Security Sentinel Advanced App

I'll create a comprehensive security assessment for your MERN stack payment processing application with high traffic requirements. Let me analyze this using a security-first approach. # Security Assessment Report - MERN Payment Processing Application ## 1. Executive Summary The application is a high-traffic web platform processing credit card data, requiring PCI-DSS Level 1 and GDPR compliance. Key findings indicate several critical areas requiring robust security controls: - **High Risk Areas**: Payment processing, customer PII storage, session management - **Critical Requirements**: Card data isolation, encryption at rest/transit, audit logging - **Priority Actions**: Implement card tokenization, enhance API security, strengthen access controls Risk Level: HIGH (Due to payment processing and PII data handling) ## 2. Architecture Security Review ### Component Analysis - **Frontend (React)** - CSP implementation required - XSS protection through React's built-in sanitization - Secure state management needed for payment data - **API Layer (Express.js)** - API gateway implementation required - Rate limiting essential for high traffic - Request validation middleware needed - **Backend (Node.js)** - Process isolation for payment handling - Memory management for sensitive data - Secure dependency management - **Database (MongoDB)** - Field-level encryption for PII - Access control at collection level - Audit logging implementation ### Trust Boundaries 1. Public Zone - React frontend - CDN resources - API gateway 2. Restricted Zone - Application services - Authentication services - Business logic 3. High Security Zone - Payment processing - PII storage - Encryption services ## 3. Threat Model ### STRIDE Analysis #### Spoofing - Threat: Account takeover, session hijacking - Mitigation: MFA, session management, JWT with short expiry #### Tampering - Threat: Request manipulation, data integrity attacks - Mitigation: Request signing, integrity checks, API versioning #### Repudiation - Threat: Transaction denial, audit log tampering - Mitigation: Blockchain-based audit logs, transaction signing #### Information Disclosure - Threat: PII leak, card data exposure - Mitigation: Encryption, data masking, secure key management #### Denial of Service - Threat: API flooding, resource exhaustion - Mitigation: Rate limiting, AWS Shield, circuit breakers #### Elevation of Privilege - Threat: Role escalation, permission bypass - Mitigation: RBAC, principle of least privilege ## 4. Security Controls ### Authentication 1. Multi-factor authentication 2. OAuth 2.0 with PKCE 3. Secure password storage (Argon2) 4. Session management with secure cookies ### Authorization 1. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) 2. API authorization with scoped JWT 3. Resource-level permissions 4. IP-based access controls ### Encryption 1. Data at rest: AES-256 2. Data in transit: TLS 1.3 3. Key management through AWS KMS 4. Card tokenization using external provider ### Input Validation 1. Schema validation (JSON Schema) 2. Input sanitization 3. Content-type validation 4. File upload scanning ## 5. Compliance Requirements ### PCI-DSS Level 1 1. Requirement 3: Protect stored data - Implement: Card tokenization - Control: Encryption at rest - Evidence: Key rotation logs 2. Requirement 4: Encrypt transmission - Implement: TLS 1.3 - Control: Certificate management - Evidence: SSL configuration 3. Requirement 7-9: Access Control - Implement: RBAC - Control: Access logs - Evidence: Audit trails ### GDPR 1. Article 32: Security of processing - Implement: Data encryption - Control: Access monitoring - Evidence: Processing records 2. Article 17: Right to erasure - Implement: Data deletion API - Control: Cascade deletion - Evidence: Deletion logs ## 6. Implementation Roadmap ### Phase 1 (Month 1) - Set up secure AWS infrastructure - Implement basic security controls - Configure monitoring ### Phase 2 (Month 2) - Implement payment processing security - Deploy encryption solutions - Set up access controls ### Phase 3 (Month 3) - Complete compliance implementations - Security testing - Documentation and training ## 7. Security Testing Plan ### Required Testing 1. SAST - Tool: SonarQube - Scope: All application code - Frequency: Every commit 2. DAST - Tool: OWASP ZAP - Scope: All endpoints - Frequency: Weekly 3. Penetration Testing - Scope: Full application - Frequency: Quarterly - Requirements: PCI-DSS ASV scan ## 8. Recommendations ### Immediate Actions 1. Implement card tokenization service 2. Deploy WAF rules 3. Set up security monitoring 4. Configure audit logging ### Long-term Strategy 1. Zero Trust Architecture 2. Regular security training 3. Automated compliance checks 4. Security chaos engineering ### Additional Security Layers 1. DDoS protection 2. Bot protection 3. Fraud detection 4. Real-time monitoring I've created a comprehensive security assessment report for your MERN stack payment processing application. Key areas I've focused on include: 1. PCI-DSS Level 1 compliance requirements for payment processing 2. GDPR compliance for customer data protection 3. High availability security controls for 100K+ daily users 4. Microservices-specific security considerations in AWS Would you like me to elaborate on any specific section or provide more detailed recommendations for any particular area? I can also create additional artifacts for specific components like: - Detailed AWS security architecture diagram - Security testing templates - Deployment security checklist