Case Study · Q1 2026
NodeSecure Open-Source Security Contributions
Security Research · Open Source
The Problem
NodeSecure is a security scanning ecosystem used by developers worldwide to analyze JavaScript and Node.js code for vulnerabilities. The tools needed improvements in several areas: better detection of unsafe code patterns (like insecure random number generation), smarter SSRF (Server-Side Request Forgery) detection, the ability to tune detection sensitivity, and performance benchmarking to track analysis speed over time.
The Solution
Hamed contributed 7 pull requests across the NodeSecure repositories (js-x-ray and scanner), each targeting a specific improvement: building new security probes that detect unsafe code patterns, improving URL analysis to catch SSRF risks, adding configurable sensitivity levels so developers can choose between strict and lenient analysis, and setting up a benchmarking system to measure analysis performance over time.
Technologies Used
- TypeScript (all contributions)
- AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) analysis
- NodeSecure js-x-ray (code analysis engine)
- NodeSecure scanner (full project scanner)
- mitata (benchmarking library)
- Node.js runtime security patterns
Results
Built a probe that flags use of Math.random() in security-sensitive contexts, helping developers avoid a common cryptography mistake.
Improved the shady-url checker to better detect localhost references and SSRF-risky URL patterns in Node.js code.
Added conservative/aggressive sensitivity modes across AstAnalyser, ProbeRunner, and SourceFile — without breaking any existing behavior.
Added the Named Main Handlers pattern to isSerializeEnv so probes can handle multiple validation scenarios cleanly.
Implemented email literal collection using the CollectableSet API, with 5 comprehensive test cases.
Built a complete benchmarking setup using mitata to track AST analysis performance across NodeSecure releases.
What This Proves
These contributions are public and verifiable on GitHub under the NodeSecure organization. They demonstrate Hamed's ability to work on real security tooling, understand complex AST analysis code, and contribute clean, tested improvements to a production open-source project used by developers globally.
If you need security expertise applied to your application — code review, vulnerability scanning, or security architecture — Hamed can help.