Security Checklist for AI Generated Apps: Auth, RBAC, Payments
AI accelerators are building apps faster than ever, whether a form builder AI, a Softr alternative, or a course platform builder AI. Speed is great until security debt ships to production. Use this checklist to gate releases and avoid costly retrofits.
Identity and Authentication
- Enforce SSO (SAML or OIDC) per tenant; disable local passwords for enterprise plans. Require MFA and step up auth for payment or admin actions.
- Use short lived tokens (JWT or PASETO) with rotation and audience scoping; store refresh tokens server side with device binding.
- Harden sessions: secure, HttpOnly, SameSite=strict cookies; CSRF tokens for state changing requests; rate limit login and magic links.
Authorization and Tenancy
- Model RBAC early: roles, permissions, and resource scopes. Prefer ABAC for dynamic rules like owner, instructor, or reviewer in course workflows.
- Verify authorization server side on every request; never trust client side checks from generated UI components.
- Isolate tenants at the data layer: tenant id in every table plus row level security; prevent cross tenant object enumeration.
- For form submissions, sign and timestamp payloads; validate schema server side to prevent prompt induced field bypasses.
Payments and PII
- Use a PCI compliant provider; never store raw card data. Require 3DS2 for high risk regions and enable radar rules for bot traffic.
- Make webhooks idempotent and signed; replay within tolerance windows. Reconcile payouts daily and alert on orphaned orders.
- Encrypt at rest with AES 256 and in transit with TLS 1.2 or higher; segregate keys in an HSM or managed KMS; rotate quarterly or on incident.
LLM Specific Controls
- Keep generation logs, prompts, and outputs free of secrets and PII; mask inputs at capture and set retention windows.
- Constrain tools: whitelist APIs, enforce output schemas, and sandbox code execution for smart actions triggered by AI.
- Defend against prompt injection: strip HTML and JS from user content, apply a content security policy, and use retrieval allowlists.
Operational Guardrails
- Define release gates: security tests, dependency scanning, SBOM, and infrastructure drift checks in CI.
- Run chaos and permission fuzzing: try role downgrades, token reuse, and broken object level authorization scenarios.
- Create audit trails: who changed roles, payout status, course visibility; store immutable logs with retention by region.
Practical Examples
Form builder AI: restrict who can publish forms; throttle submissions; encrypt file uploads; rotate webhook secrets monthly.
Softr alternative: enforce per page RBAC, hide admin APIs behind IP allowlists, and require approval workflows for schema changes.
Course platform builder AI: separate learner and instructor data stores; proctor high stakes exams with step up auth; refund flows require dual control.
Ship fast, but ship with guardrails. Treat this checklist as non negotiable for every AI generated app in production.
