Common Security Vulnerabilities in Software and How to Prevent Them

Hackers make use of security vulnerabilities in software to attack and damage a system. Defects in software allow these attacks to succeed.

Security vulnerabilities in software don’t just result in hackers attacking a system but can also result in financial losses. Besides, cybercrime often ruins the reputation of the companies attacked.

An essential part of an effective software security process is being familiar with software vulnerabilities, i.e. flaws or weaknesses in your code. Often, testing and manual code reviews are unable to identify all vulnerabilities that can impact the performance & security of your software.

Hence, it’s important to have a working understanding of security vulnerabilities in software to enable you to effectively avoid potential security threats during design and development.

1. Broken Access Control

User roles and permissions must be well thought out and be properly enforced. If they are broken it can create software vulnerabilities that can be exploited. For example, if you have an admin panel for your website, that area must be restricted to admin users only. 

If such restrictions are not enforced properly, hackers and other unauthorized people can easily take advantage of that vulnerability and access sensitive data or even gain control of your system.

2. Cryptographic Failures

Sensitive data such as addresses, passwords, and account numbers, must be properly protected. If it isn’t, Cybercriminals may take advantage of the security vulnerabilities in software to gain access.

3. Injections Flaws 

Injection flaws result in cyber attackers injecting malicious code into an application. These kinds of security vulnerabilities in software occur when untrusted data is sent along with a query or command to an interpreter, which in turn will make the targeted system execute unintended commands. 

This kind of attack can also result in hackers gaining access to protected data stored in the database without the right authorization. For example, Cross-site scripting flows can be exploited by untrustworthy agents in an effort to execute their own scripts in your system. 

4. Insecure Design / Insecure direct object reference

Insecure design is the lack of security controls being integrated into the application throughout the development cycle. This can have wide-ranging and deep-rooted security consequences. 

It could range from simple oversight into the added financial and time costs of accounting for secure development activities all the way to negligent design.

These oversights will leave the design foundation of the application insecure often leading to the disclosure of information or compromise on the application.

Insecure Direct Objective References (IDOR) occur when an application provides direct access to objects based on user-supplied input. As a result of this vulnerability, attackers can bypass authorization and access resources in the system directly, for example, database records or files.

5. Security Misconfiguration 

One of the most common issues in software development, Security misconfiguration is a result of incomplete configurations that are not secure. For example, Open cloud storage Misconfigured HTTP headers, and wordy error messages that contain sensitive information. 

In order to avoid this kind of software security weakness, you must make sure to properly configure your OS, frameworks, and applications. Besides, all this must be updated regularly.

6. Vulnerable and Outdated Components

Components are made up of libraries. frameworks, and other software modules. Often, the components run on the same privileges as your application. If a component is vulnerable, it can be exploited to cause serious data loss or server takeover. 

7. Identification and Authentication Failures

Authentication and session management application functions need to be implemented correctly. If they aren’t, it creates a software vulnerability that can be exploited to gain access to personal information to access a user’s account. 

8. Security Logging – Monitoring Failures

Insufficient logging and Monitoring processes are dangerous. They leave your data vulnerable to tampering, extraction, or even destruction.

9. Exposure of Sensitive Data

Sensitive data includes things such as account numbers, addresses, financial data, health information, usernames, and passwords. 

All this data must be protected against human error and security breaches. Personal or sensitive data has to be protected with encryption and access controls to prevent unauthorized people from accessing it. 

If the software fails to protect this personal data due to security vulnerability, hackers who gain access to this information can use it to commit fraud and other crimes.

How to Prevent Security Vulnerabilities in Software?

Here are the 12 most efficient and effective practices to prevent security vulnerabilities in software:

1. Establish Software Design Requirements 

Define a set of principles that need to be followed while developing each software release. this principle will show the developers how to write, inspect, and demonstrate their code to ensure security best practices are followed.

2. Define and enforce secure coding Principles. 

This includes using a secure coding standard as well as a code signing certificate. 

Coding Standards –  Such as OWASP, CWE, and CERT – enable you to better prevent, detect, and eliminate security vulnerabilities in software. They also guide you to effectively write, test, inspect, analyze, and demonstrate your code. 

Some tools can identify security defects and vulnerabilities while the code is being written. One of the most effective ways to make your software tamper-proof is by digitally signing it using a code signing certificate. 

This makes it difficult for third parties to tamper with your code. A code signing certificate will make sure your files remain secure and it will also prevent hackers from adding security vulnerabilities to your code.

3. Review Your Code

It is essential that you review your code as early and as often as possible. It helps to ensure that security vulnerabilities in software are found and eliminated as soon as possible. 

You can test your software using code analysis tools, white box testing, black box testing, and other techniques.

As part of your development pipeline, static analysis compliments your testing efforts. Tests can be run during CI/CD integration as well as nightly integration testing. Static code analyzers automatically inspect your code as it’s being written to identify any errors, weaknesses, or bugs.  

4. Update the Software Regularly

It is important to regularly update software as outdated software is prone to security vulnerabilities in software. By making sure your software uses up-to-date components and dependencies, you can prevent security issues and software vulnerabilities.

5. Input Validation

Validate all inputs from users to ensure that they are safe and cannot be used to exploit vulnerabilities in your software.

6. Authentication and access control

Implement strong authentication and access control mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access to your software and data.

7. Data Encryption 

Use encryption to protect sensitive data in transit and at rest to prevent attackers from accessing or stealing it. 

8. Use of Firewall

Implement firewalls to monitor and control traffic to and from your software, and to prevent attackers from preventing vulnerabilities during the deployment process.

9. Regular Testing

Regularly test your software to identify vulnerabilities, and address them promptly.

10. Secure Deployment 

Implement secure deployment procedures to prevent attackers from exploiting vulnerabilities during the deployment process.

11. Use of security tools

Use security tools such as Intrusion detection systems, Vulnerability scanners, and Malware detection software to identify and prevent attacks.

12. Security Awareness Program

Train your staff on security best practices, and make sure they are aware of the latest security threats and how to prevent them.

Contact us today to learn more about our development process and how we can help you develop software that is secure, reliable, and trusted by your customers.