Developing applications has long involved using code snippets found through textbooks or on the Internet. Rather than re-invent the wheel, it makes sense to identify existing code that helps solve a problem. It may also help speed up the development time. Years ago, maybe 12, I remember a co-worker that had a SQL Injection vulnerability in his application. The culprit, code copied from someone else. At the time, I explained that once you copy code into your application it is now your … [Read more...] about Security Tips for Copy/Paste of Code From the Internet
security training
SSL Labs and HSTS
Qualys recently posted about some grading changes coming to SSL Labs in 2017. If you are not aware of SSL Labs, it is a service to check your SSL/TLS implementation for your web applications to determine how secure they are. While there were more changes listed, you can read about them in the link above, I wanted to focus on the one regarding HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS). If you haven't heard of HSTS, or want a quick refresher, you can check out this post: HTTP Strict Transport … [Read more...] about SSL Labs and HSTS
SDLC: Understanding your Roles
Application security should be on the mind of anyone that is part of the application design/build process. That means architects, developers, application owners, QA testers, business analysts and even end users. Everyone of these positions plays a role in the security of the applications. Depending on the organization, the roles can be quite different. You must understand the roles of these positions from a development perspective to really understand how they fit into the security aspect … [Read more...] about SDLC: Understanding your Roles
Security for QA Testers: The Importance
Quality Assurance (QA) testing is a critical role for any application that is being developed. The purpose: to identify flaws within the application that effect how the application runs and the users that use it. Typically this has focused on the goal of identifying flaws that prohibited the application functions from performing as expected. When I say expected, I mean that the end user is not able to complete his identified task. Over the past decade there has been a growing focus on the … [Read more...] about Security for QA Testers: The Importance
Amazon XSS: Thoughts and Takeaways
It was recently identified, and Amazon was quick (2 days) to fix it, that one of their sites was vulnerable to cross-site scripting. Cross-site scripting is a vulnerability that allows an attacker to control the output in the user's browser. A more detailed look into cross-site scripting can be found on the OWASP site. Take-Aways QA could have found this Understand your input validation routines Check to make sure the proper output encoding is in place in every location user supplied … [Read more...] about Amazon XSS: Thoughts and Takeaways
Black Lists and White Lists: Overview
I came across an interesting post on twitter the other day (https://twitter.com/suffert/status/567486188383379456) that depicts a sidewalk with a sign indicating what wasn't allowed on the sidewalk. You have seen these before: NO bicycles, skateboards, rollerblades, roller skates, scooters. In the information technology sector, this is known as a black list; a list that defines what is NOT allowed or permitted. You can see black lists all over the place, input validation, output encoding, … [Read more...] about Black Lists and White Lists: Overview