Security Code Review

 

Security code review, also known as code security review or secure code review, is a process in software development where the source code of an application is systematically and manually examined to identify and fix security vulnerabilities. The goal is to ensure that the code complies with security best practices, follows coding standards, and does not contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers.

Objective:

Identify Vulnerabilities: The primary goal of a security code review is to identify security vulnerabilities in the code, such as injection flaws, authentication issues, authorization problems, and other common security risks.

Security code reviews covered area's

Authentication, 

authorization, 

security configuration, 

session management, 

logging, 

data validation, 

error handling, and 

encryption

Timing:

Throughout the Software Development Lifecycle: Code reviews are most effective when conducted regularly throughout the development process, from the initial stages to post-deployment. Early identification of security issues is generally more cost-effective and reduces the risk of vulnerabilities entering the final product. It uses the CI/CD pipelines through automated tools such as Sonarqube. Once Sonarqube is the tool, we must implement rules for the project and its review code under the input rules.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Security Experts: Security code reviews are often conducted by specialized security teams or individuals with expertise in secure coding practices and knowledge of common vulnerabilities.

Manual vs. Automated Reviews:

Manual Review: Human experts manually inspect the source code, looking for patterns and issues that automated tools might miss. This method allows for a deeper understanding of the code but can be time-consuming.

Automated Review: Automated tools can help identify common vulnerabilities and enforce coding standards more quickly. However, they might not catch all types of issues, and their effectiveness depends on the quality of the tool and the rules it employs.

Common Vulnerabilities Checked:

Injection Attacks: Check for vulnerabilities like SQL injection, OS command injection, and others.

Authentication and Authorization Issues: Ensure authentication and authorization mechanisms are implemented securely.

Data Validation and Encoding: Confirm that user inputs are properly validated and sanitized to prevent injection attacks.

Secure Communication: Verify that data in transit is encrypted using secure protocols (e.g., HTTPS).

Error Handling: Ensure that error messages do not expose sensitive information and that error handling is robust.

Documentation:

Reporting and Documentation: Identified issues should be documented, and recommendations for remediation should be provided. This documentation is valuable for developers to understand and fix the problems.

Collaboration:

Developer Collaboration: Code reviews are most effective when there is collaboration between security experts and developers. Security feedback should be constructive and accompanied by guidance on remediation.

Continuous Improvement:

Learn from Findings: Lessons learned from security code reviews should be used to improve development processes and educate developers on secure coding practices.