Secure Coding Practices Every Developer Should Know

It's no secret that companies are looking for ways to speed up their development processes. With the desire to reduce time-to-market, they are also concerned with avoiding data breaches and other types of cyberattacks.

But how do you ensure your development processes are secure? There are a number of methods that developers can use to keep their code and data secure.

Modular Coding

Software has become an essential part of our everyday lives, so it only makes sense that we follow secure coding practices. After all, developers are responsible for the security of code, and we need to ensure that we're not compromising the security of our code.

The good news is that secure coding practices aren't new. In fact, most experienced developers are already familiar with some of them. Using these techniques will help you avoid vulnerabilities and deliver secure software to your customers.

One of the most fundamental concepts of secure coding is the concept of handling exceptions. Exceptions can occur due to several reasons, including bad inputs, logic errors, or misconfiguration.

In order to be more secure, you must assume that there will be exceptions at some point. Rather than letting these happen, you should handle them by catching them and performing some action to prevent the code from continuing.

Code Obfuscation

Code obfuscation is an important practice that prevents hackers from gaining access to sensitive information in an application. This practice involves using various techniques such as arithmetic obfuscation, which replaces the correct numerical values with illegitimate ones.

String encryption is another type of code obfuscation, which hides strings in the managed executable and then displays the original value at runtime.

Code obfuscation makes code difficult to read. By removing line breaks and white space, code becomes less readable. This practice is a good way to increase a program's performance. But there are many risks associated with code obfuscation.

While it may seem harmless, it has serious security ramifications. For example, if bad actors can read your code, they can use it to extract sensitive information such as your API key or password.

The main benefits of using code obfuscation are that it produces a lighter application and more efficient code execution. Additionally, it protects your intellectual property. In some cases, attackers have blackmailed industry giants by revealing security loopholes in their code.

It is a common way for application developers to reuse code from different programs. Obfuscated code is nearly impossible to understand when viewed with the naked eye.

Access Control

One of the most important aspects of secure programming is access control. It allows developers to restrict access to sensitive data while preventing access to untrusted data. It also helps to prevent the leakage of data from a system by restricting access to users with the right permissions.

Users should not be able to log in to admin pages unless they are authenticated.

To ensure secure coding practices, developers should evaluate the maturity of their software development lifecycle, and the knowledge of their development staff.

Secure coding practices can only be implemented by developers with enough resources and prior knowledge. Developers should be able to verify system design and validate input before committing to code.

Access Control is an important aspect of a secure coding framework, and a developer must be aware of how to implement it. A lack of proper access control can lead to disaster. Fortunately, there are numerous tips and tools to help developers secure their software.

For example, developers should always encrypt secret data and store it in encrypted form. For further security, developers should embed secret data in local parameter stores, var files, and code repositories, and never leave it unprotected.

Secure coding is a process in which developers design their code to follow security best practices. This process protects published code against known and unknown vulnerabilities. It also prevents hackers from exploiting security vulnerabilities and using them as a vector to attack the system.

A successful implementation of secure coding practices will require a change of culture within the company.

Block Reflected XSS

There are two types of XSS attacks: persistent and reflected. A persistent XSS attack targets all users of a website or app that is vulnerable. It works when the attacker injects a malicious script into a link, and then the user clicks on it to execute it.

Reflected XSS, on the other hand, requires only a single click by a user.

This type of XSS attack uses JavaScript code to run inside the victim's browser and exploit various vulnerabilities. The code can also be used to gain access to a user's computer, join a botnet, or steal user credentials. Most reflected XSS attacks are based on social engineering techniques.

The attacker can trick the user into believing that they are logging into a secure website by crafting a fake login page. This allows the attacker to steal the user's password manager, resulting in a security breach.

Reflected XSS attacks are more difficult to detect. The attacker sends a malicious URL to the victim through phishing emails. The victim's browser then loads the site's search page. The back-end processes the search term, and the attacker inserts the malicious script into the response.

Another type of XSS attack involves the use of untrusted input. These attacks are a great way for attackers to infiltrate a website and attack its users. For this reason, developers should take steps to secure their web applications by following secure coding practices.

For example, using the OWASP Encoding Project library, developers can easily secure their web applications by enabling the "X-XSS-Protection" header.

Detecting Vulnerabilities Early in the Development Process

Software vulnerabilities are weaknesses in the design or implementation of an application that could allow an unauthorized user to run a command or exploit the system.

While not all software security defects are implementation errors, roughly half of all exploitable security flaws occur because of flaws in the software's design. This means that organizations need to constantly be on their toes to identify and fix potential vulnerabilities.

Vulnerabilities are categorized by severity and risk and can affect the software, servers, and networks. When unpatched, these vulnerabilities can be exploited by cybercriminals to steal sensitive data, disrupt service, or damage company assets.

As a result, it is important to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities early in the development process.

Vulnerabilities can be classified as high-risk or low-risk. This is why it's important to prioritize a vulnerability's severity and prioritize remediation in a systematic manner.

Once the vulnerability is identified, companies can use a vulnerability assessment to identify the components responsible for it and determine which ones require updates or configuration changes.

Vulnerabilities are caused by poor input validation and filtering. If an attacker discovers a sensitive input, they can run arbitrary commands, including JavaScript, SQL queries, or SMTP parameters. They can even gain remote control of the server and access underlying application data.

Documenting Secure Coding Practices

Secure coding practices are a key part of cybersecurity. They require developers to take responsibility for securing their code from malicious attacks and threat agents. There are several different practices that developers should follow. The following are just a few examples.

Regardless of your platform, language, or implementation, you should follow secure coding practices.

Generally, secure coding practices focus on writing code that is free from known vulnerabilities that can expose data or cause harm to a system. When applications are not secure, hackers can access them and use the information they contain to infiltrate systems.

In addition, insecure applications can have a negative impact on your company's name. Secure coding practices aim to detect and remove these vulnerabilities in software applications, minimizing the chance of data breaking and allowing applications to be used securely.

It is imperative that developers understand these issues and document them appropriately. Most vulnerabilities are caused by typical programming mistakes.

By collecting common programming mistakes and secure coding practices, developers can create test cases to ensure that their code follows these rules.

Further, a developer can use a code signing process to protect their software code from tempering. Using test cases and implementing logging, developers can help debug bugs.

Documenting secure coding practices every developer should understand should include guidelines and best practices. Ideally, the documentation should contain examples and easy-to-implement language. It should also include guidelines on manual testing and compliance testing.