README

Security sanity checks and a malicious payload filter for Laravel applications.

Why SanityCheck?

We all know what a product should avoid: debug mode left on, an .env sitting in the web root, a debugbar or log viewer anyone can open, an expired certificate, a queue worker that quietly died, a dashboard that was auth-protected last month and is not anymore.

And then life happens. A deploy copies the wrong file, a server gets rebuilt, a package is re-enabled "just for a minute" while debugging an incident, the person who knew about that one .env backup leaves the team. The config that was correct six months ago is not correct today, and nobody finds out until a customer, a crawler, or an attacker does. By then someone has to log into five dashboards to figure out what broke.

SanityCheck exists so most of those checks run for you:

basic payload filtering on the way in, with the rules in a config file,
php artisan sanity-check:run (manually or from the scheduler) tells you what is off right now,
failures go to mail, Slack, Discord or your own webhook, so you hear about it first,
and the action you configured - maintenance mode, for example - happens without anyone being awake.

It does not guarantee security. It cannot review business logic, authorisation rules, infrastructure, or a determined attacker. What it does is catch the basic, boring, recurring faults - the ones that keep happening - so you are not the one who finds out last.

Three capabilities, one config file:

MaliciousPayloadFilter middleware — rejects requests whose payload contains eval, shell_exec, exec, system, backticks, $(...), stream wrappers, PHP tags and similar code-execution signatures (all pattern-driven).
sanity-check:run command — a scheduled self-check of the application's security posture (Horizon, Totem, publicly reachable Totem, Nightwatch, debug/debugbar, APP_KEY, HTTPS, domain vs. environment, session cookies, CSRF, TLS expiry, .env exposure, admin dashboards, log viewer, sensitive public files, ecosystem plugins and security headers). Failures can trigger notifications and actions such as enabling maintenance mode.
sanity-check:advisories command — sends the installed packages to the Packagist security advisories API and warns about the advisories that affect your versions; runs once a day.
sanity-check:npm-advisories command — does the same for the npm packages in package-lock.json / package.json via the npm registry advisory API; also runs once a day.

Installation

composer require bluedot-bd/sanity-check

That is all that is required - Laravel package discovery registers BluedotBd\SanityCheck\SanityCheckServiceProvider automatically.

Publish the config file to tune the checks, channels and actions:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=sanity-check-config

Packagist: https://packagist.org/packages/bluedot-bd/sanity-check
Source: https://github.com/bluedot-bd/sanity-check

Requires PHP 8.2+ and Laravel 11, 12 or 13.

Payload filter

The middleware is prepended to the global HTTP stack, so it runs before any controller/session/database work:

// config/sanity-check.php
'middleware' => [
    'enabled' => true,
    'global' => true,       // auto-register; false = add it to App\Http\Kernel yourself
    'block' => true,        // false = log only
    'methods' => ['GET', 'POST', 'PUT', 'PATCH', 'DELETE'],
    'except_paths' => [],   // e.g. ['totem/*']
    'status' => 403,
    'message' => 'Invalid request payload.',
    'log' => true,
    'ignored_keys' => ['password', 'password_confirmation'],
    'patterns' => [
        'php_code_execution' => '/(?<!\w)(?:eval|assert|shell_exec|exec|system)\s*\(/i',
        // add your own rules here
    ],
],

Blocked requests are logged with the method, URL, IP, offending field and the matched rule — never the payload value itself.

Checks

Run manually:

php artisan sanity-check:run
php artisan sanity-check:run --url=https://example.com --dry-run
php artisan sanity-check:run --only=env_exposure,dashboards --json
php artisan security:check          # command alias

Key	What it checks
`horizon`	Horizon master supervisors exist and are not all paused
`totem`	Totem enabled, active tasks, tasks registered on the scheduler, latest `task_results.ran_at`
`totem_exposure`	Totem dashboard is readable without authentication — triggers maintenance mode by default
`debug`	`APP_DEBUG` is off outside local/testing
`debugbar`	Debugbar not enabled in production and `/_debugbar/open` not reachable
`nightwatch`	Nightwatch installed but disabled in production (monitoring gap) or missing `NIGHTWATCH_TOKEN`
`log_viewer`	`log-viewer` route not readable anonymously (`403`/`302`/`404` pass)
`plugins`	Inventory of Laravel ecosystem packages with the expected production state (`enabled` / `disabled` / `ignore`)
`ssl`	TLS certificate expiry — WARN 3 days before, FAIL once expired
`app_key`	`APP_KEY` present, not a placeholder, decodes to 16+ bytes
`https`	`APP_URL` uses HTTPS
`domain`	`APP_URL` looks like a real public domain while `APP_ENV` is not production (or production with a non-public host)
`session`	`secure`, `http_only`, `same_site` cookie flags
`csrf`	CSRF middleware (`PreventRequestForgery`, or the older `ValidateCsrfToken`/`VerifyCsrfToken`) is present in the `web` middleware group
`env_permissions`	`.env` is not world-readable (POSIX only)
`env_exposure`	No `.env*` in `public/` and `GET {url}/.env` does not return environment contents
`dashboards`	`/horizon` and `/telescope` are not anonymously readable (Totem has its own check)
`sensitive_files`	`.git/config`, old `.env` copies, logs, phpinfo, Ignition, composer.json
`security_headers`	`X-Frame-Options`/CSP, `nosniff`, CSP and HSTS on the homepage

Every check can be disabled with 'enabled' => false and remote probes can be skipped per run with --skip-remote (or globally with SANITY_CHECK_SKIP_REMOTE).

Ecosystem plugins

checks.plugins.packages maps a package to its expected production state:

'plugins' => [
    'enabled' => true,
    'packages' => [
        'nightwatch' => ['class' => 'Laravel\Nightwatch\Nightwatch', 'config' => 'nightwatch.enabled', 'expect' => 'enabled'],
        'pulse' => ['class' => 'Laravel\Pulse\Pulse', 'config' => 'pulse.enabled', 'expect' => 'disabled'],
        'telescope' => ['class' => 'Laravel\Telescope\Telescope', 'config' => 'telescope.enabled', 'expect' => 'disabled'],
        'log-viewer' => ['class' => 'Opcodes\LogViewer\LogViewerServiceProvider', 'config' => 'log-viewer.enabled', 'expect' => 'disabled'],
        'debugbar' => ['class' => 'Barryvdh\Debugbar\ServiceProvider', 'config' => 'debugbar.enabled', 'expect' => 'disabled'],
    ],
],

expect is only enforced in production: disabled packages that are enabled fail the check, enabled packages that are off only warn. Add any other package by its service provider class and config key.

TLS certificate

'ssl' => [
    'enabled' => true,
    'warn_days' => env('SANITY_CHECK_SSL_WARN_DAYS', 3),
    'verify_peer' => env('SANITY_CHECK_SSL_VERIFY', true),
],

Reads the certificate over TLS (openssl_x509_parse) from APP_URL, warns warn_days before expiry and fails once expired. verify_peer exists only for self-signed environments you control.

Domain vs. environment

checks.domain compares APP_URL with the application environment:

`APP_URL` host	`APP_ENV`	Result
real public domain	`production`	PASS
real public domain	anything else	WARN - a public domain is served with dev/staging settings
`localhost`, `.test`, `.local`, `*.example`, IP	`production`	WARN - production points at a non-public host
`localhost`, `.test`, `.local`, `*.example`, IP	anything else	PASS

This is the classic "someone rebuilt the server and forgot APP_ENV" case: the domain is real, customers are on it, but the app thinks it is local - so debug pages, verbose errors and test mailers are live.

Security advisories

php artisan sanity-check:advisories sends every installed package (read from vendor/composer/installed.json, falling back to composer.lock) to https://packagist.org/api/security-advisories/?packages[]=vendor/package, then keeps only the advisories whose affectedVersions really match the installed version:

php artisan sanity-check:advisories
php artisan sanity-check:advisories --json
php artisan sanity-check:advisories --ignore=PKSA-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx
php artisan sanity-check:advisories --no-notify

exit code is non-zero when an advisory affects an installed package, so it also works as a CI or monitoring gate,
findings are logged (critical, throttled to once an hour) and sent through the configured notification channels if notifications.enabled is on,
packages are queried in batches (batch_size) to keep the URL short.

'advisories' => [
    'url' => env('SANITY_CHECK_ADVISORIES_URL', 'https://packagist.org/api/security-advisories/'),
    'timeout' => 10,
    'batch_size' => 50,
    'include_dev' => env('SANITY_CHECK_ADVISORIES_INCLUDE_DEV', true),
    'ignore' => [], // PKSA ids accepted as known risk
],

It is scheduled once a day (03:00 by default):

'schedule' => [
    'advisories_enabled' => env('SANITY_CHECK_ADVISORIES_SCHEDULE', true),
    'advisories_cron' => env('SANITY_CHECK_ADVISORIES_CRON', '0 3 * * *'),
],

npm advisories

php artisan sanity-check:npm-advisories audits the front-end dependencies the same way npm audit does, using https://registry.npmjs.org/-/npm/v1/security/advisories/bulk:

php artisan sanity-check:npm-advisories
php artisan sanity-check:npm-advisories --json
php artisan sanity-check:npm-advisories --path=resources/js/package.json
php artisan sanity-check:npm-advisories --ignore=1106913
php artisan sanity-check:npm-advisories --no-notify

reads package-lock.json (or npm-shrinkwrap.json) next to package.json, so transitive dependencies are covered; without a lock file it falls back to the dependencies / devDependencies ranges (approximate, lowest version),
only reports advisories whose vulnerable_versions range matches the installed version, sorted by severity,
exit code is non-zero when something is affected; findings are logged (critical, throttled) and sent through the notification channels.

'npm_advisories' => [
    'url' => env('SANITY_CHECK_NPM_ADVISORIES_URL', 'https://registry.npmjs.org/-/npm/v1/security/advisories/bulk'),
    'path' => env('SANITY_CHECK_PACKAGE_JSON'), // defaults to base_path('package.json')
    'timeout' => 15,
    'batch_size' => 50,
    'include_dev' => env('SANITY_CHECK_NPM_INCLUDE_DEV', true),
    'severities' => ['critical', 'high', 'moderate', 'low'], // empty = all
    'ignore' => [], // advisory ids accepted as known risk
],

Scheduled once a day at 03:15 (15 minutes after the Composer scan):

'schedule' => [
    'npm_advisories_enabled' => env('SANITY_CHECK_NPM_ADVISORIES_SCHEDULE', true),
    'npm_advisories_cron' => env('SANITY_CHECK_NPM_ADVISORIES_CRON', '15 3 * * *'),
],

Notifications

Sent when a result matches notifications.statuses (default: fail). Identical reports are throttled by throttle_seconds (default one hour).

'notifications' => [
    'enabled' => env('SANITY_CHECK_NOTIFY', false),
    'statuses' => ['fail'],
    'throttle_seconds' => 3600,
    'channels' => [
        'mail' => ['enabled' => true, 'to' => ['ops@example.com'], 'subject' => 'SanityCheck'],
        'webhook' => ['enabled' => true, 'url' => env('SANITY_CHECK_WEBHOOK_URL'), 'headers' => []],
        'slack' => ['enabled' => true, 'webhook_url' => env('SANITY_CHECK_SLACK_WEBHOOK')],
        'discord' => ['enabled' => true, 'webhook_url' => env('SANITY_CHECK_DISCORD_WEBHOOK')],
    ],
],

Payloads: JSON (webhook), Slack attachments, Discord embeds, and a Mailable with the full report. Each channel is isolated — one failing channel never blocks the others.

Actions

'actions' => [
    'maintenance' => [
        'enabled' => env('SANITY_CHECK_MAINTENANCE', true),
        // Which failing check keys put the site into maintenance. '*' = any failure.
        // totem_exposure is included because Totem can run arbitrary artisan commands.
        'trigger_on' => ['env_exposure', 'totem_exposure', 'debug', 'debugbar'],
        'secret' => env('SANITY_CHECK_MAINTENANCE_SECRET'), // bypass URL
        'retry' => env('SANITY_CHECK_MAINTENANCE_RETRY'),
    ],
],

--dry-run reports what would happen without touching the maintenance state. --no-notify skips notifications.

Scheduling

Registered by the package when running in console:

'schedule' => [
    'enabled' => env('SANITY_CHECK_SCHEDULE', true),
    'cron' => env('SANITY_CHECK_SCHEDULE_CRON', '*/5 * * * *'),
    'environments' => ['production'],
    'without_overlapping' => true,
    'run_in_background' => true,
],

Tests

php artisan test --filter=SanityCheck

Maintainers

Bluedot Technology Ltd. - saiful@bluedot.ltd

Bugs and feature requests: https://github.com/bluedot-bd/sanity-check/issues

License

MIT - see LICENSE.

bluedot-bd / sanity-check

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