Your Trusted Vue.js Experts
Talk to an engineer

🛡️ Vue.js and the Cyber Resilience Act: How Developers Can Avoid Mistakes

What is CRA and why does it matter for frontend developers?

The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is a new EU regulation that requires all digital products to be secure by default and properly maintained throughout their entire lifecycle. The goal is simple: reduce security risks in software and ensure that companies ship products that meet modern cybersecurity standards.


For Vue developers and frontend engineering teams, this introduces concrete responsibilities:

  • you can’t ignore vulnerabilities in npm packages or outdated dependencies
  • security by design becomes a mandatory requirement for any EU client project
  • the way we structure code, handle dependencies, and manage updates now directly affects whether clients stay compliant or face legal, financial, or reputational risks

If you build or maintain Vue applications for European businesses, understanding CRA obligations is essential to avoid security gaps and ensure your software meets EU-level compliance.

Why this matters for clients

👔 Business-friendly arguments:

  1. Fines and reputation risk
  2. Under the EU Cyber Resilience Act, companies can face penalties for shipping insecure digital products. Security issues in frontend code or npm dependencies can directly affect compliance status.
  3. Transparency and trust through SBOMs
  4. Providing an SBOM (software bill of materials) and clear security changelogs demonstrates reliability, professionalism, and proactive risk management. Many enterprise clients now require this as part of vendor evaluation.
  5. Lower long-term maintenance costs
  6. Continuous small updates, dependency patches, and vulnerability monitoring cost significantly less than urgent large scale remediation when a critical issue appears.
  7. Competitive advantage in the EU market
  8. Products that can be marketed as CRA compliant, secure by design, or EU-ready gain trust faster and increase their chances of passing security audits and procurement checks.

What Vue developers should do right now

🔹 1. Keep dependencies healthy

Bad dependencies → Better alternatives


❌ moment.js — deprecated, huge bundle size.

✅ Use date-fns or dayjs (lightweight, active support).

❌ request — old HTTP client, unmaintained.

✅ Use axios or ky.

❌ left-pad (and similar tiny packages).

✅ Inline small utilities yourself — less supply-chain risk.

❌ lodash (full package) — bloats the bundle.

✅ Use lodash-es with tree-shaking or minimal libs like just / radash.

❌ crypto-js — outdated crypto, known issues.

✅ Use Web Crypto API (built into modern browsers).

❌ core-js@2 — deprecated.

✅ Upgrade to core-js@3.


Tools to use

Vulnerability checks:

npx osv-scanner --lockfile pnpm-lock.yaml
npx knip --include vue,nuxt,vitest
  • Auto-updates: Dependabot or Renovate.

🔹 2. Block unsafe HTML
  • ESLint rule:
rules: { 'vue/no-v-html': 'error' }
If CMS content requires HTML, wrap it with DOMPurify:
<template><div v-html="$sanitize(html)"></div></template>
🔹 3. Add basic SSR security headers
For Nuxt projects, you can add these in a few lines:
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  nitro: {
    routeRules: {
      '/**': {
        headers: {
          'x-content-type-options': 'nosniff',
          'referrer-policy': 'strict-origin-when-cross-origin',
          'strict-transport-security': 'max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains',
          'content-security-policy': "default-src 'self'"
        }
      }
    }
  }
})
🔹 4. Secrets → server only
Private keys stay in .env, only variables prefixed with PUBLIC_ go to the client.
Always add .env.example so colleagues know what’s needed.
Never store tokens in localStorage → use HttpOnly cookies.

🔹 5. Transparency & documentation
Add SECURITY.md with instructions on how to report vulnerabilities and fix timelines (Critical ≤ 72h, High ≤ 7d).
Changelog: dedicated Security section.
Generate SBOM at release time:
npx @cyclonedx/cyclonedx-npm --output sbom.json
🔹 6. Lightweight incident process
Create a #security-incidents channel (Slack/Teams).
Simple ticket template: “Issue → Affected → Temporary mitigation → Fix timeline.”
This builds trust and discipline without bureaucracy.

How to introduce this without pain

  • Start with one PR: add dependency-review.yml + SECURITY.md.
  • Then gradually add: CSP → SafeHtml → Renovate.
  • Don’t ask the client to “rewrite everything.” Instead, show small wins:
  • Replacing moment.js → bundle size drops by 200 KB.
  • Adding CSP → browser blocks XSS attempts.
  • Generating SBOM → client can show auditors what’s inside.

Bottom line

CRA isn’t just red tape — it’s a chance to tidy up.

For Vue developers in an outstaff company, being “future proof” means:

  • updating dependencies and avoiding abandoned libraries,
  • writing apps with built-in security,
  • documenting processes so clients can prove compliance.

How to pitch this to a client:

“We suggest adding these practices because the EU requires them by law. It protects you from fines, builds trust, and gives you a market advantage. We’ll roll it out gradually, with minimal risk to your timelines.”

Talk to an engineer