How to Use React.JS in a Secure Way

Front-end web library React has had a significant impact on the process of developing applications.

It’s important to remember some best practices of React JS Security while working with React in real-world apps, even though it’s generally considered to be very secure.

Web applications with well-built and operational security solutions help organizations stand tall and build trusted relationships with their consumers. Security solutions assist firms to retain their brand and minimize losses by preventing the leakage of important data.

A lack of app security might have long-term implications for some businesses. It is estimated that in 2020, 87% of companies would have been subjected to an exploit of an already-known, existing vulnerability.

Often, developers believe that React will provide unquestionable security for their applications. This isn’t always the greatest option. It’s not impossible to make a blunder with these things, as with anything else in life.

Vulnerabilities in React.js can occur if you believe you are using the library’s defensive features. It’s crucial to keep in mind what React can and can’t do for you. It’s critical to follow some security best practices to avoid common security mistakes. We’ll go through some of the greatest React.js security practices in this article, which you may use in your projects.

It is our goal to discuss the most common React vulnerabilities, how to identify them during a code review, and how to mitigate them.

The Popularity of React.js And Why We Choose It

For designing dynamic and interactive user interfaces, the React library is renowned. Facebook, BBC, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Netflix are just a few of the well-known organizations that use this collection.

Statistics reveal that React.js is one of the most popular frameworks in Google Search and that this technology’s popularity continues to grow. Large, well-known corporations and platforms have confidence in it. If you use React 16.8, you may use it without building a separate class because it has additional features.

Aelius Venture uses React.js development to create excellent user interfaces and single-page applications for a variety of web and mobile apps. With React, web developers can build massive applications that use dynamic data and don’t require a page reload to work. Scalability, speed, and ease of use are the goals of this system.

In applications, React handles simply the user interface. You can use this in conjunction with other JavaScript libraries, or huge MVC frameworks, as it conforms to the species in the Model View Controller template.

It’s most typically used with other React user interface libraries, such as Redux, as a React user interface library.

Users of the React.js ecosystem can make use of a variety of advantages, including the following:

• Components that can be reused
• Application and interface status synchronization
• System for routing and templating

When designing frontend tasks, our developers largely rely on React.js functionalities. The tool is quite powerful while also being extremely simple to use.

What are the Benefits of Following React.js Security?

For businesses that depend heavily on React.js, the dangers and repercussions of an attack or security breach are unavoidable. Web platform and SPA (single page application) React app development connects your business to many types of information. With it, your company can compete in the market.

The fact that two out of every three applications have security weaknesses indicates that developers sometimes overlook the severity of such issues and neglect security standards.

Web applications are frequently plagued by security concerns, including the following:

1. Cross-Site Scripting

This is a client weakness that can result in major issues. Assaults utilizing cross-site scripting (XSS) occur when an attacker is successful at tricking a website’s visitors into running JavaScript code on their computers.

• XSS attacks that are mirrored can be carried out via links that contain text information that is converted into code by the browser. For instance, this may be a field on a form that necessitates a user-supplied request.

  
  

• It is possible to launch a stored XSS assault when an attacker gains access to a server and the code running on that server is capable of generating information that can be shown on the client’s web page. – Uploading comments and photographs to servers are common avenues for such assaults.

A good example is the Samy worm, which took advantage of a MySpace XSS flaw. As far as viruses go, it was one of the most quickly spreading ever.

import React, {useState} from 'react';

import createDOMPurify from ‘dompurify’;

function App() {

 const [text, setText] = useState(‘’);

 function updateText(e) {

   setText(e.target.value);

 }

  return (

   <div>

      <input onChange={updateText} type="text" value={text} />

      <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML= {{__html: createDOMPurify(text)}}/>

   </div>

  )

}

export default App;

2. SQL Injection

By exploiting SQL injection vulnerabilities, attackers can retrieve, change, or remove data regardless of the rights of the original user.

Depending on how successful the injection attack is, it may be able to forge credentials, generate new credentials with administrator privileges, and obtain access to all data on the server. Error-based SQL injection, logical-error-based SQL injection, and time-based SQL injection are all examples of SQL injection.

3. Randomness and Linkages are Insecure

Developers working on websites should know that if link content depends on user input, an attacker can start injecting harmful code in JavaScript. The user will execute an attacker script if they click on this link.

Not only do React projects encounter this problem; nevertheless, the solution varies according to the application. You may also have to make changes to the server. It is suggested that the links use a whitelisted protocol (for example, HTTP:) and that the HTML entities be screened.

Links aren’t the only type of entity that can be exploited in this manner. However, with React applications, they are the most likely attack target. If an attacker has control over the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) value of an element, it can be vulnerable to this attack.

4. Attacker-Controlled Initial State on the Server

There is a possibility of this vulnerability occurring when rendering an app on the server-side.

There are many different ways to make it harmful for the page, depending on whatever version you use. A developer can produce a document variable from a JSON string when creating the initial state of the page.

The following are examples of what a vulnerability may look like:

<script>window.__STATE__ = ${JSON.stringify({ data })}</script>

Since JSON.stringify() can convert any data passed to it into a string (as long as the JSON data being passed is valid) and that is what we see on the page, this can be dangerous.

In server-side React projects with Redux, this is a common trend to see. On GitHub, there are numerous tutorials and examples to help you get started with Redux in no time.

5. Random Code Execution

If an attacker can execute arbitrary commands or code on a target process, it is referred to as arbitrary code execution (ACE). A security hole in software or hardware that allows arbitrary code execution is known as an arbitrary code execution vulnerability.

This type of vulnerability can be taken advantage of using an application called an arbitrary code execution attack. When a vulnerability like this is found in a widely used public product (like Windows OS), it poses a serious threat to everyone who uses that product (Because of this type of vulnerability, the WannaCry ransomware outbreak propagated).

6. Zip Slip — Archive-based File Writing

Overwriting arbitrary files in conjunction with a directory traversal attack, which can be carried out when extracting files from archives, is at the heart of the Zip Slip problem.

Zip Slip may be exploited by downloading a specific archive that provides the file names required for directory traversal. If a susceptible library is used to unpack such an archive, the attacker will eventually be able to unzip the malicious files outside of the specified directory.

In this situation, the attacker can replace the critical system or executable files, configuration files, and other files. This will eventually lead to the execution of arbitrary code from a remote location.

React.JS Security Best Practices

It’s easier to find a remedy and defend against the known enemy if you know the most prevalent React vulnerabilities.

You must pay careful attention to the construction of the complete website, including your web application, web server settings, creating and changing passwords, and client-side code, for successful application security.

Given the above-mentioned React problems and React security resources, we’ll discuss with you some of the most common and straightforward methods you may take to safeguard your React.js application.

• Remove or disable any markup that could potentially include instructions for running the code as a defense against XSS vulnerabilities. This includes HTML elements like script>, object>, embed>, and link>.

  
  

• Jscrambler is a tool that protects React.js source code.

  
  

• React Native applications should be secure. Because React Native is the preferred framework for cross-platform mobile development, developers should investigate solutions for securing React Native apps.

• Use React to implement Idle Timeout.

  
  

• Make use of snippet libraries such as ES7 React, Redux, and JS Snippets, among others. They’ll add extra security and ensure that your code is bug-free.

  
  

• Install a malicious traffic blocker to prevent unauthorized access to the program’s internal code.

  
  

• Script injection issues in React.js apps can be exploited.

  
  

• Use the method for opening custom URLs in new browser tabs to protect yourself against insecure links.

  
  

• Ideally, the code will perform as expected and be easily tested before going live. The .test suffix should be used on your test files to distinguish them from the source files.

  
  

• Use the serialize-javascript NPM module to escape the output JSON.

  
  

• During and after the development process, scan the entire React application for all types of DDoS attacks.

  
  

• Using a React app, test the operation of each component, as well as your entire application once it has been rendered in the browser.

Conclusion

The information contained in this blog will benefit both react js developers and frontend developers who want to learn more about ReactJS, including its operation, security, component development, and application development.

You’ll have fewer typing possibilities and more explicit codes if you use React best practices. After using it for a while, you’ll appreciate its clean and crisp features, like code reusability, advanced react components, and the ability to add a distinct state variable.

Using React’s list of best practices, you can get your projects started on the right foot and avoid any problems in the future.

Originally posted here

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