What is Code Security? Types, Tools & Techniques

Your weaknesses can be hidden within your application code. Code security is the answer to your critical security challenges, not just threat remediation, and here's why.

Application security data breaches are caused by stolen credentials and vulnerabilities which a majority of organizations don’t account for. Code security is one of the most fundamental aspects of cyber security and over 44% of organizations don’t have a security strategy in place. Enterprises that do not secure their code bases are at risk of critical cyber security threats. And with threat actors getting increasingly sophisticated, these attacks extend beyond on-prem environments, moving into the cloud as we speak.

More than 83% of applications exhibit at least one security issue during their initial vulnerability assessment. Unpatched vulnerabilities account for 60% of data breaches. 32% of decision-makers around the globe are beginning to incorporate Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) into their coding and software development pipelines.

In this guide, we will provide you with an overview of what code security is and everything else you need to know about it. Let’s get started.

What is Code Security?

Code security is the testing of application code to ensure its security; it mitigates vulnerabilities and threats associated with the process of writing, designing, and maintaining applications. The goal of code security is to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, corruption, modification, and destruction of sensitive data. It identifies and prevents common web application security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, cross-site request forgeries (CSRF), and buffer overflows.

Code security also implements secure development lifecycle (SDLC) practices such as threat modeling, security requirements gathering, and security testing. It makes use of secure coding guidelines, testing tools, and vulnerability scanners.

By prioritizing code security, developers can reduce the risk of security breaches, protect their users’ data, and maintain the trust and confidence of their customers.

Types of Code Security

The different types of code security are as follows:

1. Authentication Security – It verifies the identities of users, devices, and systems. The purpose of authentication security is to control access to critical assets and restrict access to them to only authorized entities.
2. Authorization Security – It involves managing access privileges, permissions, and user roles. Authorization security grants access to sensitive resources to authorized users only.
3. Confidentiality Security – Users can protect access to sensitive data and prevent its disclosure or misuse. Confidentiality security encrypts data and hashes it, thus preventing privacy leaks.
4. Integrity Security – Integrity security checks if the data is accurate, precise, and not prone to unauthorized modification. It prevents the accidental deletion and alteration of data as well.
5. Availability Security – This deals with ensuring the availability of critical resources. It prevents DoS and DDos attacks and enhances data accessibility for authorized users.
6. Non-Repudiation Security – It ensures that a sender of a message or data packet cannot deny having sent it. Non-repudiation security provides proof of data authenticity and integrity.
7. Communication Security – It protects data in transit using encryption, digital signatures, and secure protocols.
8. Storage Security – It protects data at rest using encryption, access controls, and secure storage practices.
9. Key Management Security – It manages and safeguards cryptographic keys, including key generation, distribution, and revocation. It also ensures that keys are secure, confidential, and only accessible to authorized entities.
10. Network Security – It involves protecting networks from unauthorized access, use, or disruption. It ensures that networks are secure, reliable, and available.
11. DevOps and Cloud Security – Cloud security encompasses the protection of cloud-based data, apps, and assets. It ensures that cloud services are compliant with the latest industry regulations. DevOps security deals with continuous integration, delivery, and monitoring practices. It considers cloud application code security across development and deployment processes in the software production pipeline.

How to Fit Code Security in the Development Process?

Here are some ways you can integrate code security into your development workflow:

1. Identify security requirements and threats early in the development process. Involve security experts and stakeholders in the requirements-gathering phase. Document security requirements and threats under the project’s specifications.
2. Integrate security into the SDLC, including threat modeling, security testing, and code reviews. Ensure that security is considered throughout the development process, from design to deployment.
3. Conduct regular code reviews to identify and fix security vulnerabilities. Use automated tools to identify common vulnerabilities and coding errors. Use threat modeling techniques, such as STRIDE or DREAD to analyze potential threats. Perform penetration tests, vulnerability scans, and regular code analysis to identify, prioritize, and resolve high-risk code security issues.
4. Train your team on the best code security practices and foster a culture of cyber awareness. Adopt a proactive approach to risk management and mitigation. Manage third-party dependencies by leveraging open-source libraries and enhance visibility into the security of external dependencies via continuous code vetting and monitoring.

Benefits of Code Security

Developers who implement code security save valuable time and resources by mitigating issues early on in the application development lifecycle. Code security is not to be confused with Security as Code (SaC) which refers to measures implemented during and throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The following are the benefits of code security:

• Code security prevents threat actors from tampering with applications or performing undocumented functions. It remediates CVEs by applying the latest updates and other remedial actions.

• Code security enables automated analysis whenever applications are updated, built, or deployed. It integrates Software Composition Analysis (SCA) into the Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline and uses linters to facilitate automated code security testing.

• It helps organizations adhere to the latest compliance and regulatory standards such as PCI-DSS, NIST, ISO 27001, and other legal frameworks. Good code security builds trust among consumers, reduces costs associated with fixing vulnerabilities, and ensures a seamless application debugging experience.

• It provides clear audit trails, logs, incident response planning, and makes it convenient to respond to and track security incidents. Code security reduces downtimes, ensures transparency, and enhances business continuity via software testing and validation.

Code Security Challenges

Code security is evolving but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any challenges present. Here is a list of the top ones:

1. Lack of secure coding culture – Security issues can get ignored or prioritized less. Inadequate coding metrics, poor coding automation implementations, and the lack of secure coding standards all make it difficult to ensure coding security.
2. Insufficient testing – Poor quality code security tests lead to applications developing bugs, glitches, and data losses. Customers become unhappy and brands end up losing business reputation.
3. No visibility – Codebases can suffer from security issues when there is poor visibility. Insufficient logging and monitoring can make it difficult to identify critical code security challenges. Code obfuscation is another problem faced by companies these days.

Code Security Best Practices

Some of the best code security practices for organizations are:

1. Developer education and training – Modern code security incorporates sufficient security awareness and training guidance for developers. It provides them with a solid education on vulnerability management,  code libraries, supply chain risks, threat mitigation tactics, and code hygiene practices.
2. Code validation and encryption  – Good code security makes use of secure coding practices such as input validation, error handling, and secure data storage. It applies encryption protocols like HTTPS, SSH, and SFTP to encrypt data in transit. All code libraries used across projects are thoroughly reviewed and tested for vulnerabilities.
3. Code testing tools and standards – Developers use code analyzers, automation testing tools, and implement secure coding standards like OWASP Secure Coding Standards to ensure code security and reliability.
4. Secure coding metrics – These metrics include code coverage, vulnerability density, and security testing to measure the effectiveness of secure coding practices. Using automated vulnerability scanners for code metrics testing is also recommended.

Code Security Tools and Techniques

Enterprises can prevent falling victim to constant cyber-attacks by employing the best code techniques. Security threats are becoming more advanced day by day, so it’s essential to choose the right code security tools for this.

Static code analysis tools can review code without executing it. It identifies security loopholes and flaws early on during development, eliminates buffer overflows, and mitigates SQL injection vulnerabilities. Today’s developers leverage open-source libraries, which is why it’s important to integrate dependency scanning tools as well. These solutions issue alerts whenever new potential risks are discovered. Next comes encryption tools that provide secure access controls, key management, and seamless integrations. They apply data protection algorithms like RSA, AES, and SHA. Integrated Development Environment (IDE) security plugins provide real-time feedback, secure cryptographic functions, and prevent unsafe file operations. Finally, Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tools perform real-world tests on your application and prevent exploitable vulnerabilities. DAST tools fix insecure configurations and also deliver automated scanning capabilities to organizations.

In addition to using the tools mentioned above, enterprises use the following code security techniques:

• Pair programming is a popular practice where two developers work simultaneously together and collaborate on the same project. It’s faster, more effective, and helps catch mistakes early.
• Threat modeling identifies potential threats and designs cyber defenses used to defend against them.
• Regular code reviews and audits also help organizations catch critical issues before they escape and move into production.
• Every developer also needs to be familiar with secure coding standards and practices. Critical information such as hard coded credentials and tokens should be cleared up in comments and not left exposed. Refrain from using open-source components and packages that contain known vulnerabilities and maintain code integrity.

Conclusion

Rapidly improving code management and writing practices is one of the best ways organizations can ensure optimal code security. Code security aims to minimize security weaknesses and prevent unauthorized database access. It involves various activities that prevent, detect, and mitigate security risks. While the benefits of secure code are undeniable, it all starts with building a solid foundation and robust security strategy.

Organizations need to take a proactive approach to threat identification and mitigation in addition to it. Fortunately, you can cover all your bases and maintain the best code security practices by using a solution like SentinelOne.

FAQs

How is encryption used in code security?

Encryption is used in code security to protect personally identifiable information (PII) and ensure that attackers don’t gain authorized access to sensitive data. It uses code obfuscation techniques to make it difficult to reverse engineer code or access it without the right encryption keys. Encryption also uses digital signatures to sign and verify code security data. It prevents tampering, illicit modification, and uses secure communication protocols like HTTPS, SSH, and SFTP to ensure additional security.

What are the Types of Code Security?

The different types of code security are:

• Integration and confidentiality
• Key management
• Automated testing and deployment
• Communication testing
• Configuration management
• Encryption and compliance
• Code reviews and audits

Common Types of Code Vulnerabilities

The most common types of code vulnerabilities are:

• SQL injections
• Cross-site scripting (XSS)
• Buffer overflow
• Cross-site request forgery (CRSF)
• Remote code execution (RCE)
• Authentication and authorization bypass
• Insecure deserialization
• Unvalidated user inputs, redirects, and forwards
• Weak passwords
• Insecure data storage and configurations
• Unpatched systems and hidden or unknown vulnerabilities