Edit

Share via

ASP.NET Core security topics

  • Article

ASP.NET Core enables developers to configure and manage security. The following list provides links to security topics:

These security features allow you to build robust and secure ASP.NET Core apps.

For Blazor security coverage, which adds to or supersedes the guidance in this node, see ASP.NET Core Blazor authentication and authorization and the other articles in Blazor's Security and Identity node.

ASP.NET Core security features

ASP.NET Core provides many tools and libraries to secure ASP.NET Core apps such as built-in identity providers and third-party identity services such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. ASP.NET Core provides several approaches to store app secrets.

Authentication vs. Authorization

Authentication is a process in which a user provides credentials that are then compared to those stored in an operating system, database, app or resource. If they match, users authenticate successfully, and can then perform actions that they're authorized for, during an authorization process. The authorization refers to the process that determines what a user is allowed to do.

Another way to think of authentication is to consider it as a way to enter a space, such as a server, database, app or resource, while authorization is which actions the user can perform to which objects inside that space (server, database, or app).

Common Vulnerabilities in software

ASP.NET Core and EF contain features that help you secure your apps and prevent security breaches. The following list of links takes you to documentation detailing techniques to avoid the most common security vulnerabilities in web apps:

There are more vulnerabilities that you should be aware of. For more information, see the other articles in the Security and Identity section of the table of contents.

Secure authentication flows

We recommend using the most secure secure authentication option. For Azure services, the most secure authentication is managed identities.

Avoid Resource Owner Password Credentials Grant because it:

  • Exposes the user's password to the client.
  • Is a significant security risk.
  • Should only be used when other authentication flows are not possible.

Managed identities are a secure way to authenticate to services without needing to store credentials in code, environment variables, or configuration files. Managed identities are available for Azure services, and can be used with Azure SQL, Azure Storage, and other Azure services:

When the app is deployed to a test server, an environment variable can be used to set the connection string to a test database server. For more information, see Configuration. Environment variables are generally stored in plain, unencrypted text. If the machine or process is compromised, environment variables can be accessed by untrusted parties. We recommend against using environment variables to store a production connection string as it's not the most secure approach.

Configuration data guidelines:

  • Never store passwords or other sensitive data in configuration provider code or in plain text configuration files. The Secret Manager tool can be used to store secrets in development.
  • Don't use production secrets in development or test environments.
  • Specify secrets outside of the project so that they can't be accidentally committed to a source code repository.

Configuration data guidelines:

  • Never store passwords or other sensitive data in configuration provider code or in plain text configuration files. The Secret Manager tool can be used to store secrets in development.
  • Don't use production secrets in development or test environments.
  • Specify secrets outside of the project so that they can't be accidentally committed to a source code repository.

For more information, see:

For information on other cloud providers, see:

Additional resources