Zero Trust Security: A Practical Guide for Modern Web Apps

What is Zero Trust?

Zero trust eliminates implicit trust. Every request must be authenticated, authorized, and continuously validated.

Core Principles

1. Verify explicitly — authenticate every request
2. Least privilege access — minimal permissions by default
3. Assume breach — design for when things fail

Implementing JWT Rotation

Copy
typescript
import jwt from 'jsonwebtoken';

export function createTokenPair(userId: string) {
  const accessToken = jwt.sign(
    { userId, type: 'access' },
    process.env.JWT_SECRET!,
    { expiresIn: '15m' }
  );
  const refreshToken = jwt.sign(
    { userId, type: 'refresh' },
    process.env.JWT_REFRESH_SECRET!,
    { expiresIn: '7d' }
  );
  return { accessToken, refreshToken };
}

Conclusion

Zero trust is a philosophy. Start with authentication, layer authorization, then add observability.