    Gain insights into HTTP security headers, learn their risks, explore solutions, and discover how to implement them using Helmet for enhanced web application security.

HSTS_brew_final.tar.gz

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This course teaches you hands-on practical use of HTTP security headers as browser security controls to help secure web applications.

For each HTTP security header that can enhance your web application security, you'll learn what is the overall risk of not implementing it, and what does a proposed solution help with. Finally, you'll learn how to implement and configure the security header with Helmet, a popular and well maintained Node.js package on npm.

Web Application Security: Understanding HTTP Security Headers

## X-Frame-Options

We previously reviewed the benefits of using the `X-Frame-Options` as a response HTTP header to help address clickjacking security vulnerabilities in web applications.

That being said, practices evolve and browsers rapidly adopt new standards and mechanisms. For example, the `ALLOW-FROM` value for the X Frame Options header has been deprecated and is now discouraged because modern browser versions don't support it anymore.

As a migration path, the Content Security Policy standards create a way to adapt to such new standards. One such way is CSP's `frame-ancestors` directive. For example, setting its value to `'none'` should be compatible with `X-Frame-Options` setting of `DENY` value.

A more complete example of the Content Security Policy in action for clickjacking security controls is:

```
Content-Security-Policy: frame-ancestors 'none';
```

The above CSP will disallow any URLs of embeddable content in `iframe`, `object`, and other HTML elements which are part of the `frame-ancestors` policy.

Do note, however, that older browsers may not respect Content-Security-Policy and its directives. As such, you may actually cause a degraded security status. 

To avoid such a problem, consult your supported browser matrix requirements and employ both old and new headers to ensure all bases are covered.

## X-XSS-Protection

Similar to the case with the X Frame Options HTTP header, the `X-XSS-Protection` header is considered deprecated and should mandate that you establish and roll out a Content Security Policy HTTP header instead.

It's still useful to keep as a header if you are targeting older browsers, but otherwise note that Chrome and Edge removed their XSS auditor and Firefox isn't planning on implementing support for X-XSS-Protection.

Following is the [browser compatibility matrix for the header](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-XSS-Protection) as listed on MDN:


# X-Frame-Options

We previously reviewed the benefits of using the `X-Frame-Options` as a response HTTP header to help address clickjacking security vulnerabilities in web applications.

That being said, practices evolve and browsers rapidly adopt new standards and mechanisms. For example, the `ALLOW-FROM` value for the X Frame Options header has been deprecated and is now discouraged because modern browser versions don't support it anymore.

As a migration path, the Content Security Policy standards create a way to adapt to such new standards. One such way is CSP's `frame-ancestors` directive. For example, setting its value to `'none'` should be compatible with `X-Frame-Options` setting of `DENY` value.

A more complete example of the Content Security Policy in action for clickjacking security controls is:

```
Content-Security-Policy: frame-ancestors 'none';
```

The above CSP will disallow any URLs of embeddable content in `iframe`, `object`, and other HTML elements which are part of the `frame-ancestors` policy.

Do note, however, that older browsers may not respect Content-Security-Policy and its directives. As such, you may actually cause a degraded security status. 

To avoid such a problem, consult your supported browser matrix requirements and employ both old and new headers to ensure all bases are covered.

# X-XSS-Protection

Similar to the case with the X Frame Options HTTP header, the `X-XSS-Protection` header is considered deprecated and should mandate that you establish and roll out a Content Security Policy HTTP header instead.

It's still useful to keep as a header if you are targeting older browsers, but otherwise note that Chrome and Edge removed their XSS auditor and Firefox isn't planning on implementing support for X-XSS-Protection.

Following is the [browser compatibility matrix for the header](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-XSS-Protection) as listed on MDN:


We will learn how to adopt new browser and HTTP security standards and set a plan to migrate from old HTTP headers.


Introduction

HTTP Security Headers

Testing for Security Headers

What's Next?

Establish a CSP and Security Headers standard

X-Frame-Options