mirror of
https://libwebsockets.org/repo/libwebsockets
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149 lines
5.8 KiB
Markdown
149 lines
5.8 KiB
Markdown
## Using Content Security Policy (CSP)
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### What is it?
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Modern browsers have recently implemented a new feature providing
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a sort of "selinux for your web page". If the server sends some
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new headers describing the security policy for the content, then
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the browser strictly enforces it.
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### Why would we want to do that?
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Scripting on webpages is pretty universal, sometimes the scripts
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come from third parties, and sometimes attackers find a way to
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inject scripts into the DOM, eg, through scripts in content.
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CSP lets the origin server define what is legitimate for the page it
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served and everything else is denied.
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The CSP for warmcat.com and libwebsockets.org looks like this,
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I removed a handful of approved image sources like travis
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status etc for clarity...
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```
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"content-security-policy": "default-src 'none'; img-src 'self' data:; script-src 'self'; font-src 'self'; style-src 'self'; connect-src 'self'; frame-ancestors 'none'; base-uri 'none';",
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"x-content-type-options": "nosniff",
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"x-xss-protection": "1; mode=block",
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"x-frame-options": "deny",
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"referrer-policy": "no-referrer"
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```
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The result of this is the browser won't let the site content be iframed, and it
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will reject any inline styles or inline scripts. Fonts, css, ajax, ws and
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images are only allowed to come from 'self', ie, the server that served the
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page. You may inject your script, or deceptive styles: it won't run or be shown.
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Because inline scripts are banned, the usual methods for XSS are dead;
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the attacker can't even load js from another server. So these rules
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provide a very significant increase in client security.
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### Implications of strict CSP
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Halfhearted CSP isn't worth much. The only useful approach is to start
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with `default-src 'none'` which disables everything, and then allow the
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minimum needed for the pages to operate.
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"Minimum needed for the pages to operate" doesn't mean defeat the protections
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necessary so everything in the HTML can stay the same... it means adapt the
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pages to want the minimum and then enable the minimum.
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The main point is segregation of styles and script away from the content, in
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files referenced in the document `<head>` section, along these lines:
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```
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<head>
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<meta charset=utf-8 http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en"/>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="test.css"/>
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<script type='text/javascript' src="/lws-common.js"></script>
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<script type='text/javascript' src='test.js'></script>
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<title>Minimal Websocket test app</title>
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</head>
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```
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#### Inline styles must die
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All styling must go in one or more `.css` file(s) best served by the same
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server... while you can approve other sources in the CSP if you have to,
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unless you control that server as well, you are allowing whoever gains
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access to that server access to your users.
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Inline styles are no longer allowed (eg, "style='font-size:120%'" in the
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HTML)... they must be replaced by reference to one or more CSS class, which
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in this case includes "font-size:120%". This has always been the best
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practice anyway, and your pages will be cleaner and more maintainable.
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#### Inline scripts must die
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Inline scripts need to be placed in a `.js` file and loaded in the page head
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section, again it should only be from the server that provided the page.
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Then, any kind of inline script, yours or injected or whatever, will be
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completely rejected by the browser.
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#### onXXX must be replaced by eventListener
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Inline `onclick()` etc are kinds of inline scripting and are banned.
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Modern browsers have offered a different system called ["EventListener" for
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a while](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/EventListener)
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which allows binding of events to DOM elements in JS.
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A bunch of different named events are possible to listen on, commonly the
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`.js` file will ask for one or both of
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```
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window.addEventListener("load", function() {
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...
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}, false);
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document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
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...
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}, false);
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```
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These give the JS a way to trigger when either everything on the page has
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been "loaded" or the DOM has been populated from the initial HTML. These
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can set up other event listeners on the DOM objects and aftwards the
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events will drive what happens on the page from user interaction and / or
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timers etc.
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If you have `onclick` in your HTML today, you would replace it with an id
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for the HTML element, then eg in the DOMContentLoaded event listener,
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apply
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```
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document.getElementById("my-id").addEventListener("click", function() {
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...
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}, false);
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```
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ie the .js file becomes the only place with the "business logic" of the
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elements mentioned in the HTML, applied at runtime.
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#### Do you really need external sources?
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Do your scripts and fonts really need to come from external sources?
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If your caching policy is liberal, they are not actually that expensive
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to serve once and then the user is using his local copy for the next
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days.
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Some external sources are marked as anti-privacy in modern browsers, meaning
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they track your users, in turn meaning if your site refers to them, you
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will lose your green padlock in the browser. If the content license allows
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it, hosting them on "self", ie, the same server that provided the HTML,
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will remove that problem.
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Bringing in scripts from external sources is actually quite scary from the
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security perspective. If someone hacks the `ajax.googleapis.com` site to serve
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a hostile, modified jquery, half the Internet will instantly
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become malicious. However if you serve it yourself, unless your server
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was specifically targeted you know it will continue to serve what you
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expect.
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Since these scripts are usually sent with cache control headers for local
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caching duration of 1 year, the cost of serving them yourself under the same
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conditions is small but your susceptibility to attack is reduced to only taking
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care of your own server. And there is a privacy benefit that google is not
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informed of your users' IPs and activities on your site.
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