Best practices for application security

In today’s digital landscape, applications are indispensable, managing everything from personal and financial data to sensitive business information. Securing these apps is crucial to avoid financial loss and reputational damage. With cyberattacks becoming increasingly sophisticated, even a single breach can have serious consequences. To safeguard your business, it is essential to implement strong security measures. Here are 13 best practices for application security, from development to deployment.

What is application security?

Application security (AppSec) encompasses all measures taken to protect applications from threats and vulnerabilities throughout their entire lifecycle. It aims to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) triad model to define the security goals for applications and software. This includes practices such as secure coding, threat modeling, security testing, authentication and authorization, data encryption, and patch management. By embedding these measures into the application lifecycle, you can ensure that applications remain confidential and intact, effectively mitigating risks and defending against cyberattacks.

Security considerations also involve systems and approaches to protect apps even after deployment, minimizing vulnerabilities. A strong application security strategy recognizes that AppSec is a continuous process, relying on best practices and procedures to prevent and address cyber threats.

Common application security risks

Being aware of different application security risks is crucial to protect sensitive information, prevent financial loss, protect reputation, and safeguard business continuity. Understanding these common threats, their potential consequences, and how to effectively mitigate them is essential to enhance your general security posture. Here are some common application security risks:

• Identification and authentication failures: An application should detect and prevent unauthorized access, credential stuffing, brute force attacks, and other identification and authentication-based attacks.
• Injections: By inserting malicious code into input fields, attackers can execute unauthorized commands (SQL injection, XSS, OS command injection, etc.), access sensitive databases, and potentially gain control over systems.
• Broken access control: Attackers can bypass authorization and perform tasks as though they were privileged users (like an administrator).
• Cryptographic failures: Sensitive sensitive data exposure or system compromise due to failures related to cryptography.
• Insecure design: Risks related to design and architectural flaws that result from non-adherence to security best practices during the design stage.
• Security misconfiguration: When an application's configuration settings are missing, incorrect, or not properly maintained, leading to unauthorized access.
• Vulnerable components: Using libraries or frameworks that have known vulnerabilities or are no longer supported.
• Security logging and monitoring failures: When compromises are not detected at all or detected much too late.
• Software and data integrity failures: Assumptions related to software updates, critical data, and CI/CD pipelines without verifying their integrity.
• Server-side request forgery: When a user-provided URL is not validated, which can lead to SSRF when fetching a remote resource.
• Malware and viruses: Malicious software that disrupts or hijacks your system.

13 best practices for application security

Here are 13 essential best practices for strengthening application security, from adopting secure coding techniques to implementing robust authentication measures and continuous monitoring. By following these guidelines, you can enhance your application's resilience against cyber threats.

1. Adopt secure coding practices

Secure coding is the foundation of application security. Implementing best practices at the development stage helps prevent common vulnerabilities and ensures robust protection.

• Validate inputs: Always validate and sanitize user inputs to prevent injection attacks. Use allowlists to specify which data formats and content are allowed, and perform rigorous checks on user inputs.
• Verify explicitly: The core principle of the Zero Trust security model requires continuous authentication for all users, devices, and applications. It also includes other principles like least privilege access, restricted access, and the assumption of breaches, as well as prioritizing detection, response, and recovery to minimize the impact of breaches.
• Encode output data: Prevent output data from being executed as code by encoding it. This is particularly important for web applications that display user-generated content, protecting against XSS attacks.

2. Implement strong authentication and authorization

Authentication and authorization are crucial for controlling access to your application.

• Mandate multi-factor authentication (MFA): Implement MFA to add an extra layer of security beyond just passwords. This typically involves a second factor like a text message code or authentication app.
• Employ the principle of least privilege: Ensure users have the minimum level of access necessary for their role. This minimizes the potential damage from compromised accounts or insider threats by ensuring users only have access to the resources they need.
• Regularly review access controls: Periodically audit and update user roles and permissions to reflect changes in job responsibilities. Remove access promptly for users who no longer need it, such as former employees.

3. Session handling

Effective session management ensures the security and integrity of web applications and ensures a safe user experience.

• Closely track user sessions: Create, maintain, and terminate user sessions effectively. Use unique session identifiers, setting appropriate expiration times, and implementing secure cookies with the HttpOnly and Secure flags.
• Deploy client-side defenses: Implementing session management and session attacks detection measures can help identify and mitigate potential threats.

4. Secure data transmission

Protecting data in transit is as important as securing it at rest.

• Use HTTPS: Encrypt data transmitted between clients and servers using HTTPS to protect against eavesdropping and manipulator-in-the-middle attacks. This ensures that sensitive information remains confidential.
• Implement strong encryption protocols: Employ modern encryption standards, such as TLS 1.2 or higher, to safeguard data in transit. Avoid outdated protocols and weak ciphers that are susceptible to exploitation. Encrypt data in all three states: in motion, in use, and at rest.

5. Conduct regular security testing

Testing your application for vulnerabilities is crucial for identifying and addressing security issues.

• Perform static application security testing (SAST): Analyze your codebase for vulnerabilities using static analysis tools. This helps identify security flaws early in the development process.
• Conduct dynamic application security testing (DAST): Test your running application for vulnerabilities using dynamic analysis tools. This helps identify issues that may not be apparent in the code.
• Run interactive application security testing (IAST): Identify and manage vulnerabilities in a web app as it runs, and analyze interactions initiated by manual or automated tests.
• Implement penetration testing: Hire security professionals to perform penetration tests on your application. This simulates real-world attacks to uncover vulnerabilities that automated tools might miss.

6. Regularly update and patch software

Keeping your software up to date is essential for protecting against known vulnerabilities.

• Apply security patches: Regularly update your application and its dependencies with the latest security patches. This helps protect against known vulnerabilities that attackers may exploit.
• Monitor for vulnerabilities: Stay informed about vulnerabilities in your software stack by subscribing to security bulletins and using vulnerability management tools.

7. Implement secure configuration management

Proper configuration management is essential for maintaining application security.

• Secure configuration files: Store configuration files securely and avoid hard-coding sensitive information like passwords or API keys. Use environment variables or secure vaults for sensitive data.
• Harden default settings: Review and adjust default settings to ensure they are secure. Default configurations are often not optimized for security and can expose vulnerabilities.

8. Securing databases

Database security focuses on safeguarding sensitive information while ensuring the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of the database. This involves protecting not only the data but also the database management system, associated applications, systems, physical and virtual servers, and the network infrastructure.

• Build a multi-layer database: Establish firewalls as the initial layer of defense in a defense-in-depth (DiD) strategy for database security.
• Implement access management: Use a robust access management system to authenticate and authorize users.
• Keep data out of harm's way: Protect sensitive data through encryption and restrict physical access. Ensure data backup and recovery mechanisms are in place to restore data in case of a breach.
• Use parameterized queries: Use parameterized queries or prepared statements when interacting with databases to prevent SQL injection attacks. This ensures that the system treats user inputs as data instead of executable code, effectively protecting against SQL injection attacks.

9. Create an application threat model

Threat modeling enables development teams to adopt an attacker's perspective, allowing them to understand the value of a system better, its assets, and potential threats. This approach helps in designing more resilient systems by anticipating and addressing vulnerabilities.

The main steps in creating a threat model are:

• Decompose the application: Analyze the application's components, features, data flow, and interactions with external entities.
• Identify threats: Recognize potential attack surfaces and common attacks.
• Determine countermeasures: Implement input validation, parameterized queries, fraud detection, MFA, WAF, etc. to counter threats.
• Rate the threats: Assess and prioritize threats based on potential damage and probability.

10. Continuous application monitoring

Continuous monitoring offers an automated surveillance method. It enables real-time visibility into IT systems and networks, enabling you to detect anomalies and potential threats as they arise. This approach facilitates immediate responses to any infrastructure changes that could affect security.

• Wield web application firewalls (WAFs): WAFs safeguard web applications by filtering and monitoring HTTP traffic to detect and block threats like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and cross-site request forgery (CSRF). This helps prevent data breaches and unauthorized access.
• Deploy virtual patching via WAF: Virtual patching uses WAFs to address vulnerabilities without changing the source code. It applies temporary fixes to protect against threats when immediate patching is not feasible, such as when official patches are unavailable or could disrupt operations. This approach provides interim defense until a permanent solution is available.
• Use runtime application security protection (RASP): RASP is a security technology integrated into an application or its runtime environment, allowing it to control execution and detect real-time attacks. By monitoring inputs, outputs, and internal states, RASP helps developers identify vulnerabilities and block exploitation attempts in deployed applications.

11. Implement incident response planning

Having a plan in place for handling security incidents is crucial.

• Develop an incident response plan: Create a comprehensive incident response plan outlining procedures for detecting, responding to, and recovering from security incidents.
• Regularly test your plan: Conduct regular drills to test your incident response plan and ensure that your team is prepared to handle security incidents effectively.

12. Educate and train your team

Human error is a significant factor in security breaches.

• Conduct security training: Provide regular security training for your development team to keep them informed about the latest threats and secure coding practices.
• Promote a security culture: Foster a culture of security awareness within your organization. Encourage team members to prioritize security and report any suspicious activity.

13. Maintain compliance with regulations

Ensure your application meets industry-specific regulations and standards.

• Understand relevant regulations: Familiarize yourself with regulations—like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS—that apply to your application and ensure compliance for each.
• Conduct regular audits: Perform regular audits to verify compliance with security standards and regulations. This helps identify and address any gaps in your security practices.

Conclusion

Utilizing tools and technologies like SAST, DAST, and WAFs is crucial for defending against a wide array of security threats and vulnerabilities. A comprehensive application security strategy typically integrates these tools and practices, complemented by regular security testing, secure development environments, and robust configuration management. Additionally, staying compliant with relevant regulations helps mitigate legal risks and ensures ongoing protection for your applications.

Monitoring tools like Site24x7 can enhance security practices by providing real-time visibility into potential threats and anomalies, enabling quicker detection and response to security incidents. Furthermore, they help track and analyze security logs, which is essential for identifying patterns that could indicate a breach or vulnerability.

Application security is an ongoing commitment, rather than a one-time task. By integrating best practices into both your development and operational workflows, you can effectively manage risks, safeguard sensitive data, and ensure the integrity and availability of your applications amidst evolving cyber threats.