In this age of DevSecOps, continuous delivery, and more data pay dirt than ever before, shrewd organizations are helping developers just like you upskill into security-aware superstars that assist in eliminating common vulnerabilities before they ever make it to production. When you’re producing high-quality code without those annoying, show-stopping bugs, not only is it safer for the end-user, but it also results in less rework and disruption for you. The following chapters will focus on some of the worst security bugs as they relate to Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). These are so prevalent that they made the new 2023 Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) list of top API vulnerabilities. Given how important APIs are to modern computing infrastructures, these are critical problems that you need to keep out of your applications and programs at all costs.

Explore this all-new eBook to learn more about:

• How each of the top 10 API vulnerabilities work, and how an attacker can exploit them
• What they look like, and how you can fix them with good coding patterns (with links to real, hands-on challenges!)
• How to navigate security at the pace of innovation in your day-to-day work.

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Organizations often approach security with the goal of reducing their risk profile organically - usually by identifying developers who can evolve into security champions. However, the challenge in identifying and nurturing security champions is to build a program that can scale over time and empower developers to help increase the overall security posture of an organization.

In this report, get an overview of the Devlympics 2022 results, as well as a deep dive into the strengths and opportunities highlighted by hundreds across the challenges played. Plus, learn how to benchmark your organization’s skill set and find ways to inspire a shift toward developer driven-security.

Background

Thales Group is a French multinational company that designs, develops, and manufactures electrical systems, as well as devices and equipment for the aerospace, defense, transportation, and security sectors. Viswanath S. Chirravuri, is the Software Security Technical Director at Thales. Viswanath, or Vis, started his career in security initially as a programmer. He is now a senior security leader at Thales, with more than 18 years of experience in the security industry, and holds more than 30 certifications, including CISSP, PMP, and GSE. He has educated over 3,000 software professionals in more than 18 countries. In addition, Vis won more than 10 SANS challenge coins in international cybersecurity tournaments (such as Netwars) and is an active member of the GIAC Advisory Board. We spoke with Vis to learn how he aligned people, processes, and technology to develop a successful secure code-learning program at Thales.

Situation

When Vis started at Thales, he coached business units to look at the source of vulnerabilities discovered via pen-testing as a possible solution to decrease the backlog of tech debt. The application security team used 7 different vendors they were working with to solidify their security posture - from IAST/ DAST tools to pen-testing tools. Vis wanted to understand the market trends and manage threats in a scalable manner to develop mitigation strategies through a strong integration between process and technology. This meant shifting from a purely tools-based approach to a strategy that had a strong learning component. He noticed that many of the developers didn’t have a security background or security skills. His initial approach was to provide classroom-based training for developers on topics like the OWASP Top 10, but he realized quickly that this was not going to scale with all the travel required to teach in person and the need to reach thousands of developers across the globe. Vis noted that:

“There is always going to be an imbalance in the ratio between security and development. Even if I had a 1:1 ratio of security to developers, I couldn’t keep them engaged all the time. Keeping our developers up to date on new attack vectors, best practices, new languages, and newly discovered vulnerabilities meant we needed to be able to promote self-learning by developers and have them be able to go at their own pace. If they need help, I could help them, but I realized that I couldn’t be the guy teaching them how to fix every vulnerability they find.”

Initially - there was pushback from development managers about the time investment developers would need to spend on secure code learning, recognizing that so many developers were starting from the ground up. Vis needed to manage the perception that a commitment to secure code learning might disrupt software release cycles or slow mission-critical sprints. He needed to find a way to properly motivate the organization to spend time on agile learning for secure code. Vis took a people-first attitude to address vulnerabilities at the source, “People often say that security is taking away time from development. For me, if you develop something and it’s insecure, it was a waste of time to begin with. You should always develop software to be secure and save yourself the time of having to fix the vulnerabilities that could have easily been avoided. We should all have the common goal of shipping reliable code.”

Action

Vis had two primary goals in mind: securing their software and raising security awareness in Thales’ developer teams. It was critical to implement a program that allowed developers to be independent and train at their own pace. Vis' strategy was to build a security community over time, working to link secure coding with corporate policies and developing a mandate for secure code learning in the organization. By encouraging a culture of community that connected developers, testers, architects, and engineers he saw a motivation multiplier effect. Security champions emerged that were passionate about security as a part of their day jobs helped spread awareness of secure coding practices across the organization. Vis evaluated more than a dozen security training vendors and became an SCW customer in 2019. For Thales, it was a huge benefit to have a vendor covering all the programming languages and frameworks in their environment instead of a piecemeal solution. Vis leaned on Secure Code Warrior’s huge volume of content to build training and self-paced learning for developers in the security program to access:

“The OWASP top 10 is not just simply just ten things you need to know. The depth and diversity of the vulnerabilities covered by OWASP combined with the sheer number of programming languages can be overwhelming - the wide range of challenges and coverage we have on these things was a key factor in choosing SCW. They are always adding new things. The depth, the diversity of topics, the up-to-date content, and the focus on secure code design principles really setSCW apart. With them, it’s not a one-time use training, instead, we gained the opportunity to build a continuous program.”

Vis and his team structured four levels of the secure code learning program rollout, with different milestones for each engineering role:

Importantly, SCW became the source of truth for vulnerability fixes. Instead of relying on Google searches that might lead you to troubleshoot, Vis published both guidelines from the AppSec team and ones from SCW’s content library so that developers could reference a trusted and authentic source for vulnerability fixes in the code. According to Vis:

“Developers shouldn’t be free to decide how to fix a vulnerability and potentially introduce a new vulnerability in the process. We integrated SCW videos into our LMS via SCW’s SCORM integration to make sure developers were learning how to fix the vulnerability in the right way. This also gave us a way to ensure that developers delivering secure software were being recognized. We ask them to achieve a certain level of secure coding and we can track that through the vulnerabilities they resolve and are not re-introducing. That way, the hard work they’ve done is recognized and valued in the company.”

Results

Vis and his team publish a monthly secure code newsletter where they can recognize the top learner in the company. They use SCW to look at assessment scores, tournament participation, and challenges played to amplify that achievement. This motivates other developers to learn too. The KPIs he initially set focused on reducing the overall number of vulnerabilities over 2 years. After implementing SCW, he noted a decreasing trend line. These vulnerabilities are not re-introduced at the source code level. Vis puts it this way:

"The KPIs we present to our management reflect that well-informed selection we made. We are proud that we have secure code training that delivers business confidence to our customers. We are recognized for our comprehensive secure code training program and are respected by our customers and peers. It adds a lot of value to your company when you have a program like this.”

Key takeaways

Vis recognized that people, processes, and technology all have a role to play in any security initiative. By focusing on the security of the software, developer knowledge, and meeting compliance - it’s possible to put together an agile learning for a secure code program that reduces vulnerabilities in the source code over time. Vis offers these recommendations to professionals in his field looking to build security skills in developer teams.

Defining an agile secure coding learning plan is not an easy task, especially when there are compliance requirements and release deadlines to meet. But it is a worthwhile endeavor that will yield benefits such as improved productivity and reduced risk. 

Security maturity in development teams is assessed based on their collective ability to shift left and embed security through all stages of the software development lifecycle, enabling security-skilled developers to be the first line of defense in identifying and fixing vulnerabilities. 

In this guide, we explore the lessons learned from three real-life Secure Code Warrior customers. By learning from their experience, you can begin to assemble an agile secure code learning blueprint for your organization.

Discover:

• What challenges did organizations face at different stages of developer security maturity?
• What were the key lessons learned along the way?
• What results can you expect with each phase of the security maturity journey?

Background

Envestnet, Inc. is a publicly-traded fintech company with $5.3 trillion in assets and more than 18.5M investor accounts. Envestnet’s mission is to empower advisors and financial service providers with innovative technology, solutions, and intelligence to make financial wellness a reality for everyone. Envestnet has established itself as one of the market leaders in wealth management technology with its flagship advisory platform that integrates the services and software used by financial advisors in wealth management across the globe.

Envestnet’s commitment to data management best practices include continuously monitoring its wealth management platform via ongoing risk-based compliance measures that can quickly identify and remediate any compliance issues or potential failures. Envestnet is leading the way in safeguarding customers’ data by embracing world-class security measures in the delivery of its services.

Learn how Derek Fisher, Head of Product Security at Envestnet and the author of “The Application Security Handbook”, worked with Secure Code Warrior to develop a holistic approach to reduce vulnerabilities through agile secure code enablement for his developer teams. Derek has been working in application security for over a decade, where he has seen numerous security successes and failures firsthand, and brings his singular expertise in developing a secure code learning environment for developers at Envestnet.

Situation

When Derek first came into his position in Application Security, he wanted to go above and beyond the OWASP top ten and basic compliance training. They had some Secure SDLC processes, but they were largely focused on finding vulnerabilities, not necessarily addressing them at the source.

According to Derek, “We’re all pretty well familiar with the annual compliance training that we’re all subjected to in any organization. It’s usually what I call ‘death by Powerpoint’, a bunch of slides and maybe an assessment at the end...  just really ineffective and time-consuming. We had training, but it was the usual compliance based with some specific-to-security training that was slide/audio recording based. We noticed that developers weren’t very engaged and learning from the materials, so we had to shift our strategy.”

This legacy strategy of simply training developers through passive, OWASP-focused compliance training was particularly painful for Derek and his team because
they couldn’t measure the training’s impact, so instead they found themselves increasingly spending more of their time on vulnerability management.



Derek recognized that it was important to look at the source of the vulnerabilities - insecure code being shipped into production by developers - and that just throwing more tools at it wasn’t going to be the solution.

Instead, Derek and his team shifted their focus in 2020to vulnerability mitigation, with the goal of writing more secure code from the start. Derek and his team adopted a "shift left" strategy to address and remediate vulnerabilities much earlier in the SDLC, when it costs significantly less to remediate.

But first, they needed to tackle historically low engagement from developers on existing App Sectraining. He wanted to avoid just implementing a “checkbox” mentality to his secure code learning strategy and provide a more effective, agile learning experience for secure code to developers at Envestnet.

“Once I saw SCW and what it can do – I knew that amore hands-on, more interactive approach was right for us.  I wanted engineers and developers to walk away from that training with more hands-on knowledge of what the actual issues are.  We wanted to build that muscle memory of, ‘Here’s somethingI’ve seen before in training, I know how to approach this coding issue that I see.’ The Secure Code Warrior platform has allowed us to provide that type of environment in which engineers and developers can get in there and really understand what are the good secure coding practices, what bad ones look like, and how to resolve vulnerabilities quickly.”

Derek Fisher, Head of Product Security at Envestnet

Action

Derek was particularly keen to implement a belting strategy that rewarded secure code up skilling with certifications. The four-level program would focus on building a strong foundation of security awareness (levels 1 & 2) and then pave the way for developers to become security champions (levels 3 & 4). This solved the problem of not being able to measure how developers were retaining secure code concepts while ensuring that security-aware developers had a career path towards advancing their skills with more complex security challenges.

They tested it out in a small pilot and solicited feedback from developers that were involved. Feedback was highly positive. Derek noted,

"You don't always get positive feedback from those things - I can't stress that enough anytime you get positive feedback on training - that's unusual. That’s a good indicator that this is the right tool.”

Envestnet hosted its first tournament in the Spring of 2021 and noted more positive results from a developer engagement perspective. Derek then launched a series of courses integrated into their LMS for DB, Front End, API, andCloud developers. By the time Envestnet hosted its second tournament in the fall of 2021, the total number of developers participating had doubled.

According to Derek, Envestnet saw great traction with tournaments because,

"We all know that competition is a motivation. We all want to make sure our peers recognize how well we’re doing in certain things and it really motivates people to participate and do well in those tournaments. That and integration with our dev tools really showed us Secure Code Warrior's value.”

Derek and the team also worked to integrate Secure Code Warrior with Jira so that when certain vulnerabilities came up repeatedly, the developer could access immediate remediation advice right inside their Jira ticket, and without leaving that familiar environment. This gave developers valuable context as well as in-the-moment, on-demand education on how to address that vulnerability, right where it was needed, and at the point of impact. Derek’s team also worked with Secure Code Warrior to sponsor a Security Day event, which led to broader CEO support and reinforced the importance that engineering and security play in the success of Envestnet. With this type of executive and developer buy-in, Envestnet was able to expand its program to what it is today. Now, Envestnet has enrolled all their identified Security Champions in the program and 60% of the entire team has completed their Level 1 or 2 certification.

Results

One way Envestnet measured its success was to look at the teams that had gone through the SCW learning experience and measure if they were producing fewer vulnerabilities and/or fixing vulnerabilities faster. What they found was impressive:

• SCW-educated developers fixed 2.7x more vulnerabilities than their peers
• 100 SCW-educated developers fixed 450 vulnerabilities in a short span of time
• 1,200 SCW-educated developers enabled Envestnet to increase remediation by 120% in their respective queue
• In one year across two product lines, SCW-educated developers closed issues with vulnerabilities at a rate of 4.5 per developer, compared to their peers who only closed vulnerabilities at a rate of 1.82 per developer
• All Security Champions went through their certification program in 2022
• 60% and counting of Security Aware developers went through Levels 1 & 2


Key Takeaways

Derek offers this advice to those starting their secure code learning journey:

“Our job in security is to reduce risk in the organization.  That’s our True North and that’s what we are always striving for. A critical vulnerability may not be your highest risk or most impactful thing to your organization. It could be a couple of mediums, a low, and a high stitched together to create a chain that is far more impactful. The more vulnerabilities that stack up over time, the more risk you’re accruing. With Secure Code Warrior, you can stay ahead and take a proactive approach to mitigate that potential chain of vulnerabilities through agile secure code learning.”

• Don’t just focus on testing for vulnerabilities and reporting on them - this just ends up creating noise for your developers
• Instead, AppSec should be a partner to developers and make sure you have their buy-in before implementing a secure code learning strategy
• Rome was not built in a day. Your program will need to evolve as your risk profile changes, your company changes, and your technology and tools change
• The most effective long-term strategy is to raise the security IQ of the people around you to reduce the overall number of vulnerabilities that are created

TL;TR

About Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate-Palmolive Company is a marquis consumer products brand known and loved across households everywhere. Despite being more than two centuries old, they are an innovative growth company leveraging digital to reimagine a healthier future for people, their pets, and the planet.

Situation

Colgate-Palmolive, just like nearly every other organization, is going through a digital transformation to better serve its customers, and this has led to a shift in how the organization approaches application security.

Alex Schuchman, CISO at Colgate-Palmolive, puts it this way:

“It is very important to us that we are protecting our customer’s data and therefore are able to build trust—not just in our products but in the digital interactions our customers have with us."

But for Alex, the challenge was to secure the root source of potential customer data breaches—the code itself.

“Working on the build side of applications was really helpful when I made the switch over to my role as CISO. I understand the pain of getting tickets back from AppSec or the frustration of missing deadlines because of re-work. As a result, my goal as CISO hasn't just been increasing security in the software development lifecycle, but also streamlining how it is implemented.”

Action

Colgate-Palmolive approached this challenge by breaking up its security training into smaller, bite-sized chunks. This made it more palatable for developers so they could fit it into their workflow, instead of the long, monolithic compliance training they were used to. By leveraging Secure Code Warrior’s agile, in-context approach to secure code learning, developers were able to understand vulnerabilities in the context of their real-life projects – leading to higher engagement and long-term retention of secure coding skills.

“I wanted to roll out these best practices while keeping the developers engaged,” says Alex. “We still have mandated critical parts of the program but keeping the training manageable and listening to developer feedback has helped the program be successful.”

Colgate-Palmolive implemented an Okta workflow that gates the GitHub repository, allowing only developers who've passed specific SCW assessments access for pull requests, as depicted in the diagram below.

Results

According to Alex, “We understood that to optimize for success we needed to have our developers on-board from the start. So we made sure the developers knew they would be a critical part of the success of the program. As a result, we found that there was a much better relationship between our security team and our developers, and it really felt like we were working together as a team on the program. We are continuing to expand and scale the security maturity program, building on the success we have already enjoyed.”

Key takeaways

1. Clearly define program goals and emphasize developer input and engagement. Developers are more likely to buy-in to a secure code learning program that is built into their workflow and integrated with the dev tools they use every day.
2. Using an SSO tool such as Okta to gate the code repository incentivizes the team.  Only developers with a passing score on specific SCW courses and assessment are permitted to make pull requests.  
3. Over time, build a security culture that promotes a strong working relationship between AppSec and Development teams.

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Join us in conversation with Vis Chirravuri to learn first-hand how he has developed people, process, and technology approaches for his secure code learning program