Core Code
Core Code Modern Dev Handbook
APPLICATION-SECURITY Contents
Security Foundations for Production Apps
Threat Modeling (Practical, Repeatable) OWASP Top 10 (Operator Lens) Defense in Depth (Layered Controls That Hold) Security Baselines and Checklists (What “Good” Looks Like) Secrets in Apps (Storage, Injection, Rotation) Logging Sensitive Data (Pitfalls and Redaction) Rate Limiting Patterns (Abuse and Resilience) Abuse Prevention (Bots, Fraud, Enumeration) HTTPS & TLS Realities (HSTS, Termination, Cert Ops) Secure Headers Baseline (Production Defaults)
Identity, Authentication, and Sessions
Sessions vs JWT (Production Tradeoffs) JWT Attack Patterns and Validation Pitfalls Password Hashing Ops (bcrypt/argon2 Parameters) OAuth2 Flows in Practice (Auth Code + PKCE) OIDC Internals (Discovery, JWKS, Claims) Token Revocation Strategies (What Actually Works) Refresh Token Abuse and Rotation Defenses API Key Management (Issuance, Rotation, Scoping) mTLS Basics (Service-to-Service Identity) Identity Boundary Design (Trust Zones)
Web Attacks and Practical Defenses
XSS in Production (Exploit Paths and CSP Hardening) CSRF (SameSite Reality vs Token Defenses) SSRF (Cloud Metadata Abuse and Egress Controls) Clickjacking (Frame Controls and UI Redress) SQL Injection (Production Defense Patterns) CORS Misconfigurations (Real-World Impact) CSP Practical Recipes (Deployable Policies) Secure Cookie Patterns (HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite) Request Validation Patterns (What to Validate Where) File Upload Hardening (Content Sniffing, AV, Storage)
Secure Delivery, Hardening, and Incident Response
Secure SDLC (Gates That Don’t Kill Delivery) Dependency Risks (Vulns, Updates, Policies) App Supply Chain (Lockfiles, Pinning, Review) Configuration Hardening (Safe Defaults Checklist) Security Monitoring Signals (Auth, Data, Network) Security Alert Design (Noise, Triage, Escalation) WAF Realities (What It Stops and What It Doesn’t) Credential Leak Runbook (Keys, Tokens, Passwords) Compromised Token Runbook (JWT/OAuth Sessions) Security Incident Response (Contain, Eradicate, Recover)

Refresh Token Abuse and Rotation Defenses

Refresh token abuse defenses: rotation, reuse detection, device binding signals, and a concrete response playbook when reuse is detected.
On this page

Why Refresh Tokens Are High Value

If an attacker steals a refresh token, they can mint new access tokens repeatedly. Treat refresh tokens like secrets with lifecycle.

Required Controls

  • Rotation on every use (one-time use refresh tokens).
  • Reuse detection: if an old token is used again → likely theft.
  • Bound context: store device/session metadata (not as a sole factor).
  • Short refresh TTL + forced re-auth periodically.

Reuse Detection Flow

On refresh:
- if token_id already used:
  - mark session compromised
  - revoke all refresh tokens for user (or that device)
  - require re-auth
  - alert security + log event

Operational Signals

Alert candidates:
- refresh.reuse_detected count > 0
- refresh attempts from new geo/ip for same device id
- refresh failures spike

Runbook

  • Revoke tokens for affected user/device.
  • Invalidate sessions and prompt password reset if needed.
  • Check for account takeover indicators (email change, MFA reset, payouts).
API Key Management (Issuance, Rotation, Scoping) →