🔗 Security in Elixir and Phoenix

Security is a fundamental aspect of web development that should never be overlooked.

With the increasing number of cyber threats, developers must adopt strong security practices to safeguard applications from malicious attacks. Data breaches, unauthorized access, and system vulnerabilities can have severe consequences, including financial loss, legal implications, and reputational damage.

To build secure web applications, developers must understand common threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and cross-site request forgery (CSRF). Secure coding practices, encryption, and authentication mechanisms play a crucial role in mitigating these risks. Additionally, adopting a proactive security mindset—regular code audits, dependency management, and staying updated with security advisories—can help prevent potential exploits before they occur.

When developing applications, leveraging frameworks and languages that emphasize security can make a significant difference. In this article, we will explore key security concerns in web applications, particularly within the context of Elixir language and Phoenix, and provide practical solutions to mitigate vulnerabilities.

Some of the security topics (Mass assignment vulnerability, Dynamic atom creation, SQL injection, XSS attacks) I already cover in my different article here: https://curiosum.com/blog/elixir-anti-patterns. I encourage you to take a look at that article because from now on I will no longer refer to these topics in this article. In this article I will focus on a few selected topics related to security in Elixir and Phoenix.