How to do a security audit of a Lovable app?

Why a Lovable-specific audit (not a generic web audit)

A generic OWASP audit will tell you your Lovable app "needs CSP headers." A Lovable-aware audit tells you that your specific Lovable app has an RPC function callable without auth or a service key in a client bundle — the issues that actually appear when Lovable apps get compromised. The difference in output value is why the audit should be scoped to Lovable's real failure modes.

Step 1 — Fingerprint the deployment

Confirm the Lovable stack components: database (supabase), hosting, auth provider, third-party integrations. For Lovable apps this is often visible in the Supabase endpoint URL in network requests. Document every component — each is an independent audit target.

Step 2 — Automated scan with Lovable-aware rules

Run vas against the deployed URL. The scan probes the specific issue classes found in Lovable apps: supabase security, api key exposure, authentication security, security headers. This is the 80/20 — most critical and high findings surface here. Fix anything critical before continuing to manual steps.

Step 3 — Manual Row Level Security (RLS) policies review

Open the Supabase dashboard → Authentication → Policies. For each table: is RLS enabled? Do policies check `(select auth.uid()) = user_id` or equivalent? Are there policies scoped to the anon role that shouldn't exist? The automated scan catches missing RLS; this step catches overly permissive RLS — a subtler but equally dangerous failure mode.

Step 4 — Authentication & authorization probing

Test every endpoint with no session (expect 401), with a valid session for a different user (expect 403 on user-owned resources), and with session tokens that have been tampered with (expect 401 if signatures are enforced). For Lovable specifically, watch for account takeover via weak auth — missing email verification and weak passwords enable account compromise.

Step 5 — Re-scan to verify

Fix findings in severity order (critical → high → medium → low), re-scan after each batch of fixes. "I applied the fix" is not evidence — the fix might not have been deployed, might have been partial, or might have been reverted. Only the scan output proves the gap is closed. Log each finding + fix + verification scan for compliance records.

Lovable-specific checks often missed

• Complete Database Exposure via Missing RLS (fix: Enable RLS on all tables and write policies that verify auth)
• API Key Theft from JS Bundles (fix: Move all secrets to server-side functions)
• Account Takeover via Weak Auth (fix: Enable email verification, enforce password requirements, add rate limiting)
• Data Manipulation via Open RLS (fix: Audit policies to ensure proper ownership checks on all CRUD operations)