Jacob Rockowitz: Vibing Drupal: Using AI to hammer at the Webform module's security issues

I came up with the title for this blog post while working on 20+ Webform security issues, because there were moments when I used Codex to hammer out a particularly complex issue. I couldn't help but find it ironic to use something as advanced as AI to hammer at a problem or challenge.

Some security issues were so complex to reproduce that I had to push Codex to replicate the problem, and it occasionally generated sloppy code. Still, even with Codex generating AI-slop, it helped me understand the root causes and solutions for security issues that had lingered for years.

Before I go any further, let's step back and talk about the challenge of maintaining the Webform module and addressing security issues.

Maintaining the Webform module

The bulk of the Webform module was created a decade ago, when I had more time and motivation to make a sizable contribution to Drupal. Drupal contributors and their contributions come in all shapes and sizes. The current codebase is stable and extendable, with "extendable" as the keyword, because people and AIs can alter and create Webform features and behaviors as needed using contributed modules or custom code. It is ironic that all the example webforms included in the Webform module, intended to help humans, have proven incredibly useful for AIs in understanding and extending webforms.

Though I am willing to say the code is stable, the fact that a webform is generally public and accepts input leaves the Webform module open to security issues. In other words, malicious actors, including AI, will target webforms to exploit XSS vulnerabilities or expose data.

Securing the Webform module

It is worth recognizing and praising Drupal's security team for...Read More