helmet.js to enforce strict headers:
• Content-Security-Policy (CSP)
• Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS)
• X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff

5. Resilience & Runtime Protection

• [ ] Event Loop Monitoring: Implement toobusy-js to monitor event loop lag and automatically return 503 Service Unavailable during high-load DoS attempts.
• [ ] Resource Constraints: Limit request body sizes using raw-body or middleware configuration to prevent memory exhaustion attacks.
• [ ] Rate Limiting: Apply tiered rate limiting (Global, Per-IP, and Per-User) at the API Gateway or Reverse Proxy level.
• [ ] Secure Error Handling: Centralize error handling to ensure stack traces and internal metadata are never leaked to the client.

6. Observability & DevSecOps

• [ ] Structured Logging: Use high-performance loggers like Pino to output structured JSON logs.
• [ ] Traceability: Inject Correlation IDs into every request to trace security events across distributed microservices.
• [ ] Pipeline Security Gates: Integrate SAST (Static Analysis) and Secret Scanning into the CI/CD pipeline.
• [ ] Automated Patching: Configure Dependabot or Renovate to keep critical security patches updated with a maximum 24-hour lead time.

I'll hold my hands up on that one—I got a bit carried away with the Gatsby/Strapi talk! Let's get back on track and wrap up that Security Checklist properly.

Conclusion: Beyond the Checklist

Security is an active discipline, not a static destination. While this checklist provides the essential guardrails for your Node.js and microservices development, the true strength of your security posture lies in the culture of design assurance you build within your squads. By treating security as a first-class citizen—just like performance or feature delivery—you shift from a reactive "patching" mindset to a proactive "secure-by-design" approach.

As threats evolve and the software supply chain becomes increasingly complex, these controls ensure your services remain resilient, auditable, and ready for even the most stringent accreditation. Don't let this be a document that gathers digital dust; integrate these checks into your automated pipelines, revisit them during every architectural review, and use them as the foundation for a platform that your users—and your stakeholders—can trust.