Copy/Paste is a dangerous coding technique
Researchers from VirginiaTech released a paper after analysing hundreds of posts on the most popular developer forum (Stack Overflow). They looked at the type of questions asked around security, the most popular answers given by the community and the effect it has on code software engineers.
Not a real surprise for people who have been in Cyber Security for a while, but more awareness is needed around this problem from a developer perspective:
- Security features provided by coding frameworks (e.g. JAVA Spring) are overly complicated and poorly documented
- A substantial number of developers do not appear to understand the security implications of coding options, showing a lack of cyber security training
- Many of the suggestions and "fixes" on these forums are not secure but were getting positives votes and thus higher in ratings
The report suggests the following solutions:
- Workforce retraining
- Semi-Automating security bug detection and fixing
We need to make security easy for developers and built-in from the start in order to maintain the speed in which businesses operate today.
"The significance of this work is that we provided empirical evidence for a significant number of alarming secure coding issues, which have not been previously reported," the paper says. "These issues are due to a variety of reasons, including the rapidly increasing need for enterprise security applications, the lack of security training in the software development workforce, and poorly designed security libraries."
https://www.theregister.com/2017/09/29/java_security_plagued_stack_overflow/
Pieter Danhieux
Pieter Danhieux is a globally recognized security expert, with over 12 years experience as a security consultant and 8 years as a Principal Instructor for SANS teaching offensive techniques on how to target and assess organizations, systems and individuals for security weaknesses. In 2016, he was recognized as one of the Coolest Tech people in Australia (Business Insider), awarded Cyber Security Professional of the Year (AISA - Australian Information Security Association) and holds GSE, CISSP, GCIH, GCFA, GSEC, GPEN, GWAPT, GCIA certifications.
Related Articles We Recommend
Related Articles We Recommend
Dive into onto our latest secure coding insights on the blog.
Our extensive resource library aims to empower the human approach to secure coding upskilling.
Get the latest research on developer-driven security
Our extensive resource library is full of helpful resources from whitepapers to webinars to get you started with developer-driven secure coding. Explore it now.
Copy/Paste is a dangerous coding technique
Researchers from VirginiaTech released a paper after analysing hundreds of posts on the most popular developer forum (Stack Overflow). They looked at the type of questions asked around security, the most popular answers given by the community and the effect it has on code software engineers.
Not a real surprise for people who have been in Cyber Security for a while, but more awareness is needed around this problem from a developer perspective:
- Security features provided by coding frameworks (e.g. JAVA Spring) are overly complicated and poorly documented
- A substantial number of developers do not appear to understand the security implications of coding options, showing a lack of cyber security training
- Many of the suggestions and "fixes" on these forums are not secure but were getting positives votes and thus higher in ratings
The report suggests the following solutions:
- Workforce retraining
- Semi-Automating security bug detection and fixing
We need to make security easy for developers and built-in from the start in order to maintain the speed in which businesses operate today.
"The significance of this work is that we provided empirical evidence for a significant number of alarming secure coding issues, which have not been previously reported," the paper says. "These issues are due to a variety of reasons, including the rapidly increasing need for enterprise security applications, the lack of security training in the software development workforce, and poorly designed security libraries."
https://www.theregister.com/2017/09/29/java_security_plagued_stack_overflow/
