Software security threats and vulnerabilities result in disastrous security compromises. The victims of these compromises vary from individuals, companies, and government secrecy agencies. The frustrating aspect of common software vulnerabilities is that they often manifest themselves in a concealed manner that software developers cannot trace, detect, and mitigate.
But even more alarming is the increased number of vulnerabilities witnessed lately. Various study reports and expert opinions point out the deplorable state of software vulnerabilities. Here are a few stats that show you how serious this matter is.
- The first quarter of 2022 witnessed the first escalation of malware threats in three years- with 2.8 billion malware attacks reported, accounting for an 11 percent rise. (2022 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report)
- According to Edgescan’s 2022 Vulnerability Statistics Report, which analyzes the severity of web applications, one in every ten software vulnerabilities is considered a high or critical risk.
- One in every three detected software security threats involves software exploit attempts.
Even with the knowledge of these figures, most companies seem to give a dumb ear to software security. Software security becomes a priority for most organizations and individuals after falling victim to security breaches. Does it have to be this way? Hell no!
Some of these breaches come with severe monetary and reputational damages. Cyber Security Trends Report puts the cost of a successful malware attack at an average of $2.5 million, including the time needed to resolve the attack. The best strategy is to identify the common software vulnerabilities that are likely to wreak havoc on your network. Let us understand what software vulnerabilities are and the various forms of software vulnerabilities you should know.
What does it mean by Software Vulnerabilities?
Software vulnerabilities refer to security flaws, exposures, susceptibilities, or weaknesses residing in software files or codes. Hackers leverage these flaws to compromise systems, steal sensitive data, and perform all sorts of malicious attacks. Due to incompetency and inexperience by network owners (and their IT teams), most of these flaws go unnoticed, despite hiding in plain sight.
How Vulnerabilities Get into Software
Sheer negligence of software developers and vendors is the primary reason for the persistence of software vulnerabilities. New version releases to existing software often introduce flaws that lead to the integration of errors, bugs, and glitches. Such untested updates can cause misconfigurations and introduce accessibility and permission glitches. Another element that gives attackers freedom to execute their attacks is the absence of a code signing certificate. Developers ought to leverage code signing certificates. Such certificates employ cryptographic hashes and encryption to protect codes and scripts from unauthorized modifications. A software developer can find low-priced or cheap Code Signing certificates easily from different Code Signing Certificate providers.
If you search the web, you can find a few well-known code sign certificates like Sectigo Code Signing certificate, DigiCert Code Sign certificate, etc. that can ensure code integrity and strong encryption.
Common Software Vulnerabilities of 2023
We have looked at the general aspect of software vulnerabilities (trends, definitions, and their occurrence). It is time to look at some of the common software vulnerabilities that network owners face today and the various techniques you can use to prevent them.
1. Injection Flaws
SQL injection is a form of attack that targets a database. The attack is executed when an attacker injects a malicious SQL code into an application, giving the attacker freedom to view and modify a database. In simpler words, an SQL injection is where an attacker masquerades as a trusted user and injects malware codes that are difficult for a network to distinguish from its original code.
According to Open Web Application Security Project data, SQL injections are ranked as the third most severe web application threats of 2021. SQL injections hold enough power to expose sensitive data, compromise users’ privacy, grant hackers freedom of access to all segments of your system, and tamper with data integrity. Here is how best to prevent injection flaws:
- Validate all user inputs
- Mitigate inadequate data sanitization
- Use prepared statements and parametrization
- Stay in tune with the most recent software patches and updates
- Use appliance-based firewalls to filter out malicious data.
2. Security Misconfigurations
Misconfigured essential elements of web application security could be the biggest weakest link that grants hackers an attack surface to your code and software. For instance, misconfigured HTTP headers or the lack of an SSL certificate allows an attacker to have an eagle-eye view of your data and communication. Through this, an attacker can plant malware files into your files.
Here is how best to prevent security misconfigurations:
- Deploy a safe and secure environment for your software, code, and web application
- Automate all web application security processes to save the time and energy required to manage your security aspects.
- Eliminate all unnecessary security frameworks.
3. Broken Authentication and Access Controls
User authentication is one of the most significant aspects of software security. Broken authentication grants hackers’ freedom of access to pertinent elements of your network. Such unauthorized accesses are bound to compromise your software. A perfect example of a broken authentication is metadata manipulation which entails interfering with the JSON web tokens or alteration of cookie files to grant hackers more access freedom.
Broken access controls to specific user roles allow hackers the freedom to access anything and everything they would love to. The best way to prevent this is by adopting safe coding practices. Moreover, it is wise to disable to adopt the two-factor authentication model alongside the following prevention tips.
- Enact the principle of the least privileges to important code and software files
- Put a restriction on access to software APIs and controllers to mitigate brute-force attacks
- Follow the best practices of password creation, use, and storage
- Turn on login failures and alert admins where possible
4. Insecure Software Flaws
How software is designed, and the methodology adopted could make a big difference in developing secure software. Software design methodology emphasizes the value of encapsulation and concealing of information. The best methodology should taste the software for security principles at every development stage and test the codes for compliance. Here are some tips for creating a secure software design.
- Develop security and privacy policies that should be applied at each stage of the software development lifecycle.
- Leverage threat modeling for essential flows, authentication, and access controls.
- Employ tenant segregation by design for every tier
5. Data and Software Integrity Failures
Data integrity becomes more pertinent, especially in the case of extremely sensitive data. Applications using third-party modules, repositories, and extensions are susceptible to data integrity failures. Even more, unprotected continuous integration/continuous delivery is riskier, which raises the risks of unauthorized access.
Here are some of the prevention techniques you can adopt to mitigate this issue:
- Use a Code Signing certificate to ascertain the integrity of the code and ensure it has not been altered since its creation.
- Use security tools such as OWASP CycloneDX, which checks software and applications for security flaws.
- Ensure that the CI/CD workflows use the necessary parametrization and access control procedures that safeguard code integrity
- Avoid sending unencrypted data to untrusted third parties.
6. Cryptographic Failures
Cryptographic failures (sensitive data exposures) also seriously threaten software security. Such failures expose sensitive data such as session tokens, login IDs, and private user information such as credit card details. Here are the tips you can use to prevent cryptographic failures.
- Adopt robust hashing algorithms such as Argon2, scrypt, and PBKDF2 to store your login information safely
- Avoid using FTP, SMTP, and other outdated protocols, especially when transferring sensitive data
- Implement authenticated encryption rather than simple encryption
Conclusion
Software vulnerabilities are taking a toll in 2023, with the trend expected to go into the future. Such vulnerabilities expose the code to all forms of attacks. This article has exploited some of the common software vulnerabilities. It has also pointed out tips to prevent such vulnerabilities. It is now time to go ahead and execute the prescribed solutions and keep your software safe from attackers.
This article was provided by Jenn Diesi
