Vercel Security Hardening Guide

Comprehensive security configuration guide for deploying AI-generated applications on Vercel. Protect your serverless deployments with proper environment variable management, deployment protection, and security headers.

Vercel Defaults Are Not Production-Ready

Vercel's default settings prioritize developer experience over security. Preview deployments are public by default, and security headers must be manually configured. AI-generated apps often miss these critical security configurations.

Vercel Security Checklist

Follow these 12 steps to harden your Vercel deployment. Critical items must be configured before launching to production.

Step 1

Environment variable encryption

Critical

Ensure all sensitive environment variables are encrypted at rest and use Vercel's built-in secrets management instead of plain text.

Step 2

Disable preview deployments for sensitive branches

Critical

Configure deployment protection to prevent unauthorized access to preview deployments containing production-like data.

Step 3

Enable deployment protection

Critical

Require authentication for all preview deployments to prevent public access to staging environments and sensitive features.

Step 4

Configure security headers

Critical

Set up CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and other security headers in vercel.json or next.config.js to protect against common attacks.

Step 5

Restrict deployment branches

Critical

Configure which branches can trigger deployments to prevent malicious code from being deployed to production infrastructure.

Step 6

Enable web application firewall

Critical

Use Vercel's Firewall feature to block malicious requests, DDoS attacks, and suspicious traffic patterns.

Step 7

Set up log drains

Configure log forwarding to external monitoring tools for security event analysis and threat detection.

Step 8

Review team access permissions

Audit who has deployment access and follow principle of least privilege for team member roles.

Step 9

Enable automatic security updates

Configure Vercel to automatically rebuild when security patches are released for your framework dependencies.

Step 10

Configure DDoS protection settings

Set up rate limiting and DDoS mitigation rules appropriate for your application's traffic patterns.

Step 11

Review function execution limits

Set appropriate timeout and memory limits for serverless functions to prevent resource exhaustion attacks.

Step 12

Enable audit logging

Turn on comprehensive audit logs for all deployment, configuration, and team access changes.

Common Vercel Misconfigurations

Public Preview Deployments

Critical

Preview URLs are publicly accessible without authentication, exposing staging data and unfinished features.

Hardcoded Secrets in Code

Critical

API keys and tokens committed to repository instead of using Vercel environment variables.

Missing Security Headers

High

CSP, HSTS, and other protective headers not configured, leaving app vulnerable to XSS and clickjacking.

Overly Permissive CORS

Medium

CORS headers allow all origins instead of restricting to trusted domains only.

Related Resources

Vercel Getting Started Guide

Learn the basics of deploying to Vercel

Environment Variables Security

Best practices for managing secrets across platforms

CI/CD Security Guide

Secure your GitHub Actions deployment pipeline

Security Audit Checklist

Complete pre-launch security review framework

Scan Your Vercel Deployment

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