A Final Word on Security

We hope all this talk of security problems isn’t too intimidating. It’s true that the Web can be a wild and wooly world, but with a little bit of foresight, you can have a secure Web site.

Keep in mind that Web security is a constantly changing field; if you’re reading the dead-tree version of this book, be sure to check more up to date security resources for any new vulnerabilities that have been discovered. In fact, it’s always a good idea to spend some time each week or month researching and keeping current on the state of Web application security. It’s a small investment to make, but the protection you’ll get for your site and your users is priceless.

Security Tips

• While Django provides good security protection out of the box, it is still important to properly deploy your application and take advantage of the security protection of the Web server, operating system and other components.
• Make sure that your Python code is outside of the Web server’s root. This will ensure that your Python code is not accidentally served as plain text (or accidentally executed).
• Take care with any user uploaded files.
• Django does not throttle requests to authenticate users. To protect against brute-force attacks against the authentication system, you may consider deploying a Django plugin or Web server module to throttle these requests.
• Keep your SECRET_KEY a secret.
• It is a good idea to limit the accessibility of your caching system and database using a firewall.

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