Angular Security Quiz: XSS, CSRF, and Best Practices Quiz

Assess your understanding of Angular security principles including XSS prevention, CSRF protection, and safe coding practices to reduce vulnerabilities in web applications. This quiz targets intermediate-level developers aiming to apply secure techniques and identify common pitfalls.

1. XSS Vulnerability Sources

   Which of the following Angular template practices could make an application vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks when displaying untrusted user input?

   1. Using innerHTML property binding to render user-provided HTML content
   2. Binding values to input fields using ngModel
   3. Displaying variables with double curly braces ({{ }})
   4. Using ngFor to loop through static arrays

   Explanation: Using the innerHTML property binding to render user-provided HTML allows the insertion of malicious scripts, making the application susceptible to XSS attacks. ngModel bindings and curly braces automatically escape content, minimizing this risk. NgFor iterates through arrays and does not itself cause injection unless used unsafely, so it is a less direct risk.

2. CSRF Token Implementation

   In the context of CSRF protection, what is a key method Angular employs to help prevent CSRF attacks on server-side APIs?

   1. Automatically includes an anti-CSRF token with all HTTP requests
   2. Forces all HTTP requests to use JSONP
   3. Disables GET requests by default
   4. Encrypts form data before submission

   Explanation: Automatically including an anti-CSRF token with HTTP requests helps validate that requests originate from the authenticated client, mitigating CSRF attacks. Disabling GET or encrypting form data are not standard or complete CSRF defenses. Using JSONP does not prevent CSRF and may introduce further security concerns.

3. Safe Bypass of Angular's Security

   When is it acceptable to use Angular's built-in bypass security functions, such as bypassSecurityTrustHtml, in your application?

   1. Only when you are certain the input is from a trusted and verifiable source
   2. To disable all security checks for faster performance
   3. Whenever you want to display formatted HTML
   4. When manipulating arrays with ngFor

   Explanation: Bypass security functions should only be used with highly trusted sources, since they intentionally turn off Angular’s protections. Using them for general formatting or looping through arrays offers no benefits and increases risk. Disabling all security checks for performance is a dangerous practice and not a recommended use case.

4. Sanitization of URL Bindings

   Which Angular security technique is automatically applied when you bind a URL to an anchor tag's href attribute using property binding?

   1. Sanitization to remove potentially dangerous protocols such as javascript:
   2. Disabling click events for external links
   3. Encoding only spaces to prevent URL injection
   4. Adding an anti-forgery token to the URL

   Explanation: Angular automatically sanitizes bound URLs, stripping out protocols like javascript: to prevent XSS attacks. Encoding spaces only addresses formatting, not security. Adding tokens or disabling clicks is not handled by default in this context and does not mitigate the direct security risk.

5. Preventing XSS with User Input

   What is the most secure approach to handling user-submitted comments for display in an Angular component?

   1. Display comments using innerHTML without modification
   2. Bypass all Angular sanitization to preserve formatting
   3. Display comments using interpolation with double curly braces ({{ }})
   4. Directly insert comments into the DOM using JavaScript

   Explanation: Using double curly braces for interpolation ensures user input is properly escaped, preventing XSS attacks. Displaying raw HTML or directly inserting into the DOM exposes the application to script injection. Bypassing sanitization eliminates all safety measures, increasing the risk of vulnerabilities.