A Developer’s Checklist To Curate Secure Software

Developing software requires immense focus on functionality and especially on its security. According to Intrusion Inc., the cost of cybercrimes is increasing rapidly and will cost around USD 10 Trillion.

In addition, HackerOne has also issued a report defining an increase of 65,000 vulnerabilities in different applications and development platforms.

In addition, 50% of hackers don’t even report the vulnerability and take advantage of it for an extended period or until you patch it.

Such statistics are alarming and can impact any industry and organization. However, their impact can get reduced by adopting secure development approaches.

A developer must follow a checklist, defining all the necessary tasks to solidify software protection and prevent malicious activities. You don’t need to find anything else about it, as all the required details are included.

So, let’s get started to create your checklist to curate secure software.

The Exact Meaning of Developer’s Checklist

Developer’s Checklist is a document containing the tasks to complete while building an application, website, or any other software. The list consists of the essential tasks, that highly focus on the CIA triad and software security for preventing a breach, malware, and malicious actors.

Further, whenever a development team or an individual developer has to start a project, a checklist must be generated. It would help to progress accordingly and curate secure software, providing all necessary functionality. In addition, it would help to maintain data integrity and confidentiality within the business constraints.

Gantt Charts can be an example of such a checklist, as it defines the tasks to complete promptly.

Benefits of Creating a Checklist Before Development

By creating a checklist, you can avail extraordinary leverages in the technology-driven industry, such as:

Fewer Vulnerabilities and Stable Software

With a checklist, you move further in the SDLC phases by focusing on software security, which results in less vulnerable loopholes. It prevents malicious actors from modifying the code, injecting malware, and gaining unauthorized access. Your app runs smoothly on each end-user’s device, providing a stable and seamless experience.

Compliance with Relevant Industry Standards

A checklist helps define the accurate standards and policies for developing the application. For instance, if you need to create an app for processing medical data, you can create a task aligning with HIPAA guidelines. Similarly, you can use it for PCI-DSS, HITECH, NIST, ISO, and all other government regulations.

Seamless Accomplishment of Project Goals

In a checklist, you can define the project objectives and the security mechanism required to protect each component. It will help you track overall development progress, including the integration of different modules, their testing, and patching according to the requisites.

As a result, you will get a full-fledged application running all processes in a secure environment.

Productivity and Reputation Acceleration

You can set a clear path for tasks to be completed and assign them accordingly among the team members. It would help you efficiently maintain collaboration and push secure code in the pipeline.

Additionally, it will release the software and updates at a faster speed. Besides it, when you develop secure software, end-users prefer it over any other application, leading to a boost in your reputation and revenue.

The Effort, Cost, and Time Savings

Once you start focusing on security from the initial phase, it will save you a lot of money, cost, and effort afterward. With a checklist, you will have the assurance that all security systems are working fine and there’s a very low probability of getting breached. Moreover, it will give you plenty of time to create and push new features.

Top Tasks To Include In Your Checklist For High-End Software Security

If you want your software to be highly secure and capable of preventing new-age cyber-attacks, then you must check off the following tasks:

Use Multiple Testing Techniques

According to Check Point, a 38% rise in cyber-attacks will be analyzed in 2022. And most of it was due to a lack of testing and patching of potential loopholes. But, you can prevent them by using multiple software testing and review approaches.

Black Box, White Box, and Grey Box testing must be on your list to test overall software functionality from an end-user’s perspective. It will provide insight into attacks, such as SQL injection, which can be performed from the interface.

Moreover, you must consider:

Fuzzing Testing

It will help you identify whether or not the software is validating data properly. You can input malicious statements, SQL, XML, and HTML injection statements to verify the working of the validation mechanism.

Static Code Review

By thoroughly reading and reviewing the code, you can identify comments having confidential information, reused code blocks, and excessive code. As a result, you can remove additional code and sensitive details from comments, reducing the attack surface.

Dynamic Code Review

You can use automated tools such as Crucible, Visual Expert, GitHub, and CodeScene to find more vulnerable code blocks. The tools also provide suggestions to streamline the code and make it secure.

Recommended: Software Testing Strategies and Approaches for Successful Development

Configure Data Security Mechanisms

Whether the app transmits data or rests in the database, securing it is always a concern. You must focus on protecting data in every state, as its breach can lead to enormous monetary and reputation loss.

Attacks, such as man-in-the-middle, SQL injection, and directory traversal, are the most common software threats. To prevent them, you can:

Configure an SSL Certificate

With an SSL certificate, you can create an encrypted data transmission channel between the browser and the web server. It will help you maintain the data integrity and prevent a man-in-the-middle attack. In addition, the HTTPS protocol will be configured, and all your users will understand that your domain is secured.

Hash the Passwords

Passwords are susceptible; to protect them, you must use the Hashing mechanism. It would help you retain integrity, even if an attacker successfully breaches. Converting the hash value to the original format is nearly impossible. Therefore, hashing makes the password more secure.

Recommended: How to Hash a File to Improve Software Security?

Digitally Sign the Software

As per Verizon reports, 13% of overall cyber-attacks are due to malware, which an attacker embeds in software and then distributes it. The primary root cause of this is when a malicious actor can read the code and modify it.

To prevent it, you must include the usage of a Code Signing Certificate in your checklist. It will help you convert readable code into scrambled content, preventing hackers from understanding and modifying the programs.

Moreover, a Code Signing Certificate utilizes encryption and hashing algorithms, making it highly complex to crack software.

Additionally, a digital signature is embedded with the application when you use a Software Publisher Certificate. It helps to remove Unknown Publisher Warnings and boost user confidence in the brand.

Whether you are an organization that develops/publishes software or an individual developer, a Code Signing Certificate is a must. It’s available at three validation levels:

• Individual Validation Code Signing Certificate (For independent developers)
• Organizational Validation Code Signing Certificate (For organizations)
• Extended Validation Code Signing Certificate (For organizations with three years of operability and additional security requirements)

Implementation of Least Privilege and Authentication

Whether you are building a website, web app, mobile app, or desktop software, keep the least privilege always a top priority.

Always provide only relevant access to resources according to the user’s profile and need.

Otherwise, a hacker can seamlessly take control of administrative controls and modify the app’s functioning.

Configure an advanced authentication system to strengthen it, preventing attackers at the beginning only. You must consider MFA (Multi-factor authentication) to verify a person’s identity. Further, OTP-based or email verification is a top method to configure for enabling it.

Moreover, for an organizational network, you can install digital certificates on host machines, which will get verified each time the server when an employee tries to log in.

Scan Logs, Validate Input, and Release Frequent Updates

The lack of an input validation system is one of the most severe risks, and it can highly impact your software. Even according to the National Vulnerability Database, its severity is high and is considered a critical loophole.

If your software doesn’t validate the input, attackers can effortlessly perform remote code execution on it. As a result, your app can even crash due to immense resource utilization.

Therefore, you must always configure input validation in your checklist.

Furthermore, the logs are constantly stored, and the average app behavior is analyzed. It will help you discover abnormal activities using the software or between components. In addition, whenever an update is available for a framework, development technology, and OWASP and NIST database, push that update to the software.

However, you must test the update in a quarantined environment and only provide it to end-users.

Wrapping Up

A developer’s checklist is necessary, as it helps to focus on the security of each component and data efficiently. It streamlines the overall development process and aids in managing upcoming tasks.

For high-end software security, a developer must enable encryption, digital signing of software, configure input validation, and use multiple testing techniques to identify vulnerabilities in the list.

Once you start preferring all the mentioned tasks, software security strengthens, maintaining data integrity, confidentiality, and availability.

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