Laravel Security Best Practices
Comprehensive security guidelines for Laravel applications to protect against common vulnerabilities.
When to Activate
- Setting up Laravel authentication and authorization (Sanctum, Passport, Jetstream, Breeze)
- Implementing user roles, permissions, and policies
- Configuring production security settings and environment variables
- Reviewing Laravel applications for security vulnerabilities
- Deploying Laravel applications to production
- Writing secure Eloquent queries and migrations
Production Configuration
Essential Production Settings
// config/app.php
'env' => env('APP_ENV', 'production'),
'debug' => (bool) env('APP_DEBUG', false), // CRITICAL: Never true in production
'key' => env('APP_KEY'), // Must be set: php artisan key:generate
// config/session.php
'secure' => env('SESSION_SECURE_COOKIE', true),
'http_only' => true,
'same_site' => 'lax',
// Verify APP_KEY is set at boot
// bootstrap/app.php or a service provider
if (empty(config('app.key'))) {
throw new RuntimeException('APP_KEY is not set. Run: php artisan key:generate');
}
Environment File Security
# NEVER commit .env to version control…