Comprehensive security measures implemented to protect TruthByte from various attack vectors including injection attacks, abuse, and malicious content.

TruthByte implements defense-in-depth security with multiple layers of protection:

User Access → Authentication → Input Validation → Backend Validation → Database Storage
     ↓              ↓                ↓                    ↓                   ↓
JWT Token     Session         Real-time         Content            Sanitized
Verification  Management      Filtering         Sanitization       Storage

1. Authentication & Authorization - JWT-based access control
2. Input Security - Real-time validation and sanitization
3. Backend Validation - Server-side security enforcement
4. Data Protection - Secure storage and transmission

TruthByte uses JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for secure authentication and session management:

Authentication Flow:

1. Token Request: Client requests JWT from /session endpoint
2. Token Issuance: Server generates signed JWT with session data
3. Authenticated Requests: All API calls include Authorization: Bearer <token> header
4. Token Validation: Server validates JWT signature and expiration

Security Features:

• HS256 Encryption: HMAC with SHA-256 for token signing
• 12-Hour Expiration: Tokens automatically expire for security
• Session Tracking: Each token includes unique session identifier
• Secure Storage: Tokens handled securely in frontend memory

Protected Endpoints:

• GET /fetch-questions - Requires valid JWT
• POST /submit-answers - Requires valid JWT
• POST /propose-question - Requires valid JWT + rate limiting

Implementation Details:

• Deployment Guide: See JWT_DEPLOYMENT.md for backend setup
• Frontend Integration: See JWT_FRONTEND.md for client implementation
• Debug Endpoint: /ping endpoint for token validation testing

User Identification:

• UUID v4 Generation: Cryptographically secure user IDs
• Persistent Storage: User IDs stored in browser localStorage
• Cross-Session Tracking: Consistent user identity across sessions

Access Controls:

• Authenticated Access: All game features require valid JWT
• Rate Limiting: Question submission limited per user (3/hour, 10/day)
• Session Validation: Tokens validated on every request

Character Validation:

• Only printable ASCII characters (32-126) allowed
• Tags restricted to: letters, numbers, spaces, hyphens, underscores
• Binary content immediately blocked

Content Filtering:

// Suspicious patterns detected and blocked
const suspicious_patterns = [_][]const u8{
    "<script", "javascript:", "data:", "vbscript:",
    "onload=", "onerror=", "onclick=", "eval(",
    "document.", "window.", "\\x", "\\u",
    "%3C", "%3E", "&#"  // URL encoded and HTML entities
};

Length Limits:

• Questions: 10-200 characters
• Tags: 1-50 characters each, maximum 5 tags
• Total tag length: 150 characters maximum

Spam Detection:

• Prevents more than 4 consecutive identical characters
• Limits consecutive spaces to 2
• Requires minimum 5 letters in questions

Immediate Actions on Malicious Content Detection:

1. Clear input field content
2. Deactivate input field
3. Clear HTML input element
4. Prevent form submission
5. Reset input state

Binary Injection Prevention:

• Detects non-printable characters (control codes)
• Blocks image data and binary content
• Prevents clipboard-based binary injection

Comprehensive Input Validation:

def validate_question_input(question: str, categories: List[str], 
                          title: str = "", passage: str = "") -> Dict[str, Any]:
    # Multi-layer validation with detailed error reporting

Security Checks:

• Character validation: Only safe printable ASCII
• Pattern detection: Blocks injection attempts
• Length enforcement: Server-side length limits
• Content analysis: Meaningful content requirements
• Regex validation: Categories must match ^[a-zA-Z0-9\s\-_]+$

Content Sanitization:

def sanitize_text(text: str, max_length: int) -> str:
    # Remove control characters
    # Limit consecutive spaces
    # Trim and enforce length limits

Question Submission Limits:

• 3 questions per hour per user
• 10 questions per day per user
• Tracked using DynamoDB with TTL
• HTTP 429 response with Retry-After header

Implementation:

def check_rate_limit(user_id: str, current_time: int) -> Dict[str, Any]:
    # Time-window based rate limiting
    # Graceful fallback if rate limiting fails
    # Separate hourly and daily counters

Blocked Patterns:

• <script> tags and variations
• JavaScript URLs (javascript:)
• Event handlers (onload=, onclick=, etc.)
• HTML entities (&#, %3C, %3E)

Protection Layers:

1. Frontend: Real-time pattern detection
2. Backend: Server-side validation
3. Sanitization: Content cleaning before storage

SQL Injection Prevention:

• No direct SQL queries (DynamoDB NoSQL)
• Parameterized operations only
• Input sanitization removes dangerous characters

Command Injection Prevention:

• No system commands executed
• Restricted character sets
• Pattern-based blocking

Detection Methods:

• Control character detection (< ASCII 32)
• File signature analysis
• Content-type validation

Response:

• Immediate input clearing
• Field deactivation
• User notification (implicit)

Rate Limiting:

• Per-user submission limits
• Time-window enforcement
• Graceful degradation

Resource Protection:

• Input length limits
• Processing time limits
• Memory usage constraints

const MAX_QUESTION_LENGTH = 200;
const MAX_TAG_LENGTH = 50;
const MAX_TAGS_TOTAL_LENGTH = 150;
const MIN_QUESTION_LENGTH = 10;

MAX_QUESTION_LENGTH = 200
MAX_TAG_LENGTH = 50
MAX_TAGS_TOTAL_LENGTH = 150
MIN_QUESTION_LENGTH = 10
MAX_TITLE_LENGTH = 100
MAX_PASSAGE_LENGTH = 500
MAX_TAGS_COUNT = 5

Input Validation Tests:

1. Paste binary content (images, files)
2. Enter script tags and JavaScript
3. Submit oversized content
4. Test with special characters
5. Attempt SQL injection patterns

Rate Limiting Tests:

1. Submit 4+ questions within an hour
2. Submit 11+ questions within a day
3. Verify retry-after headers
4. Test concurrent submissions

Content Filtering Tests:

1. Various XSS payloads
2. URL-encoded malicious content
3. HTML entity injection
4. Unicode bypass attempts

Real-time Monitoring:

• Input validation failures logged
• Rate limit violations tracked
• Suspicious pattern detection

Graceful Degradation:

• Security failures don't break functionality
• Fallback to safe defaults
• User experience preserved

Input Handling:

1. Never trust user input - validate everything
2. Sanitize before processing - clean all content
3. Use allowlists - define what's allowed, block everything else
4. Fail securely - default to blocking suspicious content

Error Handling:

1. Don't expose internals - generic error messages
2. Log security events - track attempted attacks
3. Graceful fallbacks - maintain functionality during security failures

Testing:

1. Test all input vectors - every user input field
2. Verify rate limiting - ensure limits are enforced
3. Validate sanitization - confirm dangerous content is cleaned

Indicators of Attack:

• Multiple JWT validation failures from same user
• Rate limit violations
• Suspicious pattern matches in input
• Binary content detection attempts
• Token manipulation or replay attacks
• Unauthorized endpoint access attempts

Response Actions:

1. Log the event - record details for analysis
2. Block the content - prevent malicious input
3. Rate limit user - temporary submission restrictions
4. Alert monitoring - notify security systems

If Security Breach Detected:

1. Isolate affected systems - prevent spread
2. Analyze attack vectors - understand the threat
3. Update security measures - patch vulnerabilities
4. Review and test - ensure fixes are effective

Input Security:

• Validation failure rates
• Suspicious pattern detections
• Binary content attempts
• Character set violations

Rate Limiting:

• Rate limit hits per user
• Peak submission rates
• Abuse pattern detection

Authentication Security:

• JWT token validation failures
• Unauthorized access attempts
• Session expiration events
• Authentication bypass attempts

System Security:

• API endpoint access patterns
• Rate limiting violations
• Token manipulation attempts

Advanced Threat Detection:

• Machine learning based content analysis
• Behavioral pattern recognition
• Advanced spam detection algorithms

Enhanced Authentication:

• Token refresh mechanisms
• Multi-factor authentication options
• Enhanced session management
• IP-based access controls

Enhanced Rate Limiting:

• Adaptive rate limits based on user behavior
• IP-based rate limiting
• Distributed rate limiting across regions

Security Monitoring:

• Real-time security dashboards
• Automated threat response
• Security event correlation
• JWT token analytics and monitoring

Security Review: This document should be reviewed and updated with each security-related change.
Last Updated: Current as of latest security implementation
Version: 1.0.0