Tempo
Security FAQ

How to do a security audit of a Tempo Labs app?

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Short Answer

A Tempo Labs security audit is not a generic checklist — it's a targeted probe of the failure modes specific to Tempo Labs's stack (Supabase (Postgres + RLS) as the database). The audit order: fingerprint the deployment, test Row Level Security (RLS) policies, scan bundles for secrets, probe auth endpoints, then verify remediation with a second pass.

Detailed Answer

Why a Tempo Labs-specific audit (not a generic web audit)

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

Step 1 — Fingerprint the deployment

Confirm the Tempo Labs stack components: database (supabase, firebase, postgres), hosting, auth provider, third-party integrations. For Tempo Labs 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 Tempo Labs-aware rules

Run VAS against the deployed URL. The scan probes the specific issue classes found in Tempo Labs apps: component audit, secrets scan, auth testing, input validation. 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). Rate limiting on login/password-reset is a pass/fail check here, not a nuance.

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.

Tempo Labs-specific checks often missed

  • Client-Side Data Exposure
  • Insecure API Integration
  • Missing Input Validation
  • Unprotected Data Fetching

Security Research & Statistics

10.3%

of Lovable applications (170 out of 1,645) had exposed user data in the CVE-2025-48757 incident

Source: CVE-2025-48757 security advisory

4.45 million USD

average cost of a data breach in 2023

Source: IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023

500,000+

developers using vibe coding platforms like Lovable, Bolt, and Replit

Source: Combined platform statistics 2024-2025

Expert Perspectives

There's a new kind of coding I call 'vibe coding', where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists.

Andrej KarpathyFormer Tesla AI Director, OpenAI Co-founder

Vibe coding your way to a production codebase is clearly risky. Most of the work we do as software engineers involves evolving existing systems, where the quality and understandability of the underlying code is crucial.

Simon WillisonSecurity Researcher, Django Co-creator

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More Questions About This Topic

How often should I audit a Tempo Labs app?

Audit triggers for Tempo Labs apps: before every production release, after any AI-assisted refactor that touches auth or data, after adding a new Supabase table, after any dependency update that affects auth/session handling, and on a rolling weekly basis for live apps. Full manual re-audit every quarter. The faster feature velocity on Tempo Labs makes scan frequency more important than on traditionally-built apps.

What tools do I need to audit a Tempo Labs app?

Core: VAS (automated scan), browser DevTools (bundle inspection), Supabase dashboard (RLS review), `psql` or a client with service role for deeper queries. Optional depth: Burp Suite for auth flow tampering, OWASP ZAP for injection probing. For a first audit, VAS + manual Row Level Security (RLS) policies review covers ~90% of findings.

How much does a Tempo Labs app security audit cost?

Self-serve with VAS: minutes of your time, no per-scan cost for the core findings. External pentest of a Tempo Labs app: typically $5,000–$20,000 given the stack is well-understood and scope is bounded. The cost-effective path for most Tempo Labs apps is VAS → fix findings → re-scan → then budget external testing only if you have specific compliance requirements or high-value data.