HTTPS is enforced on all payment and checkout pages

Checkout pages accessed over plain HTTP expose payment form data — billing address, card tokenization requests, and order details — to network observers and man-in-the-middle attackers. PCI-DSS 4.0 Req 4.2 mandates that cardholder data in transit be protected with strong cryptography; CWE-319 (Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information) and CWE-523 (Unprotected Transport of Credentials) directly apply. OWASP A02 (Cryptographic Failures) treats unencrypted checkout traffic as a critical failure. Even if the card number itself is tokenized via an iframe, HTTP exposes billing address fields, email, and order totals — enough for targeted phishing or order-manipulation attacks.

Enforce HTTPS at the application layer for defense-in-depth, even when your hosting platform handles it automatically.

// middleware.ts — redirect HTTP to HTTPS in production
import { NextResponse, type NextRequest } from 'next/server'

export function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
  if (
    process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production' &&
    request.headers.get('x-forwarded-proto') === 'http'
  ) {
    return NextResponse.redirect(
      `https://${request.headers.get('host')}${request.nextUrl.pathname}`,
      301
    )
  }
  return NextResponse.next()
}

Also set HSTS in next.config.ts to prevent browsers from making HTTP requests in the first place:

{ key: 'Strict-Transport-Security', value: 'max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload' }

• ID: ecommerce-payment-security.client-side-handling.https-enforced

• Severity: high

• What to look for: Count all HTTPS enforcement mechanisms present: middleware redirects, HSTS headers in config, vercel.json or netlify.toml redirect rules, Content-Security-Policy upgrade-insecure-requests directives, and platform-level automatic HTTPS. At least 1 enforcement mechanism is required.

• Pass criteria: HTTPS is enforced through at least 1 of: HSTS header configuration, explicit HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect middleware, platform-level enforcement (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages), or upgrade-insecure-requests CSP directive. Checkout pages are not accessible over plain HTTP. Report the count: "X HTTPS enforcement mechanisms found."

• Fail criteria: No HTTPS enforcement found at any layer — no platform config, no middleware redirect, no HSTS header. Checkout pages are potentially accessible over HTTP.

• Skip (N/A) when: The project is deployed to a platform that enforces HTTPS globally and unconditionally (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages) and no custom HTTP-accessible domain configuration overrides this.

• Detail on fail: Describe the missing enforcement. Example: "No HTTPS redirect found in middleware, vercel.json, or next.config.ts. If hosted on a custom server, HTTP access to checkout pages is possible"

• Cross-reference: The Security Headers audit covers HSTS configuration, CSP, and transport security headers in comprehensive detail beyond payment-specific pages.

• Remediation: For defense-in-depth, enforce HTTPS at the application level even if your platform handles it:

  // middleware.ts — redirect HTTP to HTTPS
  import { NextResponse, type NextRequest } from 'next/server'
  
  export function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
    if (
      request.headers.get('x-forwarded-proto') === 'http' &&
      process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production'
    ) {
      return NextResponse.redirect(
        `https://${request.headers.get('host')}${request.nextUrl.pathname}`,
        301
      )
    }
    return NextResponse.next()
  }
  

  Also add HSTS to your response headers in next.config.ts:

  headers: async () => [{
    source: '/(.*)',
    headers: [{
      key: 'Strict-Transport-Security',
      value: 'max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload',
    }],
  }]