Secure-Coding-Guidelines
Secure-Coding-Guidelines are a set of best practices and standards designed to help developers write software that is resistant to vulnerabilities and attacks. These guidelines aim to reduce security risks in software development by providing a framework for writing code that is secure by design.
History
The concept of secure coding has been around since the inception of software development, but it gained significant attention in the late 1990s and early 2000s as cyber threats became more prevalent and sophisticated. Organizations like:
have been instrumental in promoting secure coding practices. These organizations have developed and disseminated various secure coding guidelines over the years:
- OWASP's Top Ten Project provides a list of the most critical web application security risks, indirectly guiding developers on what to avoid.
- CERT has published the CERT C Coding Standard which includes rules for secure coding in C.
- The SANS Institute offers training and resources on secure coding through courses and publications.
Key Elements
The key elements of Secure-Coding-Guidelines typically include:
- Input Validation: Ensuring that all input is validated, sanitized, or escaped to prevent injection attacks.
- Authentication and Password Management: Secure handling of user authentication, including strong password policies and secure storage of credentials.
- Session Management: Protecting session data from unauthorized access and ensuring session IDs are securely generated and handled.
- Access Control: Implementing proper checks to ensure users can only access authorized data or perform authorized actions.
- Error Handling and Logging: Managing errors securely to prevent information leakage and ensuring logs do not expose sensitive data.
- Data Protection: Using encryption for data at rest and in transit, and ensuring sensitive data is handled with care.
- Memory Management: Particularly relevant for languages like C and C++ where buffer overflows can lead to security vulnerabilities.
- Concurrency: Avoiding issues like race conditions that can be exploited in multi-threaded applications.
Implementation
Implementing secure coding practices involves:
- Training: Educating developers on security principles.
- Code Reviews: Regularly reviewing code for potential security issues.
- Automated Tools: Using static and dynamic analysis tools to detect vulnerabilities.
- Security Testing: Conducting penetration testing and other security assessments.
External Resources
Related Concepts