Security aspects of software development

Applications that store sensitive data may be subject to specific end-of-life regulations. By adopting these practices, developers ensure enough time to develop policies that comply with government regulations. Some organizations provide and maintain SDL methodologies that have been thoroughly tested and field-proven across multiple companies. Each methodology includes a comprehensive list of general practices suitable for any type of company.

They come with recommendations for adopting these practices for specific business needs. You can think of SDL methodologies as templates for building secure development processes in your team.

So when a methodology suggests specific activities, you still get to choose the ones that fit you best. For example: Does your application feature online payments? If so, and if the methodology recommends security training for your team, then you might want to arrange thorough training on PCI and SOX for them.

Popular SDL methodologies are not tied to any specific platform and cover all important practices quite extensively. Any of them will do as a starting point for SDL at your company. It's a good idea to take a deeper look at each before making a final decision, of course.

You can also customize them to fit your software development cycle. SDL methodologies fall into two categories: prescriptive and descriptive. Prescriptive methodologies explicitly advise users what to do. The "descriptives" consist of literal descriptions of what other companies have done. Microsoft SDL was originally created as a set of internal practices for protecting Microsoft's own products. In , the company decided to share its experience in the form of a product.

Microsoft SDL is a prescriptive methodology that advises companies on how to achieve better application security. Microsoft SDL is constantly being tested on a variety of the company's applications. Its developers regularly come up with updates to respond to emerging security risks. It covers most aspects of security, with the exception of regulatory compliance and data retention and disposal. Microsoft provides consulting services and tools to help organizations integrate Microsoft SDL into their software development lifecycles.

Contributions come from a large number of companies of diverse sizes and industries. Thanks to this, virtually any development team can draw upon SAMM to identify the activities that suit their needs best.

Just like Microsoft SDL, this is a prescriptive methodology. SAMM defines roadmap templates for different kinds of organizations. These templates provide a good start for customizing SAMM practices to your company's needs. This methodology is designed for iterative implementation. For each practice, it defines three levels of fulfillment.

You can use this scale to evaluate the security profiles of your current projects and schedule further improvements. It does not tell you what to do. BSIMM is constantly evolving, with annual updates that keep up with the latest best practices. These more targeted lists can help to evaluate the importance of specific activities in your particular industry.

You can use it to benchmark the current state of security processes at your organization. Following these guidelines should provide your project with a solid start and save both cash and labor. How to approach secure software development. Published on February 25, What are the benefits of SDL? The most important reasons to adopt SDL practices are: Higher security. In SDL, continuous monitoring for vulnerabilities results in better application quality and mitigation of business risks.

Cost reduction. In SDL, early attention to flaws significantly reduces the effort required to detect and fix them. Regulatory compliance. SDL encourages a conscientious attitude toward security-related laws and regulations.

Ignoring them may result in fines and penalties, even if no sensitive data is lost. SDL also provides a variety of side benefits, such as: Development teams get continuous training in secure coding practices. Security approaches become more consistent across teams. Customers trust you more, because they see that special attention is paid to their security.

Internal security improves when SDL is applied to in-house software tools. What are the best SDL practices? The simplest waterfall workflow is linear, with one stage coming after the other: Figure 1. Waterfall development cycle The agile workflow, by contrast, goes through many cycles, each of which contains the same set of stages: Figure 2.

Agile development cycle Other workflows are possible as well. They all consist of the same basic building blocks application development stages : Concept and planning Architecture and design Implementation Testing and bug fixing Release and maintenance End of life Most of the measures that strengthen application security work best at specific stages.

Concept and planning The purpose of this stage is to define the application concept and evaluate its viability. SDL practices recommended for this stage include: SDL discovery SDL discovery starts with defining security and compliance objectives for your project.

This ensures that your team will address security issues as early as possible. Security requirements Prepare a list of security requirements for your project. Remember to include both technical and regulatory requirements. Having this list helps to easily identify and fix potentially non-compliant areas of your project.

Security awareness training Training sessions provide essential security knowledge ranging from basic threat awareness to in-depth information on secure development. Basic security training establishes a security mindset for all project participants. Advanced courses teach secure design principles to key project participants.

Architecture and design The purpose of this stage is to design a product that meets the requirements. SDL practices recommended for this stage include: Threat modeling Threat modeling consists of identifying probable attack scenarios and adding relevant countermeasures to the application design. Modeling uncovers possible threats early, thus reducing the associated costs, and also lays the basis for future incident response plans. Secure design The design document and subsequent updates are validated in light of the security requirements.

Early design reviews assist in identifying features exposed to security risks before they are implemented. Third-party software tracking Vulnerabilities in third-party components can weaken the entire system, making it important to monitor their security and apply patches when necessary.

Regular checks of third-party software help to spot areas threatened by compromised components and fill in the gaps. Implementation This is the stage at which an application is actually created. SDL practices recommended for this stage include: Secure coding Guides and checklists remind programmers of typical mistakes to be avoided, such as storing unencrypted passwords.

Enforcing secure coding principles eliminates many trivial vulnerabilities and frees up time for other important tasks. Static scanning Static application scanning tools SAST review newly written code and find potential weaknesses without having to run the application.

Daily use of static scanning tools uncovers mistakes before they can make their way into application builds. Code review While automated scanning saves a lot of effort, manual code reviews are still a must for building secure applications.

Timely reviews help developers to flag and fix potential issues before they shift attention to other tasks. Testing and bug fixing The purpose of this stage is to discover and correct application errors. SDL practices recommended for this stage include: Dynamic scanning Dynamic application scanner tools DAST expose vulnerabilities by simulating hacker attacks at runtime. To reduce false positives, you can use a combined approach IAST.

This approach complements runtime scanning with monitoring of executed code and application data flow. In addition to discovering regular vulnerabilities, dynamic scanning pinpoints configuration errors that impact security. Fuzzing Fuzz testing involves generating random inputs based on custom patterns and checking whether the application can handle such inputs properly.

IT, we recommend focusing on the three major 3 areas of software development security. Data breaches are dangerous in multiple ways. They can end in lawsuits, damage your brand, alienate your users, empower your competitors to get ahead of you, or lead to cyber attacks against your infrastructure. If you choose to use these three rules, they will help you develop better processes and strategies for managing digital projects safely.

They are general guidelines rather than specific step-by-step instructions. The first step you can take to protect your ideas occurs at the very beginning of a software development collaboration. When starting work with an outsourced tech partner, ask them to sign NDAs.

You might even want to hand one out to every employe they add to the team. Next, make sure to use secure means of communication with your partner e. Project-specific information and communication channels should be available only to the team members who are or will be actively working on the project. Read through the contract and, if necessary, renegotiate so that you will own the full right to the codebase and the product. Reserve the copyrights and trademarks related to your branding, making sure that you are allowed to use your branding elements.

Finally, verify the licenses for any 3rd party code used within your app. Sometimes, the license will restrict the code from being used in specific countries or markets, or the algorithms will be patented on some markets. Use your version control system and VCS servers as a means of improving code security. They give you the ability to reverse and inspect changes, control who accesses your code and when, and more.

Access control is especially important with external teams. Your outsourcing partner should have processes in place to ensure secure access to your documents, specifications and code. Only the project team and their Project Manager should be able to access them. This is how it works: team members regularly review the code base as development progresses, making sure it contains no backdoors or malicious code.

To do this effectively, your team needs true technical excellence and best programming practices. Just keeping your libraries, frameworks and other external code updated can be a huge step towards improved security. The team should be mindful of the source of each update and verify them thoroughly, as sometimes they contain security breaches.

There are several aspects of protecting your app, from making sure it never goes down unexpectedly to keeping good backups. There are several important areas to keep in mind:.

Make sure that your server is set up correctly, both for production and for tests. Check your app for potential code and data leaks. The logfiles of your app or 3rd party solutions should not contain any private or sensitive data.

Set up your server to track instances of potential infringement of private data, alerting you as needed. Put as much effort as necessary into optimal server configuration for better performance and improved security e. DDoS prevention. Make sure that all the components of your server software and your project, including APIs are sharing and exposing only required data.

Pay attention to any unverified extensions and solutions - they might need to be removed, or simply vetted as safe. Early in the project, invest time and effort into properly configuring your staging and production environments. Maintain a regular update schedule, and use only verified 3rd party extensions or services. Establish and use good incident response processes.