What are Secure Coding Practices

Guarding your software against threats, defects, and bugs in the early stages is an important means to secure your code. Secure coding practices ensure that your guard against the accidental and non-accidental introduction of vulnerabilities. It is a line of defence in place for counteracting detrimental software programming errors. There are a few common secure coding practices seen across the globe :

• Stay away from fraud sources: On the World Wide Web, there are only a few genuine sources of data and input data validation is a necessity to ensure the safety of the system. Often, a little negligence could open the gates for several bugs and other software threats to install themselves in the registry and gain access to system files.
• Do not ignore compiler warnings: Warnings while compiling do not necessary mean that the program will not execute. They are just warnings for significant chances of security flaws within the code. Use the highest level in discretion and ensure that your code is error-free and flawless.
• Simplicity: Simple designs make for great code, as there is virtually minimal scope of any flaw. Small and simple designs are easy to implement, modify, and secure.
• Denied access: Ensure that the basic access is restricted and permissions are a requisite for access. Only through a permission-based screening system, specific conditions for permit of access can be elaborated.
• The principle of least privilege: When executing your code, look for to reduce the privileges required to complete the task. Privileges serve as opportunities for hackers and other attacks to execute arbitrary code while having elevated privileges
• Multiple layers of security: Place several layers of defence for your program to ensure that the chances of a security flaw are negligible. If one layer of defence were weak, the subsequent layer of defence would act and ensure that there is minimal exposure of information to threats.
• QA: Ensure that there are effective quality assurance techniques in place. Quality assurance can go a long way in securing the vulnerabilities and eliminating them. For example, techniques like Source code, Fuzz testing, and penetration testing, can be put into action to ensure the security of your system.
• Clearly illustrated and defined security requirements: In the development life cycle, it is important to identify, document, and develop the security requirements. Without a security requirement in place, ensuring the safety of your process is a lost cause.

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