Securing Headless CMS Architectures: Data-Driven Best Practices for Developers

As countless enterprises transition to Headless CMS as a means to greater flexibility, greater scalability, and the ability to push content to multiple delivery channels, security emerges as an ever-challenging consideration. A Headless CMS functions in various ways compared to a conventional CMS; essentially, it operates like it becomes ‘decoupled’ from the back end to the front end while content is delivered via an API.

Yet, where a Headless CMS provides greater functionality and user-friendliness, it, conversely, presents inherent security challenges. The considerations for security are with API vulnerabilities, data exposure, and unauthorized access. The best way to secure a Headless CMS is to follow certain practices as a developer because, as the Headless CMS developer, you need to keep sensitive data safe, prevent data breaches and hackers from accessing your content, and comply with security standards and regulations.

Implementing Strong API Security Measures

Because a Headless CMS relies on APIs to retrieve and serve content, it’s up to the developer to ensure that the API is secure. If the API is not secure, it leaves the door unlocked for cyberattacks, hacks, and breaches to give malicious users access to sensitive information and the ability to change or delete already published content. Yet developers can make APIs secure with various authentication and authorization measures.

For example, OAuth 2.0, API keys, and JWT (JSON Web Tokens) guarantee that humans and applications allowed to speak with the CMS can only do so legitimately. In addition, rate limiting and throttling can avoid unwanted access from malicious users or bots looking to perform brute force attacks through excessive API usage. Avoiding man-in-the-middle attacks also means encrypted API transmissions. This is done via HTTPS and TLS (Transport Layer Security). Thus, when developers recommend proper API security, vulnerabilities are reduced, and access to content is preserved from external intrusions.

Enforcing Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Application security is essential, and data access management comes in handy in any Headless CMS. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) allows developers to define who is allowed to do what. For instance, the content creator and content editor roles can create content and edit it with the appropriate needs. The developer role can be those who require access to the Headless CMS for integration to the API setup. Even the admin role can limit access to sensitive privileges down the line for accessing and editing the database or giving permissions to publish with an easy click which can be a mistake. When developers work under the assumption that end users possess least privilege (PoLP) and only have access to what’s needed to do their job, there are no security vulnerabilities and backdoor access.

Protecting the CMS with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Just password protecting entry to a Headless CMS is not enough especially when private information and personal data is at stake. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) adds an extra security measure where users must verify their identity through at least two authentication technologies, such as one-time passwords (OTP), biometric security, or authentication apps. MFA significantly reduces the chance of unauthorized entry even when someone else has a user’s login information.

Therefore, developers should mandate MFA for all admin users, content creators, and application programming interface (API) users to ensure that only authorized users can enter the CMS. Also, there are password policies with required password changes every few months. Strong passwords are needed: uppers, lowers, numbers, and symbols that add even greater account security.

Securing Data Storage and Content Encryption

Since a Headless CMS holds so much content and metadata, it becomes a target for hackers and exploits. Thus, it is up to the developer to prioritize database encryption to hide what’s going on under the cover of the database from third-party access. By guaranteeing data at rest is encrypted and data in motion across the network is encrypted, there is minimal chance that anything becomes legible in the event of a hack. In addition, passwords for secretive users should always be processed through a hashing algorithm either bcrypt or Argon2 so that even if passwords are hacked, they’re not legible. As far as cloud-based headless CMS solutions are concerned, developers get security from the cloud itself server-side encryption (SSE), key management services (KMS), and database firewalls to ensure that malicious users do not gain access to the database. Security audits and penetration testing (pen testing) create a positive feedback loop to find vulnerabilities and ensure that any exploit is fixed before another person finds and exploits it.

Mitigating Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and Content Injection Attacks

Perhaps the biggest attack vector related to CMS is Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and content injection. When a CMS is compromised, hackers can execute a script or inject content into a page and then subsequently use this information to steal personal data, hijack sessions, or render content for inappropriate gain.

XSS attacks can be prevented by developers with proper input validation and output encoding to ensure that only proper (and sanitized) content is rendered and seen. Furthermore, implementation of Content Security Policy (CSP) headers can prevent unapproved renderings from taking place to begin with. In addition, a web application firewall and intrusion detection system could be used to monitor and block malicious activity, as these are an added layer of protection in attempting to thwart such interactive attacks.

Regularly Updating and Patching Vulnerabilities

Cyber threats are evolving every day, and if your version is not current, it may have vulnerabilities by tomorrow. Thus, in order to protect against known vulnerabilities, once a new version is released, developers should update their Headless CMS, plugins, and every third-party addition. There are also patch management tools to help with this, as they auto-install security patches and updates as soon as they go live. In addition, developers should subscribe to security notifications and vulnerability advisory tools like CVE to keep them apprised of when new vulnerabilities arise. A successful vulnerability management program lowers the probability of exploits. This means the Headless CMS will be protected from any would-be intruders.

Monitoring CMS Activity with Security Logging and Audits

But knowing what users do with the ability to take action within the CMS it’s vital to know what actions are being taken at the present time before breaches occur. This is part of proper security, too. Therefore, logs and audit trails exist to record when someone logs in, when they make an API call, when something is changed or deleted even when someone unsuccessfully attempts to log in.

This is all necessary information to be assessed and compiled by Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions. These take the logs generated by the CMS to assess what’s happening behind the scenes of the platform, note intruding developments, and automatically fix any flagged improper actions. For instance, if someone is attempting to do a brute-force attack log-in or change settings in a configuration area, the security logs show what’s going on so that developers can more readily figure out what’s wrong with forensic integrity. Sectors such as financial services and healthcare have compliance issues that are solved by immutable audit logs, providing regulatory compliance (GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2) and better security of the content management system.

Strengthening API Authentication and Token Expiry Policies

Because a Headless CMS publishes content to users via APIs, one form of access control to block entry comes in the form of authentication tokens. Yet, compromised crypto tokens lead to API breaches and exploits. Developers can prevent this from happening through the use of API tokens that are temporary and expire on their own. This fosters a developer attitude to eradicate takeovers by bad actors, as tokens that live longer are more likely to be exploited. Furthermore, using OAuth 2.0 and a refresh token approach allows for safe reauthentication without exposing easily compromised API tokens and secrets. Moreover, the ability to revoke API tokens on the fly such as tokens that are compromised or unused ensures that only legitimate requests enter the CMS, making it less likely a malicious API request will get through.

Securing Third-Party Integrations and Plugins

Many Headless CMS solutions rely on third-party integrations for eCommerce, marketing automation, analytics, and CRM. While this increases functionality across services, it poses a challenge for security if not done correctly. It’s the developers’ responsibility to ensure that any third-party integration is done on secure API calls and proper encryption standards. The best means to ensure this is to perform a security audit before integration to determine what’s needed; one should audit the APIs for documentation and compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27001, or GDPR. In addition, restricting API access to only third-party applications reduces the likelihood of an open access scenario that could unnecessarily reveal at-risk or sensitive private data.

A zero-trust policy, compounded by regular audits of the API access logs, strengthens the confidence that only approved applications interface with the CMS. Therefore, by evaluating, protecting, and continuously monitoring integrations with third-party applications, developers expand a CMS’s capabilities without compromising proper security.

Implementing Secure Backup and Disaster Recovery Plans

No security system is fail-safe without backups and disaster recovery. Data can become corrupted. Ransomware can hit. A CMS can go down but without fixes, a CMS can become corrupted too. People can lose information forever, extended downtime can happen, and it’s just too easy to ruin a brand’s reputation. Thus, as part of a Headless CMS security strategy, it should involve planning for automated backups of required content and settings in addition to the standard user data that would need to be restored in a timely fashion after a security incident.

These backups should be stored in encrypted locations with access provided to only necessary personnel. In addition, developers must regularly test disaster recovery efforts so data can be restored easily with minimal downtime. Many cloud-based CMS platforms offer this type of redundant storage and geo-diverse backup; should a cybersecurity hack occur or even human error a prompt is given, and companies can restore content just as quickly, without pause. Therefore, appropriate backup and recovery solutions enable the SaaS developers and their respective companies to protect their content libraries, reduce frustrations, and avoid disruptions during a security breach.

Educating Teams on CMS Security Best Practices

It’s not so much that a Headless CMS is secure due to technology but almost a human awareness and action. Many hacks occur from bad passwords, human mistakes, or phishing, so security awareness training is critical for everyone from content managers to IT admins to developers. Therefore, it does not mean only those who directly work with the CMS need to train. Anyone who might touch the CMS for the company needs to learn proper usage of the CMS, how to avoid phishing, password hygiene, and awareness of any possible API vulnerabilities. With all teams on a secure mindset, they won’t accidentally email sensitive information, project briefs, or credentials to another email or fall victim to a social engineering phishing scam.

For example, when it states security training for new developers and creators, this means that new onboarding in-house team members learn from Day 1 what not to do – no hard coding API keys, no bad authentication/open vulnerabilities, or even in-house phishing attempts. A pervasive sense of security from the internal company side makes them less vulnerable to breaches from the inside, and all Headless CMS potential vulnerabilities and back-end vulnerabilities are patched to avoid nefarious activities on the web.

Connecting the Dots:

The final lesson to be learned about Headless CMS security is that it’s not a standalone entity that can be bolstered or fixed in one place; everything is interconnected, from API security to access permissions to authorizations/authentications to international regulations and end-user education. The more enterprises crave the ease of use and growing prospects of Headless CMS options, the more that developers need to anticipate the features sooner rather than later to combat security issues and lapses that might otherwise put confidential information in the hands of unwanted onlookers and the dark web. Make your customers and audience happy instead. Embrace joyful headless CMS experience with Storyblok. An investment in non-failing, secure Headless CMS provides quality content today and consumer data and brand safety later while enabling businesses to easily scale in the future, with security always in the forefront.

Author Profile

Adam Regan

Deputy Editor

Features and account management. 3 years media experience. Previously covered features for online and print editions.

Email Adam@MarkMeets.com