Secure SDLC - An Overlooked Topic from Developers

The SDLC framework is a diagram that depicts the complete development process. It covers all aspects of the development process, including planning, design, builds, release, maintenance, and upgrades, as well as the replacement and retirement of the application as needed.

The secure SDLC (SSDLC) extends this approach by including security across the whole lifetime. When moving to DevSecOps, teams frequently use an SSDLC. The procedure includes incorporating security best practices into the development process as well as safeguarding the development environment.

The Benefits of a Secure SDLC

It's a prevalent misconception that security requirements and testing slow down development. A secure SDLC, on the other hand, is a good way to break down security into phases during the development process. It brings together stakeholders from the development and security teams through a shared commitment to the project, allowing the software application to be safeguarded without being delayed.

Start by learning about the most secure coding frameworks and techniques for developers. They should also consider utilizing automated techniques to find security flaws in the code they develop and in the open-source libraries they use.

A safe SDLC may also be used by the management team to adopt a strategic framework for developing a secure product. Managers may use a gap analysis, for example, to evaluate which security activities or policies are now in place, which are missing, and how successful they are at each level of the SDLC.

To accomplish a simplified SSDLC and avoid missing software delivery deadlines, security rules must be established and enforced that help handle high-level concerns like compliance without needing manual review or intervention. To do this, some firms engage security professionals to assess security requirements and develop a plan to assist them to enhance their security preparation.

Secure SDLC Case Studies

Here are some common models for establishing safe software development lifecycles:

NIST Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF)?

The secure software development framework (SSDF) was created by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the same organisation tasked with maintenance of the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) tracking publicly known software vulnerabilities.?

The SSDF specifies software development techniques that can aid in the implementation of a secure SDLC. The framework comprises texts that define and prescribe software development standards, principles, and processes.

Some notable practices are:

• Providing developers with secure coding training to assure security from the start
• Security tests that are automated and integrated to discover security problems as near to the point of remedy as possible
• Securing open-source libraries and components used in projects

The purpose of NIST's safe software development framework is to assist decrease the number of vulnerabilities in software issued to production settings, as well as to mitigate the risk of unresolved and unreported vulnerabilities being exploited. The framework can also assist in addressing fundamental causes and preventing new vulnerabilities.

Lifecycle of Microsoft Security Development (MS SDL)

Microsoft suggested MS SDL handle the contemporary development workflow while maintaining reliable security considerations. The SDL provides a set of practices designed specifically to satisfy compliance and security assurance needs. The SDL can help developers decrease the number and severity of vulnerabilities in their codebase, as well as development expenses and delays due to late-stage repair.

OWASP's Application Security Process is Comprehensive and Lightweight

CLASP (Comprehensive, Lightweight Application Security Process) is made up of rule-based components that follow industry best practices in terms of security. It can assist developers in securing applications at the early stages of development and implementing security in an organized and repeatable manner.

CLASP was created by examining real-world development teams, dissecting their development lifecycles, and determining the most efficient method to incorporate security principles into their existing processes. CLASP not only looks at methods to improve existing procedures, but it also assists teams in identifying particular vulnerabilities and coding flaws that might be exploited and result in severe security breaches.

Integrating Security Throughout the SDLC

Ideally, each step of the SDLC should be secured most suitably for the stakeholders present at that time, while also ensuring that each security solution enables security practices across the whole project. Consider the following critical security practices:

Security Integration During the whole SDLC

Each phase of the SDLC should ideally be secured most appropriately for the stakeholders present at the moment, while also ensuring that each security solution supports security practices across the whole project. Consider the following security best practices:

Analysis and Requirements

This stage entails selecting the frameworks, languages, and technologies to employ. It's critical to figure out which vulnerabilities or risky coding practices are most relevant to the resources in question.

Certain frameworks, for example, may lack security capabilities for your unique environment, or certain technologies may be incompatible with security tools currently in use elsewhere in your firm. Failure to evaluate the entire scope of ramifications now might jeopardize the security of all technologies selected during this phase, as well as those adopted subsequently.

Prototyping and Design

The design phase entails following well-established application architecture and software development practices. Software architects, for example, may choose to employ an architecture framework that allows for the reuse of existing components while also encouraging standardization.

Proven design patterns assist programmers in solving algorithmic difficulties consistently. This phase may also incorporate rapid prototyping (or spike), which aids with the comparison of technologies and the selection of the best solution to meet the criteria defined in the previous phase.

The design and prototype process produces the following results:

1. Design documents—include a list of all of the project's components and patterns.
2. Spikes generate code, which is then utilized as a starting point for subsequent development.

Beginning the design and prototype process with security in mind can assist to avoid workflow interruption later, which may otherwise occur from security policy noncompliance or failed application security testing in a safe SDLC.

Testing and Development

Including safe coding standards during the development process is crucial, as is promoting the use of secure open-source and third-party components in the project. This usually entails a code review to confirm that the project meets the specified features and functionalities, as well as extensive tests to identify flaws in bespoke code and known open-source vulnerabilities.

If your company uses DevSecOps approaches, this testing may be done directly with the tools that developers use, speeding up risk identification and reducing time to resolution. Traditional procedures will follow the development phase with application security testing, with the results being given back to development teams for resolution through issue management workflows.

Deployment

The deployment procedure should be automated as much as feasible by DevOps and cloud-native software approaches. This phase is frequently implemented in a way that distributes software as soon as it is ready, at the end of a designated sprint or development cycle, in high-maturity businesses. However, this method should not be used unless security technologies and processes can handle this speed and prevent possible security concerns from entering production settings.

Especially for business-critical apps or those managing sensitive data, enterprises with lower DevOps maturity or those operating in highly regulated sectors may require manual inspection and permission before release.

Maintenance

Even after extensive testing, newly discovered vulnerabilities may have an impact on programs that have been deployed to production. Furthermore, in production contexts, an application may act differently during runtime than it does in a static state or development environment. This is why your application's security efforts should not end after it is deployed. Security is a never-ending process that must be maintained regularly.

Your maintenance phase should begin immediately after the deployment phase and establish a clear line of communication and feedback between the security and development teams. To decrease the window of opportunity for an assault on production assets, prepare for rapid issue management and risk mitigation.

Security setup of cloud environments and resources related to application functionality, such as container engines and orchestration tools, should also be ensured by operations or DevOps teams. Perform these security tests on the software and environments regularly, update them to suit changing needs, and guarantee compatibility with any new tools used elsewhere in the secure SDLC.