Secure Coding Practices Quick Ref 5

OWASP
Secure Coding Practices

Quick Reference Guide
Project leader
Keith Turpin
[email protected]
OWASP
October, 2010
Copyright © The OWASP Foundation

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the OWASP License.
The OWASP Foundation

http://www.owasp.org
About Me
 Secure Coding Practices Quick Reference
Guide project leader
 Application security assessments team

leader at The Boeing Company
 United States delegate to the IEC/ISO

SC27 subcommittee on cyber security
 Member of the Software Assurance

Working Group
OWASP 2
Some Background
 Goal: Build a secure coding kick-start tool, to help

development teams quickly understand secure coding
 Originally developed for use inside The Boeing Company
 July 2010, Boeing assigned copyright to OWASP
 August 2010, project goes live on owasp.org
OWASP 3
Guide Overview
 Technology agnostic coding practices
 What to do, not how to do it
 Compact, but comprehensive checklist format
 Focuses on secure coding requirements, rather

then on vulnerabilities and exploits
 Includes a cross referenced glossary to get

developers and security folks talking the same
language
OWASP 4
Sections of the Guide
 The bulk of the document is in the checklists, but it

contains all of the following:
Table of contents
Introduction
Software Security Principles Overview
Secure Coding Practices Checklist
Links to useful resources
Glossary of important terminology

OWASP 5
Checklist Sections - Only 9 pages long
 Input Validation  Data Protection
 Output Encoding  Communication Security

 System Configuration
 Authentication and Password
Management  Database Security
 Session Management  File Management

 Memory Management
 Access Control
 General Coding Practices
 Cryptographic Practices
 Error Handling and Logging
OWASP 6
Checklist Practices
 Short and to the point
 Straight forward "do this" or "don't do that"
 Does not attempt to rank the practices
 Some practices are conditional recommendations that

depend on the criticality of the system or information
 The security implications of not following any of the

practices that apply to the application, should be clearly
understood
OWASP 7
Extract - Database Security
 Use strongly typed parameterized queries
 Utilize input validation and output encoding and be sure to address meta characters. If
these fail, do not run the database command
 Ensure that variables are strongly typed
 The application should use the lowest possible level of privilege when accessing the
database
 Use secure credentials for database access
 Do not provide connection strings or credentials directly to the client. If this is
unavoidable, encrypted them
 Use stored procedures to abstract data access
 Close the connection as soon as possible
 Remove or change all default database administrative passwords. Utilize strong
passwords/phrases or implement multi-factor authentication
 Turn off all unnecessary database functionality (e.g., unnecessary stored procedures
or services, utility packages, install only the minimum set of features and options
required (surface area reduction))
OWASP 8
Using the guide
 Scenario #1: Developing Guidance Documents
Coding Practices
Guiding Principles What to do How to do it
General Application Application

Security Security Security
Policies Procedures Coding
Standards
OWASP 9
Using the guide continued
 Scenario #2: Support Secure Development Lifecycle
What to do How you should do it What you did Did it work
Application Secure Development Review Test Solution

Security Processes Solutions Implementation
Requirements
Standardized Libraries
Standard Guidance for
non-Library Solutions
Coding Practices
OWASP 10
Using the guide continued
 Scenario #3: Contracted Development
 Identify security requirements to be added to outsourced
software development projects.
 Include them in the RFP and Contract
We can Coding Practices

How do I I need
build
make it work cool
anything
Software
RFP
Best
Contract
Software
Best
Ever
Software
Ever
Programmer Salesman Customer

OWASP 11
Summary
 Makes it easier for development teams to quickly

understand secure coding practices
 Assists with defining requirements and adding them to

policies and contracts
 Provides a context and vocabulary for interactions with

security staff
 Serves as an easy desk reference
OWASP 12
A Secure Development Framework
Guidance on implementing a secure software development framework
is beyond the scope of the Quick reference Guide, however the
following OWASP projects can help:
 Implement a secure software development lifecycle

 OWASP CLASP Project
 Establish secure coding standards
 OWASP Development Guide Project
 Build a re-usable object library
 OWASP Enterprise Security API (ESAPI) Project
 Verify the effectiveness of security controls
 OWASP Application Security Verification Standard (ASVS)
Project)
 Establish secure outsourced development practices including
defining security requirements and verification methodologies in
both the RFP and contract
 OWASP Legal Project
OWASP 13
Questions
OWASP 14

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OWASP

Secure Coding Practices

Copyright © The OWASP Foundation

The OWASP Foundation

 Application security assessments team

 United States delegate to the IEC/ISO

 Member of the Software Assurance

 Goal: Build a secure coding kick-start tool, to help

 Originally developed for use inside The Boeing Company

 July 2010, Boeing assigned copyright to OWASP

 August 2010, project goes live on owasp.org

 Technology agnostic coding practices

 What to do, not how to do it

 Compact, but comprehensive checklist format

 Focuses on secure coding requirements, rather

 Includes a cross referenced glossary to get

 The bulk of the document is in the checklists, but it

Software Security Principles Overview

Secure Coding Practices Checklist

Links to useful resources

Glossary of important terminology

 Input Validation  Data Protection

 Output Encoding  Communication Security

 Session Management  File Management

 Error Handling and Logging

 Short and to the point

 Straight forward "do this" or "don't do that"

 Does not attempt to rank the practices

 Some practices are conditional recommendations that

 The security implications of not following any of the

Guiding Principles What to do How to do it

General Application Application

 Scenario #2: Support Secure Development Lifecycle

What to do How you should do it What you did Did it work

Application Secure Development Review Test Solution

We can Coding Practices

Programmer Salesman Customer

 Makes it easier for development teams to quickly

 Assists with defining requirements and adding them to

 Provides a context and vocabulary for interactions with

 Serves as an easy desk reference

 Implement a secure software development lifecycle

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