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Solarwinds stands as an emblematic example of this kind of attack: hackers gain entry to vendor infrastructure to infect software before delivery. Today's information-intensive business processes and relationships rely on its use, with presidents issuing executive orders focusing on cybersecurity threats to software used to process our modern data. Cyber attacks often target these software packages that store our sensitive records.
This article covers best practices for developing secure software development frameworks. It provides tips to identify and resolve vulnerabilities early in development when remediation costs can be less expensive and more efficient. Furthermore, experts' resources designed for security software development will also be highlighted here.
What is Secure Software Development?
An effective software development methodology includes building security into every phase of software creation from its inception; rather than only being addressed when tests uncover critical flaws, security must become part of every stage - including planning - before any code has even been written.
Developers typically view security as an impediment to creativity and innovation, which delays product launches. Unfortunately, this approach to security costs companies dearly; fixing an issue during implementation or testing costs six times more than selecting one before design begins.
How satisfied would customers be if excellent, new features couldn't be used because their application contained vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit? Security has become an essential aspect of software development; organizations that fail to prioritize this aspect risk being left behind competitively.
How can you ensure security is part of your SDLC from day one? By testing early and often. Static and dynamic testing should form part of any secure software development approach. In addition, development teams should document security and functional requirements while performing risk analyses during design to identify any environmental threats.
Security software development poses a considerable challenge to organizations. A well-crafted strategy for secure software development should provide them with the best preparation to undertake the challenge successfully.
What is Secure Software Development Policy (SSDP)?
Secure software development policies provide organizations with guidelines to minimize vulnerabilities within the software they develop and demonstrate that security exists throughout each stage of SDLC, including risk mitigation methods.
Secure software development policies must create rules for their people. Team members should be clear about their roles and receive rigorous training before being accepted onto a development team. Duties should also be segregated between team members so no single individual controls or has complete knowledge about projects; testing protocols can then evaluate employee performances against standards.
An effective software development policy must include processes necessary for safeguarding its software. One such process is the separation of Development, Testing and Operational Environments - this fosters autonomy while eliminating test bias. Access control is also essential; only employees with job-relevant access should gain entry. And finally, Version Control keeps an audit trail of code changes with their sources.
As part of any policy for secure software development, rules for programming languages and code must be established as soon as possible. Coding languages often present vulnerabilities for the attack, so developers need training on strategies to prevent further vulnerabilities in future code projects. In addition, safe development policies must include instructions on creating secure repositories where code can be stored securely.
Under certain conditions, a policy for secure software development is recommended and required for organizations adhering to SOC 2 Type 2 or ISO 27001 compliance standards. You can craft such policies yourself or utilize existing resources.
Use a Secure Software Development Framework for Consistency and Best Practice
Organizations often benefit from aligning practices with an established framework like NIST's Secure Software Development Framework. Organizations like OWASP and SAFEcode offer resources to promote secure software development that provides detailed information on security issues. These resources aim at helping prevent, reduce or mitigate future software vulnerabilities.
Look at the NIST recommended processes for developing secure software, which are divided into four phases:
- Prepare the Organization: Make sure that the people, processes and technologies of an organization are ready to develop secure software at both the organizational level, as well as, sometimes, on a project-by-project basis.
- The software should be protected (PS): All software components must be kept safe from unauthorized access and manipulation.
- Release Software with Minimum Vulnerabilities: (Produce Well-secured software, PW)
- Response to Vulnerabilities: Determine vulnerabilities in new software releases. Respond appropriately to these vulnerabilities to prevent them from happening again.
The following are the elements that define each practice:
- Practice Briefly describe the course, its unique identification, and a brief explanation of why the method is valid.
- A task is an individual (or a series of actions) required to complete a particular practice.
- An example of an implementation is a scenario which could be used as a demonstration.
- Referral: A document describing a secure development process and mappings of the practices to a specific task.
These sections will provide an in-depth description of NIST's four processes for developing secure software.
Preparing the organization: Tasks and examples
The first step to secure software development at your company involves clearly outlining internal (Policies and Risk Management Strategies) and external needs for software security, such as Laws, Regulations etc. Teams receive training tailored specifically for their roles to speed the SDLC process while meeting organizational standards with security checks installed to monitor compliance with software produced during the SDLC cycle.
Tasks in security management involve recognizing, communicating and upholding it over time. Training regimens, management support systems and tools must also be chosen before setting benchmarks to monitor security standards being attained.
Example includes:
- Developers need to know the specifics of coding and architecture.
- At least annually, and especially following incidents, review security requirements.
- Assigning SSDF-related roles, installing periodic reviews, and getting ready to update any role changes as time goes on.
- We are automating the toolchain management process by defining categories and tools and specifying each device.
- Create an audit trail for actions related to secure development.
- Identification of key performance indicators using an automated feedback toolchain, reviewing and documenting evidence for all security checks to support standards.
Applicable Practices and Tasks to Protect Software
Protecting code and the integrity of software before its distribution to end users is of critical importance. The focus should be safeguarding against unintended access and verifying software integrity before its release to protect it after it has gone live.
Primarily, its focus is storing code according to the principle of least privilege so that only authorized users have access. Every customer receives a copy listing their components and information on integrity checks.
Example includes:
- Store code in a secure repository with restricted access.
- Version control is a great way to keep track of all code changes.
- Code signing only with trusted certificate authorities and posting cryptographic hashes of the released software.
How to Produce Secure Software: Tasks, Practices and Examples
This process involves many actors; initially, the software must be designed and tested to meet security standards before third parties are thoroughly screened to meet them. Developers then employ best security practices when writing code while configuring the build process to bolster product security; in-code vulnerabilities are reviewed using both manual and automated tests before software defaults can be configured immediately to offer protection right out of the box; trusted components may even be reused during production.
Tasks involve:
- We are creating a list of trusted components.
- We are using threat models to assess risks.
- We are analyzing external security requirements and communicating them to third parties.
- We are verifying compliance with standards while using best industry practices for secure coding with top tools in the industry.
- Code reviews or analysis/review processes.
Finally, designing and performing vulnerability tests and documenting results to address all issues are required before closing this cycle successfully. Setting secure defaults may seem menial; however, they should complement other security features on your platform before explaining their significance to administrators.
Example includes:
- Train a team of developers in the best building practices, risk assessment and secure construction techniques.
- Reviewing current designs and reviewing vulnerability reports from previous releases to make sure all security risks are considered
- Include security requirements when creating third-party contract policies and develop policies for managing third-party risk.
- Only develop in areas that require safe codes and avoid all other unsafe functions.
- Use only the latest, valid versions of compiler tools.
- Combining peer reviews, static/dynamic analysis tests, and penetration testing to identify software vulnerabilities and documenting the results and lessons learnt
- Building a repository for trusted building materials in an organization
- We are documenting the proper use of administrators and verifying that security defaults are set to approved levels.
Identify and Respond to Vulnerabilities: Tasks, Practices, Examples
Professional security analysts do more than identify vulnerabilities; their job encompasses remediation. Remediation involves correcting existing vulnerabilities and collecting information to prevent future attacks on them. Once vulnerabilities have been discovered, they must be prioritized quickly for correction to reduce the time windows that threat actors have available for attacks against your system and identify their causes to prevent future incidents from reoccurring.
Tasks in this phase involve collecting customer information and testing code to find any previously undetected flaws; creating and implementing plans to mitigate vulnerabilities quickly; developing programs specific to every identified vulnerability, and finally, determining their root causes to ensure successful future prevention efforts.
Additionally, root causes must be continuously examined to detect patterns, which can be identified and remedied within other software packages. Finally, all SDLC components should be updated periodically to mitigate similar problems during future releases.
Example includes:
- Create a program for vulnerability reporting and responding.
- Automating code analysis and monitoring to detect vulnerabilities
- It is prioritizing the remediation of each vulnerability and assessing its impact.
- The SSDF is being adjusted to include a suitable adjustment for future automatic detection.
Read More: Building Software Solutions with Open Source Tools
How do you Create a Secure Software Development Solution?
Software developers impact every aspect of our daily lives, from laptops to tablets and smartphones, as well as televisions and watches.
Imagine this: Would millions of consumers still rely on software so haphazardly if they knew of its sensitive data leaving with those zeroes and ones?
Understand and Identify the Security Risks Before You Begin
Planning is critical to success, and security threats should never be underestimated; software contains numerous known vulnerabilities and risks which must be managed carefully to mitigate.
Assess security risks related to the software category you're developing and devise a solution to decrease them, according to the Open Web Application Security Project's list. Critical software security threats you should keep an eye out for include:
- Injection: Software is penetrated by an injection, which exploits a flaw or error. The injections can take many forms, but all aim to gain unauthorized access to data, systems and subsystems.
- Weak Authentication: Cybercriminals use weak authentication to access systems and data they do not have the right to. The credentials and passwords authorized personnel enter to access the software are used for authentication.
- Weak session management: After initial authentication, a "session" refers to the period an authorized user can access the website. Session management issues can include a lack of security for sessions or the timing to allow re-authentication.
- Cross-Site Scripting: The cyberattack of cross-site scripting is an attempt by a hacker to insert malicious code into the runtime program in order to circumvent security or access controls. It is familiar with web-based applications and can be used to alter a site's appearance, redirect visitors to an attack website, compromise authentication, or deface it.
- Insecure direct object references: In an uncertain direct object references attack (IDOR), a user attempts to access files inside the application directly.
- Incorrect security configurations: Your software could be vulnerable due to outdated or incorrectly configured security settings.
- Exposed Sensitive Information Properly encrypting data such as customer data and payment card details can result in serious data breaches and a loss of trust by the public.
- Absence of function-level access control. Validating access permissions is part of function-level access controls. Cybercriminals can gain default access by failing to restrict access to certain functions if they do not control the access.
- Cross-Site Request Fraud. This attack uses a hijacked browser to deliver session data without validation.
- Vulnerable Components. Rarely is software developed from the ground up. Developers use open-source software, modular components, and APIs to create something from old pieces. You must also be aware of known vulnerabilities in some of these parts.
- Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards. This attack redirects users from a web app to an untrusted website or malicious application, which may be disguised as a legit application.
Update your Team Regularly on the Latest Security Practices
Teams directly involved with software development - internally developed or outsourced to third-party service providers - should remain informed on best software security practices when creating programs or apps for you or developing customer products.
Take action now - don't just assume that everyone on your team agrees on something as significant as software security development if they have more experience than you. Allow time for everyone involved in secure software development practices like:
- Continuous Documentation. The documentation of the process can help security personnel to track down bugs and errors to their origin and correct them before they are vulnerable. Automate the documentation. It may be required for regulatory compliance and quality assurance.
- Staff Training. The development team will need to plan for the eventual transfer of software solutions to IT personnel. Plan a cycle of software security training that will include onboarding, reinforcing, and updating to combat new threats.
- Post-Launch Security. Security is a continuous task. Software security plans shouldn't just be for the development phase. Create a plan for software security early to keep track of new threats and vulnerabilities.
Test and Test Again
Testing is the only sure way of knowing whether a program or software development process is secure; testing should only be considered safe once testing has verified this claim.
Not just some testing but continuous security testing of custom software solutions is an ongoing process that never ends.
What type of testing are we discussing here? Automated tools can do much of the heavy lifting necessary for testing code while simultaneously helping identify potential vulnerabilities and saving both time and effort when testing security features of software applications. Standard automation testing solutions in security include the following tools:
- SAST Tools. The SAST tools (static application Security Testing) automate the process of code analysis -- checking the code for errors while the program shuts down and is not running. Its dormant state). Different tools are available to check for code deviations against a standard set of practices. The SAST tool generates a list of vulnerabilities that developers and security specialists must manually verify.
- DAST Tools. The DAST tools (dynamic application testing) test the application while running. The DAST tool pings the application to create an error a cybercriminal can exploit.
- IAST Tools. IAST tools (interactive security application testing) go one step beyond DAST. IAST (interactive application security testing) tools scan code as it runs, looking for errors that cannot be detected in a static state. The IAST tools are meant to be something other than standalone, but their record shows they return fewer false positives than DAST and SAST.
- Database Scanning Tool. These tools scan software databases for vulnerabilities.
- Use Correlation tools to make sense of the results from various tests. The output from multiple tests can be made more understandable using correlation tools. The tools compare test results to find similar results. This helps to reduce the length of long reports from security software to only the most critical errors.
Automated tools cannot thoroughly verify the security of software. A human brain should further validate it.
An ethical hacker, or specialist in software security who understands cybercrime methods, should be hired by software developers to conduct penetrating tests - simulating attacks by trying to break into systems and report any vulnerabilities found during an attack simulation.
Keep an Eye out for Authentication and Encryption
Authentication and encryption errors often present as two of the primary points of failure for software security features, giving criminals entry through breaches in code. They're the easiest to address but also relatively unobtainium solutions.
Authentication is how users demonstrate permission to utilize specific software features and functions. Alongside passwords and usernames, permission structures help distinguish users from admins.
Encryption protects sensitive data from prying eyes by turning it into code that can only be decoded with an "access key."
Secure software solutions must abide by industry best practices regarding authentication and encryption to be effective against cyber-attacks. An aggressive response could help stop many attacks!
Top Software Security
Developing secure software in today's ever-evolving threat landscape can be daunting, yet its significance has never been greater. More software attacks have made headlines recently, and we've put together our top ten list of software development best practices designed to build cyber security software and help prevent your company from becoming another statistic regarding cyber attacks - here is our selection. Here is our guide to top software development security best practices:
Consider Safety at the Start
Plan how to integrate security in every stage of SDLC before writing any code, automate testing and monitoring vulnerabilities early on, and integrate security into the code and company culture.
Create a Secure Software Development Policy
Follow these guidelines to prepare your team, technology and processes for secure software development. A formal policy provides specific instructions for incorporating security at each step in the SDLC while outlining roles and rules to minimize vulnerability risks during software creation.
Employ a Secure Software Development Framework
NIST SSDF provides a practical framework that will assist your team in adhering to best software practices. New developers can significantly benefit from frameworks that answer "What should we do now?".
Software Security can be Improved by Following Best Practices
Define all security requirements and train developers to code securely according to them, using secure coding techniques. Also, ensure that third-party providers understand and comply with your security needs. Otherwise, hackers could easily exploit vulnerabilities through them and attack your network.
Code Integrity Protection
To prevent any attempts at manipulation, code should always be stored safely within secure repositories that only authorized personnel can access. For maximum integrity of code preservation, limit contact between yourself and it, monitor any changes closely and supervise signing processes closely.
Test and Review code as early as Possible
Examine code at an earlier point of SDLC rather than at its conclusion, using automated and developer testing techniques to continuously review it for any flaws or vulnerabilities - early identification saves both time and money while alleviating developer frustration.
Prepare to Mitigate any Vulnerabilities Quickly
Software development entails numerous risks, and vulnerabilities will inevitably appear at some point during its creation. Be prepared with plans and procedures to respond immediately if a vulnerability or incident arises; the faster you identify vulnerabilities, the shorter the window for exploitation.
Configure Secure Default Settings
Customers remain vulnerable because they need to comprehend how to utilize their software fully, but customer service ensures they stay protected during the initial stages of adopting such technologies.
Use Checklists
Secure software development involves many elements to track. Use action checklists for regular meetings, such as monthly or weekly, to keep all security policies and procedures current.
Stay Agile and Proactive
Becoming wise software developers means studying vulnerabilities--from understanding their root causes, spotting patterns and preventing repeat occurrences to updating SDLC with more knowledge--while also keeping abreast of industry trends and best practices such as those offered by Dave Brennan: the most significant goal should be keeping current with industry trends and best practices that pertain to security - no matter your approach - security best practices are constantly shifting so keep learning to find more effective methods of protecting software development processes."
Track who is accountable for specific compliance/security tasks and whether they have been completed. Furthermore, configure a system that automatically gathers evidence of security reviews performed from cloud-based tools and techniques - freeing security managers up for more strategic tasks such as evaluating specific controls rather than manually gathering evidence. Request a personalized demo now to discover more!
Wrapping Up
Every developer is responsible for creating software with secure development practices in mind. Achieving this doesn't happen by accident: to build secure solutions deliberately takes adhering to best security practices, conducting frequent and repeated testing sessions, paying close attention to encryption/authentication technology, and adhering to stringent software development guidelines.
