Security Vulnerability Mistakes

Certificate validation vulnerabilities arise from improper implementation or configuration. Failing to validate certificate chains, ignoring expiration dates, or accepting self-signed certificates in production creates severe security risks. Some applications disable certificate validation during development and accidentally deploy these insecure configurations. API integrations particularly suffer from validation failures that compromise security while appearing to function correctly.

Subdomain security oversights leave attack surfaces despite primary domain protection. Wildcard certificates secure unlimited subdomains but require careful private key protection due to their broad scope. Forgotten subdomains running outdated software or test environments create vulnerabilities. DNS entries pointing to non-existent subdomains enable subdomain takeover attacks. Comprehensive subdomain inventory and monitoring prevents these exposures.

Development and staging environment exposure occurs when non-production systems lack proper HTTPS configuration. Test environments containing production data require the same security standards as production systems. Self-signed certificates in development create habits of ignoring certificate warnings. Publicly accessible staging sites without HTTPS leak information to competitors and attackers. Environment parity includes security configuration to prevent vulnerabilities.

Third-party integration vulnerabilities arise from trusting external services without proper validation. Loading JavaScript libraries from HTTP CDNs enables code injection attacks. API integrations using HTTP expose authentication tokens and sensitive data. Payment gateway callbacks over HTTP compromise transaction security. Each third-party integration requires security review and HTTPS enforcement to maintain overall site security.