security-audit

Security Audit

Perform a security audit of the backend codebase, focusing on vulnerabilities that could be exploited by external attackers. Check every category below systematically.

Audit Categories

1. SQL & Query Performance (DoS via slow queries)

Scan all files in src/query-builders/ and any raw SQL in src/controllers/ or src/utils/.

For each query, check:

• CTE materialization: Does any ORDER BY on a CTE wrapper force full materialization before LIMIT is applied? PostgreSQL must fully materialize and sort before it can limit, turning a lazy evaluation into a full scan.
• Missing LIMIT: Are there queries that return unbounded results? An attacker who controls data volume (e.g., pushing keys to a Stellar contract) can force massive result sets.
• Recursive CTEs without termination guards: Could a recursive query run indefinitely or for an attacker-controlled number of iterations?
• Sequential scalar subqueries: Does the query pattern cause N+1-style execution where N is attacker-controlled?
• Missing indexes: Are WHERE/ORDER BY clauses hitting columns without indexes? Check against the Prisma schema.

For each issue found, explain:

• What the vulnerability is
• How an attacker could exploit it (concrete steps)
• The impact (connection pool exhaustion, CPU saturation, memory, etc.)
• A suggested fix

2. Connection Pool Exhaustion

Check src/utils/connect.ts and database configuration:

• Is the Prisma connection pool explicitly configured, or relying on defaults?
• Is there a statement_timeout set on the database connection or individual queries?
• Are there any long-running queries that could hold connections hostage?
• Could concurrent requests to any endpoint exhaust the pool?

3. Rate Limiting Gaps

Check src/index.ts and all route files in src/routes/:

• Is rate limiting applied globally? What are the limits?
• Are expensive endpoints (queries that do full table scans, recursive CTEs, external API calls) protected with stricter per-route rate limits?
• Can the rate limit be bypassed (e.g., via headers, missing trust proxy config)?

4. Input Validation & Injection

Check all controllers in src/controllers/ and route definitions:

• Are user inputs validated before being used in queries?
• Is Prisma.raw() used with user-controlled values? (This bypasses parameterization)
• Are there any string concatenation patterns in SQL construction?
• Are query parameters, path parameters, and body fields all validated?

5. Resource Exhaustion (non-SQL)

Check controllers and middleware:

• Are response payloads bounded? Could an endpoint return gigabytes of data?
• Are there any endpoints that make external API calls without timeouts?
• Is server.requestTimeout appropriate for all endpoints?
• Could an attacker trigger expensive computation (e.g., large JSON parsing, regex backtracking)?

6. Information Disclosure

Check error handling and responses:

• Do error responses leak stack traces, internal paths, or database details?
• Does the /health endpoint expose sensitive information in production?
• Are there debug modes that could be enabled by an attacker?

Output Format

Present findings as a prioritized list:

## Findings

### [CRITICAL/HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW] Title
- **Location**: file:line
- **Vulnerability**: What's wrong
- **Exploit scenario**: How an attacker would use this
- **Impact**: What happens if exploited
- **Suggested fix**: How to fix it

If no issues are found in a category, briefly state that the category was checked and is clean.

Known Past Vulnerabilities (for reference)

• March 2026: ORDER BY on recursive CTE wrapper in buildKeysQuery (src/query-builders/keys.ts) forced full materialization, enabling DoS via connection pool exhaustion. Fixed by removing the redundant ORDER BY.