Laravel Development Services - Best Practices & Features For High-Level Application Security

Laravel is a PHP

, MVC framework that helps businesses build high-end, flexible, and economical applications. The development of applications in Laravel is popular, thanks to the security, design, and other important features that it offers out of the box. There are others too, but Laravel is known for its all-around development tools and larger community support that makes the development process less time-consuming and more cost-friendly.

There are a lot of things that Laravel is doing just perfectly, but we would talk about security in specific.

Any high-level application or for that matter any application requires a certain degree of security so that there is no misuse of the information passed from the user to the server. We all use e-commerce websites and net banking or other applications that some way or another other requires sensitive information for completing the transaction.

Laravel has a set of security features that you might or might not be fully aware of, but do not worry, here are a few security features that Laravel offers to its developers and users to enhance user experience. We will first take you through the 3 major security features of Laravel and then best practices for high-level application security.

Security Features of Laravel

As we mentioned earlier, security is not something that you can overlook in the age of the internet. We are using the internet in almost every walk of our lives, and therefore becomes a critical aspect to focus on.

Here are the security features of the Laravel framework that Laravel development companies are leveraging to offer a safe and secure environment to their users.

1. Authentication Process

Laravel has an advanced authentication process that takes care of the security aspect of your website or web application. It has a robust user authentication system which has a boilerplate code associated with it. Laravel application development companies are using these processes to simplify the security aspect with these processes single-handedly.

Laravel facilitates its authentication process using “providers” and “guards”. The “guards” have to check for the authenticity of users after the request, and the “provider” has to retrieve the users from the database.

2. Prevent SQL Injection

SQL injection is an old yet powerful attack that online hackers use for illegitimate purposes. The queries that are fired at SQL in an attempt to retrieve information might end up actually deleting the data altogether from a table.

Therefore, Laravel came up with a solution known as Eloquent ORM and PDO binding. We will understand it with an example. You are filling out an online form whose information is to be recorded in a database mapped with the submit button.

You are searching for an email address, “abc@example.com”. The SQL query is now changed to:

Select * from users where email=”abc@example.com” or 1=1

In the example above, we see that condition 1=1 is always supposed to be true, a simple logical expression. That means, if the above query were to be executed, the database would show all the records since the OR condition will evolve to be true.

So let’s say we modify the above query to

Select * from users where email=”abc@example.com”; drop table  users;

Once this query is fired, you will end up removing the user’s table from your database. When you use PMO binding, all you do is put the input in the quotes before firing the query and there it is, the query does not return anything.

3. Protection against XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

Attackers often enter the Javascript into your website during the XSS attack. So, whenever a new visitor enters the site and browses through the affected pages, the script will execute with malicious impacts.

Laravel offers protection against such XSS attacks, and the native support system protects the code against XSS. Many developers are providing Laravel development services to help your website combat cross-site scripting.

Best Practices for Laravel Development

Laravel is known for its security features, and no doubt, it is always on the front foot when it comes to taking care of the gravest security threats online. Being said that, it is recommended that you follow the mentioned best practices for Laravel Development for the best results:

1. Avoiding Raw Queries

Laravel does have all the measures in place needed to take care of SQL injection attacks in the form of Eloquent ORM and PDO binding. But, when developers opt for raw queries, that is where the problem starts. Raw queries are much more prone to SQL injection attacks since they have a blank input variable.

2. Force HTTPS While Exchanging Sensitive Information

When your website is deployed on HTTP, it is prone to some critical attacks and at risk of information getting stolen. Your website has a series of credentials and debit/credit card information that travels in the header to the client for authentication. These credentials are sent to the server in plain text. Your data can be easily stolen in between if it is available in plain content.

Therefore, HTTPS came into the picture. HTTPS makes sure that all your data is always encrypted when it travels so that all your data reaches the destination safely.

3. Laravel Security Headers

Security is on the charts with Laravel. Security headers are a great way to enhance the safety of web applications and websites. Developers who follow the best Laravel application development practices can ensure a high degree of security for your web apps, which, in turn, promotes user experience.

Laravel development services

are all around you, just that you have to find the one who follows the best practices so you don’t have to go through these security issues. Also, these practices make sure that your web apps are always secure and protected from threats and hackers.