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Strict Transport Security

Description​

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) is a web security policy mechanism whereby a web server declares that complying user agents (such as a web browser) are to interact with it using only secure HTTPS connections (i.e. HTTP layered over TLS/SSL). HSTS is an IETF standard track protocol specified in RFC 6797.

Remediation​

Add Strict-Transport-Security header.

GraphQL Specific​

Apollo

When using Apollo with Express.js, helmet can take care of the security headers.

const helmet = require("helmet");
...
app.use(helmet);
Awsappsync
  • Add security headers with the API Gateway

Put your AppSync API behind an API Gateway and configure it to act as a proxy to your AppSync endpoint (e.g., using the HTTP Proxy feature).

API Gateway Documentation

Then you can manually add headers to each resource. (There is only one resource if your API Gateway is only used to proxy a single AppSync endpoint)

Here is an example of security headers you can add :

Cache-Control: no-store
Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
  • Add security headers using only AWS AppSync

AWS AppSync currently does not allow to append custom headers to every response.

However, custom response headers can be configured individually for every resolver by using response mapping templates.

To do this, go to:

  • AppSync > {Your App} > Schema

For every attached resolver :

  • Go to the resolver configuration
  • In the "Configure the response mapping template" section, add this :
$util.http.addResponseHeader("Cache-Control", "no-store")
$util.http.addResponseHeader("Content-Security-Policy", "default-src 'self'")
$util.http.addResponseHeader("Strict-Transport-Security", "max-age=63072000")
$util.http.addResponseHeader("X-Content-Type-Options", "nosniff")
$util.http.addResponseHeader("X-Frame-Options", "SAMEORIGIN")
$util.http.addResponseHeader("X-XSS-Protection", "1; mode=block")

You can safely ignore this warning if you did this for every single resolver.

However, it may still appear here as GraphQL requests like query { __typename } are not associated with a resolver; therefore, you cannot add custom response headers. (Which doesn't matter as such requests cannot leak data as no actual field is queried)

AWS AppSync adds support for custom response headers

HTTP helpers in $util.http

Resolver Mapping Template Programming Guide

Graphqlgo

You can use a HTTP middleware to add security headers.

For instance, with srikrsna/security-headers:

import (
  secure "github.com/srikrsna/security-headers"
)

h := handler.New(&handler.Config{
  Schema:   &schema,
  ...
})

s := &secure.Secure{
  STSIncludeSubdomains: true,
  STSPreload:           true,
  STSMaxAgeSeconds:     90,

  FrameOption: secure.FrameAllowFrom,
  FrameOrigin: "https://example.com/",

  ContentTypeNoSniff: true,

  XSSFilterBlock: true,

  HPKPPins: []string{
  "HBkhsug765gdKHhvdj6jdb7jJh/j+soZS7sWs=",
  "hjshHSHU68hbdkHhvdkgksgsg+jd/jHJ68HBH=",
  },
  HPKPMaxAge:            5184000,
  HPKPReportURI:         "https://www.example.org/hpkp-report",
  HPKPIncludeSubdomains: true,

  ExpectCTMaxAge:    5184000,
  ExpectCTEnforce:   true,
  ExpectCTReportUri: "https://www.example.org/ct-report",

  ReferrerPolicy: secure.ReferrerStrictOriginWhenCrossOrigin,
}
http.Handle("/graphql", s.Middleware()(h))

http.ListenAndServe(":8082", nil)
Graphene

To add Security Headers to Django, follow this guide :

How to Score A+ for Security Headers on Your Django Website

For Flask, use Google's flask-talisman

Configuration​

Identifier: protocol/header_strict_transport_security

Examples​

Ignore this check​

{
    "checks": {
        "protocol/header_strict_transport_security": {
            "skip": true
        }
    }
}

Score​

References​