dotnet-security

.NET Security - Quick Reference

When NOT to Use This Skill

• General OWASP concepts - Use owasp or owasp-top-10 skill
• Java security - Use java-security skill
• Python security - Use python-security skill
• Secrets management - Use secrets-management skill

Deep Knowledge: Use mcp__documentation__fetch_docs with technology: dotnet for ASP.NET Core security documentation.

Dependency Auditing

# .NET built-in audit
dotnet list package --vulnerable

# Detailed audit with transitive dependencies
dotnet list package --vulnerable --include-transitive

# Check outdated packages
dotnet list package --outdated

# Snyk for .NET
snyk test

CI/CD Integration

# GitHub Actions
- name: Security audit
  run: |
    dotnet list package --vulnerable --include-transitive
    dotnet tool install -g snyk
    snyk test

NuGet.config Security

<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <!-- Use only trusted sources -->
    <clear />
    <add key="nuget.org" value="https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json" />
  </packageSources>
  <packageSourceCredentials>
    <!-- Use environment variables for private feeds -->
  </packageSourceCredentials>
</configuration>

ASP.NET Core Security Configuration

Program.cs Security Setup

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// Security headers
builder.Services.AddHsts(options =>
{
    options.MaxAge = TimeSpan.FromDays(365);
    options.IncludeSubDomains = true;
    options.Preload = true;
});

// CORS configuration
builder.Services.AddCors(options =>
{
    options.AddPolicy("Production", policy =>
    {
        policy.WithOrigins("https://myapp.com")
              .AllowCredentials()
              .WithMethods("GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE")
              .WithHeaders("Authorization", "Content-Type");
    });
});

// Authentication
builder.Services.AddAuthentication(JwtBearerDefaults.AuthenticationScheme)
    .AddJwtBearer(options =>
    {
        options.TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters
        {
            ValidateIssuer = true,
            ValidateAudience = true,
            ValidateLifetime = true,
            ValidateIssuerSigningKey = true,
            ValidIssuer = builder.Configuration["Jwt:Issuer"],
            ValidAudience = builder.Configuration["Jwt:Audience"],
            IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(
                Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(builder.Configuration["Jwt:Key"]!))
        };
    });

// Rate limiting (.NET 7+)
builder.Services.AddRateLimiter(options =>
{
    options.AddFixedWindowLimiter("login", limiter =>
    {
        limiter.Window = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(15);
        limiter.PermitLimit = 5;
        limiter.QueueLimit = 0;
    });
});

var app = builder.Build();

// Security middleware order matters
app.UseHsts();
app.UseHttpsRedirection();
app.UseCors("Production");
app.UseAuthentication();
app.UseAuthorization();
app.UseRateLimiter();

Security Headers Middleware

app.Use(async (context, next) =>
{
    context.Response.Headers.Add("X-Content-Type-Options", "nosniff");
    context.Response.Headers.Add("X-Frame-Options", "DENY");
    context.Response.Headers.Add("X-XSS-Protection", "0"); // Use CSP instead
    context.Response.Headers.Add("Referrer-Policy", "strict-origin-when-cross-origin");
    context.Response.Headers.Add("Content-Security-Policy",
        "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'");

    await next();
});

SQL Injection Prevention

Entity Framework Core - Safe

// SAFE - LINQ queries
var user = await context.Users
    .FirstOrDefaultAsync(u => u.Email == email);

// SAFE - Parameterized raw SQL
var users = await context.Users
    .FromSqlRaw("SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Email = {0}", email)
    .ToListAsync();

// SAFE - Interpolated (converted to parameters)
var users = await context.Users
    .FromSqlInterpolated($"SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Email = {email}")
    .ToListAsync();

Entity Framework Core - UNSAFE

// UNSAFE - String concatenation
var query = $"SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Email = '{email}'";  // NEVER!
var users = await context.Users.FromSqlRaw(query).ToListAsync();

// UNSAFE - FormattableString with raw
var users = await context.Users
    .FromSqlRaw($"SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Email = '{email}'")  // NEVER!
    .ToListAsync();

Dapper - Safe

// SAFE - Anonymous parameters
var user = await connection.QueryFirstOrDefaultAsync<User>(
    "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Email = @Email",
    new { Email = email }
);

// SAFE - DynamicParameters
var parameters = new DynamicParameters();
parameters.Add("Email", email);
var user = await connection.QueryFirstOrDefaultAsync<User>(
    "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Email = @Email",
    parameters
);

XSS Prevention

Razor Pages (Auto-encoding)

<!-- SAFE - Auto-encoded -->
<p>@Model.UserInput</p>

<!-- UNSAFE - Raw HTML -->
<p>@Html.Raw(Model.UserInput)</p>  <!-- Avoid if possible -->

Manual Sanitization

using Ganss.Xss;

var sanitizer = new HtmlSanitizer();
sanitizer.AllowedTags.Add("p");
sanitizer.AllowedTags.Add("b");
sanitizer.AllowedTags.Add("i");

string safeHtml = sanitizer.Sanitize(userInput);

API Response Encoding

using System.Text.Encodings.Web;

var encoder = HtmlEncoder.Default;
var safeString = encoder.Encode(userInput);

Authentication & Authorization

JWT Token Generation

public class JwtService
{
    private readonly IConfiguration _config;

    public JwtService(IConfiguration config) => _config = config;

    public string GenerateToken(User user)
    {
        var key = new SymmetricSecurityKey(
            Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(_config["Jwt:Key"]!));
        var credentials = new SigningCredentials(key, SecurityAlgorithms.HmacSha256);

        var claims = new[]
        {
            new Claim(ClaimTypes.NameIdentifier, user.Id.ToString()),
            new Claim(ClaimTypes.Email, user.Email),
            new Claim(ClaimTypes.Role, user.Role)
        };

        var token = new JwtSecurityToken(
            issuer: _config["Jwt:Issuer"],
            audience: _config["Jwt:Audience"],
            claims: claims,
            expires: DateTime.UtcNow.AddHours(1),
            signingCredentials: credentials
        );

        return new JwtSecurityTokenHandler().WriteToken(token);
    }
}

Password Hashing with Identity

// Use ASP.NET Core Identity's PasswordHasher
var hasher = new PasswordHasher<User>();

// Hash password
string hashed = hasher.HashPassword(user, password);

// Verify password
var result = hasher.VerifyHashedPassword(user, hashed, password);
if (result == PasswordVerificationResult.Success)
{
    // Password matches
}

Authorization Policies

// Program.cs
builder.Services.AddAuthorization(options =>
{
    options.AddPolicy("AdminOnly", policy =>
        policy.RequireRole("Admin"));

    options.AddPolicy("ResourceOwner", policy =>
        policy.Requirements.Add(new ResourceOwnerRequirement()));
});

// Custom requirement handler
public class ResourceOwnerHandler : AuthorizationHandler<ResourceOwnerRequirement, Resource>
{
    protected override Task HandleRequirementAsync(
        AuthorizationHandlerContext context,
        ResourceOwnerRequirement requirement,
        Resource resource)
    {
        var userId = context.User.FindFirstValue(ClaimTypes.NameIdentifier);
        if (resource.OwnerId == userId)
        {
            context.Succeed(requirement);
        }
        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }
}

// Controller usage
[Authorize(Policy = "AdminOnly")]
public IActionResult AdminDashboard() => View();

Input Validation

Data Annotations

public class CreateUserRequest
{
    [Required]
    [EmailAddress]
    [StringLength(255)]
    public string Email { get; set; } = default!;

    [Required]
    [StringLength(128, MinimumLength = 12)]
    [RegularExpression(@"^(?=.*[a-z])(?=.*[A-Z])(?=.*\d)(?=.*[@$!%*?&]).+$",
        ErrorMessage = "Password must contain uppercase, lowercase, number and special character")]
    public string Password { get; set; } = default!;

    [Required]
    [StringLength(100, MinimumLength = 2)]
    [RegularExpression(@"^[a-zA-Z\s\-']+$")]
    public string Name { get; set; } = default!;
}

[HttpPost]
public IActionResult CreateUser([FromBody] CreateUserRequest request)
{
    if (!ModelState.IsValid)
        return BadRequest(ModelState);

    // request is validated
}

FluentValidation

public class CreateUserValidator : AbstractValidator<CreateUserRequest>
{
    public CreateUserValidator()
    {
        RuleFor(x => x.Email)
            .NotEmpty()
            .EmailAddress()
            .MaximumLength(255);

        RuleFor(x => x.Password)
            .NotEmpty()
            .MinimumLength(12)
            .MaximumLength(128)
            .Matches(@"[A-Z]").WithMessage("Must contain uppercase")
            .Matches(@"[a-z]").WithMessage("Must contain lowercase")
            .Matches(@"\d").WithMessage("Must contain digit")
            .Matches(@"[@$!%*?&]").WithMessage("Must contain special character");

        RuleFor(x => x.Name)
            .NotEmpty()
            .Length(2, 100)
            .Matches(@"^[a-zA-Z\s\-']+$");
    }
}

Secure File Upload

[HttpPost("upload")]
[RequestSizeLimit(10 * 1024 * 1024)] // 10 MB
public async Task<IActionResult> Upload(IFormFile file)
{
    // Validate content type
    var allowedTypes = new[] { "image/jpeg", "image/png", "application/pdf" };
    if (!allowedTypes.Contains(file.ContentType))
        return BadRequest("File type not allowed");

    // Validate file extension
    var allowedExtensions = new[] { ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".png", ".pdf" };
    var extension = Path.GetExtension(file.FileName).ToLowerInvariant();
    if (!allowedExtensions.Contains(extension))
        return BadRequest("File extension not allowed");

    // Generate safe filename
    var safeName = $"{Guid.NewGuid()}{extension}";
    var uploadPath = Path.Combine(_uploadDirectory, safeName);

    // Save file
    await using var stream = new FileStream(uploadPath, FileMode.Create);
    await file.CopyToAsync(stream);

    return Ok(new { filename = safeName });
}

Secrets Management

User Secrets (Development)

# Initialize user secrets
dotnet user-secrets init

# Set secrets
dotnet user-secrets set "Jwt:Key" "your-secret-key"
dotnet user-secrets set "ConnectionStrings:Default" "your-connection-string"

appsettings.json (DO NOT store secrets)

{
  "Jwt": {
    "Issuer": "https://myapp.com",
    "Audience": "https://myapp.com"
    // Key should come from environment or secrets manager
  }
}

Environment Variables

// Program.cs - Load from environment
builder.Configuration.AddEnvironmentVariables();

// Access
var jwtKey = builder.Configuration["Jwt:Key"]
    ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("JWT Key not configured");

Azure Key Vault Integration

builder.Configuration.AddAzureKeyVault(
    new Uri($"https://{vaultName}.vault.azure.net/"),
    new DefaultAzureCredential()
);

Logging Security Events

public class SecurityLogger
{
    private readonly ILogger<SecurityLogger> _logger;

    public SecurityLogger(ILogger<SecurityLogger> logger) => _logger = logger;

    public void LogLoginAttempt(string username, bool success, string ipAddress)
    {
        _logger.LogInformation(
            "Login attempt: User={Username}, Success={Success}, IP={IpAddress}",
            username, success, ipAddress
        );
    }

    public void LogAccessDenied(string userId, string resource, string ipAddress)
    {
        _logger.LogWarning(
            "Access denied: User={UserId}, Resource={Resource}, IP={IpAddress}",
            userId, resource, ipAddress
        );
    }

    // NEVER log sensitive data
    // _logger.LogInformation("Password: {Password}", password);  // NEVER!
}

Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern	Why It's Bad	Correct Approach
String interpolation in SQL	SQL injection	Use parameterized queries
Html.Raw(userInput)	XSS vulnerability	Use default encoding
Storing secrets in appsettings	Secret exposure	Use User Secrets/Key Vault
[AllowAnonymous] everywhere	No authentication	Apply selectively
Disabling HTTPS redirection	Man-in-the-middle	Keep HTTPS enabled
Custom crypto implementation	Weak encryption	Use built-in libraries
Catching all exceptions	Hides security issues	Log and handle specifically

Quick Troubleshooting

Issue	Likely Cause	Solution
401 Unauthorized	JWT validation failed	Check issuer, audience, key
CORS error	Origin not allowed	Add origin to CORS policy
Rate limit triggered	Too many requests	Adjust rate limiter settings
Password validation fails	Policy requirements	Check Identity password options
NuGet vulnerability	Outdated package	Update to patched version
User Secrets not loading	Not in Development	Check ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT

Security Scanning Commands

# Dependency audit
dotnet list package --vulnerable --include-transitive

# Security analyzers (add NuGet packages)
# Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.NetAnalyzers
# SecurityCodeScan.VS2019

# Snyk
snyk test

# Check for secrets
gitleaks detect
trufflehog git file://.

# SAST with Semgrep
semgrep --config=p/csharp .

Related Skills

• OWASP Top 10:2025
• OWASP General
• Secrets Management
• Supply Chain Security