Developers love making things, and the opportunity to start from scratch and build it all is tempting. However, the same curiosity and ingenuity of coders that drive innovation can be a double-edged sword.
Doing it yourself and writing new code produces bugs. While most of these get ironed out during code reviews and beta testing, some will always sneak into the final product. Depending on the nature of a bug and its effects, development teams run the risk of creating significant security vulnerabilities.
For this reason, so many coders utilize tried and tested libraries when it comes to implementing security features, like authentication and encryption. It isn’t out of laziness. New code just always means new bugs and libraries already in constant use and known to be effective limit exposure to unexpected risk.
Security Vulnerabilities Are On the Rise
Reducing this exposure is more important than ever. Cybercriminals have never had it so good. All it takes is a little bit of knowledge and the willingness to exploit others, and there is no shortage of targets to go after.
Research shows 2021 was a bumper year for security vulnerabilities, surpassing the record set in 2020. Over 50 common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) were discovered every day in 2021, and analysis found 90% of these have the potential for exploitation without the need for any advanced technical skill.
With vulnerabilities on the rise, the security industry is responding with a range of new tools, such as Web Application Firewall (WAF), to help plug the gaps and protect against cybercrime. But before we get to some of the potential solutions for closing vulnerabilities, and explain what is WAF, let’s focus on reducing a significant cause of the problem.
DIY Coding Results in Insecure Code
A lot of cybercriminals target low-hanging fruit. They attempt relatively simple attacks looking for easy exploits and insecure networks. It is down to developers not to invite them in.
This means not putting code out into the world with security vulnerabilities.
Tacking complex security problems in-house and developing code from scratch without the extensive resources required to validate it is a common and straightforward way of letting cybercriminals into your system.
Often, a can-do, DIY attitude is great for a developer to have. It helps them find elegant solutions and ingenious approaches. However, the security of a product or patch is precisely when you should be afraid and when you can’t make mistakes.
Security is hard to get right. The consequences of even a minor error can be dire, and a much simpler solution is available.
Improving Code Security
Developers should look to what is proven to work by utilizing existing security, encryption, and authentication components. These include libraries, services, or open-source components that are well-vetted through extensive testing and validation.
Entirely new code written in-house for security purposes cannot compare to something that has already been relentlessly stress tested. The best solution to code security and preventing exploitable vulnerabilities are components that have stood up to real-world applications and gone through numerous updates with bugs identified and patched.
While a sensible approach to in-house code development can reduce security vulnerabilities, there are many other potential sources. A range of tools is available to close vulnerabilities and keep cybercriminals on the outside. These include:
WAF
A Web Application Firewall is a tool for securing websites and web applications. Like a traditional firewall (network firewall), it monitors incoming and outgoing data packets to block and filter traffic that threatens the system. However, unlike traditional firewalls, WAFs protect against attacks that specifically target web applications. These may be stored on a remote server or delivered through a browser.
With the growing use of web applications to facilitate business interaction, many enterprises are looking at WAFs to protect their sensitive data. They offer greater capabilities for identifying attack signatures, application profiling, DDoS protection, providing a CDN, and more.
WAAP
WAAP, or Web Application and API Protection, is a security tool positioned on the edge of the network. It analyzes traffic incoming to the public side of a web application, specifically designed to protect web APIs and applications.
Web applications and APIs are becoming a growing target of cyberattacks. This is because they are accessible on the public internet and offer a way into a company’s private network. Compared to traditional firewalls, the benefits of WAAP include greater security for APIs and microservices, bot protection, and advanced rate limiting.
RASP
Runtime Application Self Protection is a personalized solution that considers internal data to identify threats at runtime that otherwise may go undetected. With a more targeted deployment, RASP wraps around a specific application to monitor input and output as well as the app’s internal state. With this deployment model, RASP can block attacks taking advantage of existing vulnerabilities present in the application.
RASP benefits include contextual awareness, application-layer attack visibility, zero-day attack protection, and a reduction in false positives.
Removing and Reducing the Risk of Security Vulnerabilities
While making something entirely new and designing everything in-house can sound appealing, there are real security consequences to consider. Existing libraries, services, or open-source components are used again and again for a reason: they eliminate the unknown and the potential for new security vulnerabilities.
