Next.js Security Checklist: 10 Essential Practices for Secure Applications

Next.js has become one of the most popular React frameworks for building modern web applications. While it provides many built-in features that help with security, there are still important considerations to ensure your Next.js application is properly secured. This checklist covers the essential security practices every Next.js developer should implement.

1. Implement Proper Authentication

Authentication is the foundation of application security. Next.js works well with various authentication solutions:

Using NextAuth.js

NextAuth.js is a complete authentication solution specifically designed for Next.js applications:

import NextAuth from "next-auth"
import Providers from "next-auth/providers"

export default NextAuth({
  providers: [
    Providers.Email({
      server: process.env.EMAIL_SERVER,
      from: process.env.EMAIL_FROM,
    }),
    Providers.GitHub({
      clientId: process.env.GITHUB_ID,
      clientSecret: process.env.GITHUB_SECRET,
    }),
  ],
  database: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
  session: {
    jwt: true,
  },
  callbacks: {
    async jwt(token, user) {
      // Add user role to token
      if (user) {
        token.role = user.role
      }
      return token
    },
    async session(session, token) {
      // Add role to session
      session.user.role = token.role
      return session
    },
  },
})