Application security, like any facet of security, is a complex challenge with a mountain of solutions. Of course, no one solution is complete. Even throwing multiple solutions will never get 100% coverage. The push today is around devsecops, or pushing left in the SDLC. I am seeing more solutions recommending also pushing right in the SDLC. I feel like we are stuck at this crossroad where the arrow points both ways. The good news is that none of these recommendations are wrong. We do need to … [Read more...] about Investing in People for Better Application Security
developer awareness
Thinking about starting a bug bounty? Do this first.
Application security has become an important topic within our organizations. We have come to understand that the data that we deem sensitive and critical to our business is made available through these applications. With breaches happening all the time, it is critical to take reasonable steps to help protect that data by ensuring that our applications are implementing strong controls. Over the years, testing has been the main avenue for "implementing" security into applications. We have seen a … [Read more...] about Thinking about starting a bug bounty? Do this first.
Properly Placing XSS Output Encoding
Cross-Site Scripting flaws, as well as other injection flaws, are pretty well understood. We know how they work and how to mitigate them. One of the key factors in mitigation of these flaws is output encoding or escaping. For SQL, we escape by using parameters. For cross-site scripting we use context sensitive output encoding. In this post, I don’t want to focus on the how of output encoding for cross-site scripting. Rather, I want to focus on when in the pipeline it should be done. Over … [Read more...] about Properly Placing XSS Output Encoding
The Hidden Reason for Switching to HTTPS
If you run a website, you have probably debated on whether or not you need to make the switch to HTTPS instead of using HTTP. For those that still don't know, HTTPS is the encrypted version of HTTP. This is typically seen on banking sites, touted to protect your sensitive information when transmitted between you (your browser) and the application. I wrote on this topic about a year ago in the post: Is HTTP being left behind for HTTPS? Back then there was a big push for making the switch … [Read more...] about The Hidden Reason for Switching to HTTPS
Introduction to Penetration Testing for Application Teams
In this presentation, James Jardine focuses on educating application teams on what a penetration test is and how to extract the most value from it. Application teams learn how to participate in the engagement and better understand the report. You can watch the recorded session at any time at: https://youtu.be/I1PukF8Glh0 https://youtu.be/I1PukF8Glh0 … [Read more...] about Introduction to Penetration Testing for Application Teams
Sharing with Social Media
Does your application provide a way for users to share their progress or success with others through social media? Are you thinking about adding that feature in the future? Everyone loves to share their stories with their friends and colleagues, but as application developers we need to make sure that we are considering the security aspects of how we go about that. Take-Aways Use the APIs when talking to another service Don't accept credentials to other systems out of your control Check … [Read more...] about Sharing with Social Media