Ways to conduct a secure code review (2023)
A deep dive into the entire process
Most of the innovations that are being made in recent years are due to software that is being launched in the public sector. But even after such progress is being made in the software industry, the economy of the united states of America alone has suffered a loss of about $2 trillion due to the bad quality software that has made homes in various businesses that are generating huge deals of revenue. The fault in this software has not just affected the profit rates of the company but also the goodwill and name of these companies as stated by the Consortium.
The solution to this is the standard and secure code review process. But what does one such process help to do? The answer is simple, It focuses on the security of the software. Any possible breaches that might be present in the system can be detected with the help of code review processes. It will also help to determine any loopholes that might be present which can lead to the loss of sensitive information of the client. This can help to create strong encryption services for the transfer of data and with the right testing methods, the leaking of data can be prevented
Why is security code review better?
There are various reasons why secure code review is considered rather than any type of application testing in the later phases. Here is an in-depth analysis. The process of checking the security must be present in all stages when the software is being developed. These stages are as follows:
- Planning: This is the foundation of the development where one lays out the ways in which the software will perform. This is also the point where one should focus on the ways malware can get into the system and affect it.
- Analysis: Checking if the features included are secure enough. If not what are the various ways in which the security of the system can be enhanced? This comes in the software analysis phase.
- Design: This is the crucial part where you decide how you will implement the various features of the application to keep the data as secure as possible. The design should go through various phases of testing and deployment before getting finalized.
Testing and integration: As the name suggests, this is where the security of the entire app actually comes into play. You need to ensure that all the things are working and upright.
testing itself. There are numerous ways in which the security of the entire application can be tested. There are many predefined phases like the penetration testing method that resolve the security issues by ethical hacking even if the entire history of the system might not be known to the tester.
But, in a code review mechanism, the primary emphasis lies on the analysis of the entire attack on the surface itself. When you get a top-to-bottom approach to the attack and help understand it from the surface, the motive and the channel through which the data gets leaked become more obvious. When this becomes obvious one can easily get into the channels by which the hacker might be targeting the system.
What can penetration testing help with?
After understating the need for testing let us understand how can we benefit from this kind of testing. The list of advantages are as given below:
- It helps to find the loopholes that might be present in the system which can compromise the security of the system.
- It can help to prevent malware attacks by hackers
- It helps to protect any secret or sensitive information that might be present on the computer system
- It can help achieve standard cybersecurity levels with ease that can help build a strong firewall to protect the system from any kind of suspicious software that can interpret during the downloading phase.
The main aim still remains to first check the system without any second thoughts and then take steps toward the improvement of the system
Conducting a secure code review
To conduct this type of testing process all one has to do is follow the steps that are given below:
- Conduct an in-depth analysis of the failures in the system
- Identify who owns major access to the assets that are present within the software
- Consider the chances of errors that need to be handled.
- Used tools like SATS to help get a better review of the software
- Manual code inspection reviews are also necessary
- A logical conclusion should be formulated based on these reviews
Conclusion
There are various reasons why a code review is better than testing methods present in the market. This is because they help to analyze the problem from the surface level itself. This makes the coder understand the security concerns that can be present in the system. It also helps to recognize any other encryption or decryption problems that might be present in the code that can lead to the loss of sensitive data that is present in the software.
