Security Headers: Your First Line of Defense

HTTP security headers are an essential part of web application security. They provide an additional layer of protection against various types of attacks.

Content Security Policy (CSP)

CSP helps prevent XSS attacks by controlling which resources can be loaded:

Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'

X-Frame-Options

Prevents clickjacking attacks by controlling whether your site can be embedded in frames:

X-Frame-Options: DENY

X-Content-Type-Options

Prevents MIME type sniffing:

X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff

Referrer Policy

Controls how much referrer information is included with requests:

Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin

Permissions Policy

Controls which browser features can be used:

Permissions-Policy: camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()

Implementation Tips

Testing Your Headers

Use tools like:

Implementing these headers correctly can prevent many common web vulnerabilities!