Test and operate
Build a security test plan
Turn routes, roles, data flows, and threat stories into a repeatable plan that covers prevention and safe failure.
8 minute lesson
A checklist helps, but the application’s own trust boundaries should drive the test plan. Start from what would hurt.
Map public routes, authenticated actions, roles, sensitive records, uploads, outbound requests, and admin functions. Test expected use, misuse, missing proof, alternate encodings, and limit boundaries. Keep evidence without storing live secrets.
A test plan covers login and form validation but misses the background export worker. That worker trusts a stored user ID and writes another tenant’s data into the archive.
A huge generic checklist can hide this product-specific boundary. Start from assets, routes, roles, queues, files, and outbound requests.
Build a table with precondition, request, expected response, expected state, and expected event for one feature. Include a background or failure path, run the highest-impact rows, and attach their evidence.
Lesson completed