Security for Vibe Coders

If you're using Lovable to ship apps fast, security can feel like something to fix later. But launching without basic protection? That's how you lose users, leak data, and kill trust.

Here's a vibe-friendly checklist to help you lock down your MVP before it hits production.

✅ 1. Rate Limit Your API Endpoints

No limits = open invitation for bots and brute-force attacks. A flood of requests can:

Crash your database
Kill performance
Trigger outages

What to do:

Supabase: Use Edge Functions + rate limiter
Vercel: Add Middleware-based rate limiting
AWS/GCP: Use API Gateway throttling

✅ 2. Enable Row-Level Security (RLS)

If you're using Supabase, turn on RLS from day one. Without it, anyone who crafts a smart query can read all your data.

Do this:

Go to Supabase → Auth → RLS
Define policies based on user_id

No RLS = no privacy.

✅ 3. Use CAPTCHA on Auth Forms

AI bots don’t sleep. Without CAPTCHA, your signup/login forms can get spammed with fake accounts in minutes.

Protect:

Signups
Logins
Forgot password flows

Tools: Google reCAPTCHA or hCaptcha — both free and fast to integrate.

✅ 4. Turn On WAF Protection (for Vercel)

Vercel makes this easy. No code changes needed.

Steps:

Go to Settings → Security → Web Application Firewall
Enable Attack Challenge on all routes

Blocks sketchy traffic before it hits your app.

✅ 5. Never Expose API Keys

Frontend = public. Anything you put there can be seen and abused.

Checklist:

Keep keys in .env
Only use them server-side
Audit AI-generated code for leaks

Once a key is out, it’s game over.

✅ 6. Validate Everything on the Server

Frontend validation is for UX. Backend validation is for security.

Always validate:

Email addresses
Inputs & file uploads
API payloads
Anything from the user

Even trusted users can mess up. Don’t trust the client.

✅ 7. Clean Your Dependencies

AI-generated code loves to bloat your project with random packages.

After every build:

Run npm audit or yarn audit
Remove what you don’t need
Update outdated libraries

Fewer packages = fewer vulnerabilities.

✅ 8. Monitor & Log Activity

You can’t fix what you can’t see.

Tools to use:

Supabase logs
Vercel Analytics
LogSnag or LogRocket

Track:

Failed logins
Request spikes
Suspicious usage

Catch issues early, before users report them.

Bonus: Other Gotchas to Watch

Auth: Use secure tokens, short lifetimes, and HTTP-only cookies
Dev vs Prod: Don’t leave debug tools or logs exposed in production
Sensitive Data: Mask, encrypt, or avoid storing it entirely
SQL Injections: Always sanitize inputs or use ORM with query bindings
DDOS Attacks: Cloudflare or built-in WAFs can help absorb traffic
Cloud Misconfig: Disable public buckets, turn on encryption, review IAM roles