Beefing Up Security for Golang Projects
Go is one of the few languages with little to no criticisms. It’s a fast and reliable language that can be used for a plethora of functions, backend or frontend. Applications built using Go are high-performing because of Goroutines and quality coding. They are also quite stable because of tools like garbage collection, lint, vet, and fmt.
All these features are a great asset to have when developing a powerful app. Although, do not let them make you complacent in the security aspect. Businesses depend heavily on these apps, which means absolutely no security lapses and breaches are acceptable. As a developer or Gopher, in this case, the onus is on you to make the app secure.
Here are some ways to enhance security on Golang Development.
Remember the power of encryption
It doesn’t matter how hard the information is to read. A dedicated hacker somewhere would figure it out. The tried and tested way to protect all sensitive data like passwords, credit card details, official IDs is to use encryption. There are a few Go packages that can help you encrypt. However, if those don’t work for you, there are plenty of third-party packages.
Use Go modules and standard crypto packages
Go provides official support for dependency management systems in versions 1.11 and 1.12, called Go Modules. A module is basically a collection of Go packages stored in a file tree with go.mod file at its root. They make dependency version information easy to manage. Using a Go module provide relief even if there is a sudden module mutation.
Using crypto packages is a good idea to protect data, but you have to be careful of third-party packages. Go’s crypto packages undergo strict security checks, so if you can, use them. Otherwise, check your third-party sources.
Avoid XSS attacks with html/template
Cross-site scripting or XSS attacks are one of the most common dangers to an app. In an XSS attack, the hacker injects malware into the code to mess with the output. You can stay one step ahead of this threat by using the html/template package to encode the app so that the output remains as you intended.
Scan your dependencies
Dependencies make up a big part of your code, especially for large projects. More often than not, dependencies remain vulnerable to security breaches due to hose of reasons. To avoid this, it’s better to scan the dependent code for common vulnerabilities and exposures via reliable tools like Snyk. Snyk scans your code for current vulnerabilities, monitors your app for future ones and suggests solutions to fix any issues.
Use unsafe and cgo at your own risk
Go allows you to use pointer-type variables for your code but does so with a certain level of strictness. This is to protect adventurous developers from malicious invasion. While unsafe is use to break type safety restrictions, cgo allows you to bring in C libraries into your Go app. Both can seem very tempting, but there’s a reason why Go discourages its use. So, if you are going to break the rules, do so with caution.
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