Hardening AI Backends Against OWASP Vulnerabilities

Prompt-generated backend code frequently exposes critical OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, particularly when constructing raw database queries or handling unauthenticated webhook endpoints.

1. Hardcoded Secret Leaks

LLMs routinely insert default fallback API keys in code snippets:

// VULNERABILITY: Fallback secret key in client code
const API_SECRET = process.env.API_SECRET || "sk_live_123456789";

Fix: Remove fallback strings from environment variable lookups. Throw an explicit startup error if required keys are missing.

2. Unsanitized Input SQL Injections

When prompting for database search routes, AI models sometimes use string concatenation instead of parameterized queries:

// VULNERABILITY: Raw string interpolation
const query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = '" + userInput + "'";

Fix: Always enforce parameterized queries or ORM abstractions (Prisma, Drizzle, Kysely).