gitlab-org / gitlab-ce-

Topic Name

This section outlines the implementation of security practices within the GitLab CE project. This codebase encompasses a range of security measures, encompassing:

  • Authentication and Authorization: Ensuring secure user access and restricting operations based on user roles.

  • Input Validation and Sanitization: Protecting against injection attacks by verifying and sanitizing user inputs.

  • Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Prevention: Mitigating XSS vulnerabilities by encoding user-provided content and implementing appropriate security headers.

  • SQL Injection Prevention: Safeguarding against SQL injection attacks by using parameterized queries and escaping user inputs.

  • Cryptography: Employing secure cryptographic algorithms for data encryption and authentication.

  • Secure Configuration: Establishing secure default configurations and providing guidance on hardening the application.

  • Vulnerability Management: Implementing processes for identifying, assessing, and remediating security vulnerabilities.

Authentication and Authorization

Purpose: To authenticate users and authorize access to resources based on their roles.

Implementation:

  • User Authentication: Utilizes a variety of authentication methods, including username/password, OAuth, and two-factor authentication.
  • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Defines roles with specific permissions to access resources and perform actions.

Example:

# app/models/user.rb
          class User < ActiveRecord::Base
            # ...
            has_many :members, dependent: :destroy
          
            def can?(action, subject)
              Ability.new(self).can?(action, subject)
            end
          end
          
          # app/models/ability.rb
          class Ability
            include CanCan::Ability
          
            def initialize(user)
              user ||= User.new # guest user (not logged in)
              if user.admin?
                can :manage, :all
              else
                can :read, Project, public: true
                can :read, Issue, project: { public: true }
              end
            end
          end

Source:

Input Validation and Sanitization

Purpose: To prevent injection attacks by validating and sanitizing user inputs.

Implementation:

  • Parameter Validation: Using strong parameters in controllers to define allowed attributes.
  • Input Sanitization: Employing libraries like sanitize to escape or remove potentially harmful characters.

Example:

# app/controllers/projects_controller.rb
          class ProjectsController < ApplicationController
            # ...
            def create
              @project = Project.new(project_params)
              if @project.save
                redirect_to @project
              else
                render 'new'
              end
            end
          
            private
          
            def project_params
              params.require(:project).permit(:name, :description)
            end
          end

Source:

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Prevention

Purpose: To prevent XSS vulnerabilities by encoding user-provided content and implementing appropriate security headers.

Implementation:

  • Output Encoding: Employing libraries like ERB::Util.html_escape to encode user-provided content before displaying it.
  • Security Headers: Setting headers like X-XSS-Protection and Content-Security-Policy to mitigate XSS attacks.

Example:

# app/views/projects/show.html.erb
          <p>Project Name: <%= ERB::Util.html_escape(@project.name) %></p>

Source:

SQL Injection Prevention

Purpose: To safeguard against SQL injection attacks by using parameterized queries and escaping user inputs.

Implementation:

  • Parameterized Queries: Using ActiveRecord’s where method with placeholders to prevent direct SQL injection.
  • Input Escaping: Escaping user inputs before using them in SQL queries.

Example:

# app/models/user.rb
          class User < ActiveRecord::Base
            # ...
            def self.find_by_email(email)
              where(email: email).first
            end
          end

Source:

Cryptography

Purpose: To employ secure cryptographic algorithms for data encryption and authentication.

Implementation:

  • Data Encryption: Using libraries like ActiveSupport::MessageEncryptor to encrypt sensitive data.
  • Authentication: Implementing authentication mechanisms using cryptographic algorithms like HMAC-SHA256.

Example:

# app/models/user.rb
          class User < ActiveRecord::Base
            # ...
            def password_hash
              ActiveSupport::MessageEncryptor.new(Rails.application.secrets.secret_key_base).encrypt_and_sign(password)
            end
          end

Source:

Secure Configuration

Purpose: To establish secure default configurations and provide guidance on hardening the application.

Implementation:

  • Default Configuration: Providing secure default settings for the application.
  • Configuration Guidance: Offering documentation and resources to guide users in hardening their deployments.

Example:

  • config/initializers/session_store.rb - Setting secure session storage options.
  • config/initializers/devise.rb - Configuring Devise for secure authentication.

Source:

Vulnerability Management

Purpose: To implement processes for identifying, assessing, and remediating security vulnerabilities.

Implementation:

  • Vulnerability Scanning: Utilizing tools like Snyk and Dependabot to identify vulnerabilities.
  • Patch Management: Regularly updating dependencies and applying security patches.
  • Security Incident Response: Establishing procedures for responding to security incidents.

Example:

  • Integrating with security tools like Snyk and Dependabot.
  • Implementing a security incident response plan.

Source:

Note:

This documentation provides a high-level overview of the security practices implemented in the GitLab CE project. For detailed information, please refer to the individual code files and documentation resources.