How to Scale Application Security in Today's Agile World

Leo Reading

4/28/2024

Finding the balance between speed and coverage can be a real challenge, especially in application security. I've spent time as both a builder and a breaker, so I've come to appreciate how critical it is to have really efficient processes.

Managing security in the old days of systems design was a relatively straightforward task. But today's application landscapes (I'm looking at you, microservices) are a whole other ballgame. Our security strategies need to keep pace, matching the speed and complexity of the systems they protect.

How can you do that with a small team? If we think of scaling security in the same way we think about our applications, we might want to consider scaling horizontally and not just vertically.

The Challenges of Scaling

I've been there - your comapny is growing, and you're trying to keep up with the pace. You've got a lot of work to do, and while the company is doing great, the powers that be may not be willing to invest in additional headcount for your security team. While it would make sense to expand your team, it's not always a possibility. This is where we need to think about scaling our tooling and processes, otherwise we risk becoming a bottleneck.

The Traditional Shift-Left Approach

"Shift Left" is one of those terms that's become a cliché, but its importance can't be overstated. Pushing security considerations earlier in the development cycle helps avoid wasted effort, significantly boost productivity, and even reduces burnout. As a developer, there's nothing more frustrating than being ready to merge, to then be told that I need to go back and re-work something.

We've seen the principle of shifting left applied across the spectrum of security tools:

• Static code analysis
• Source code analysis
• Secret scanning
• Threat modeling
• Code review ...the list goes on.

One area that is emerging, thanks to the power for AI and large language models, is generating tailored security recommendations based on the work that needs to be done. This is where AppSec Assistant comes in!

Scaling Processes

One of the more time-intensive parts of application security is the process of reviewing new work and providing recommendations/guidance. Jira has been the backbone of my project management for many years, so extending it with security automation seemed like a no-brainer. Embedding security actions into the SDLC, from feature planning to deployment, transformed my team's ability to scale. The tools we employed back then, albeit less sophisticated, laid the groundwork for what I wish we had: something like AppSec Assistant.

An Example Case

Let's say that your development team is tasked with adding a comment feature to your corporate website's blog. As a security engineer, you'd probably have a laundry list of concerns: potential for abuse/spam, data privacy, the works. Before you go and huddle with the developer, you would think about what advice or guidance you have have. Do you have a few thoughts already? Good.

Now imagine you have AppSec Assistant in your toolkit. With a simple click, you'd have suggestions like:

1. Injection Attacks: Ensure that the input from the comment box is properly sanitized to prevent SQL injection, XSS (Cross-Site Scripting), and other code injection attacks.

2. Authentication: Confirm that the system robustly handles user authentication. Only authenticated users should be able to post comments.

3. Authorization: Verify that permissions are correctly set so that users can only edit or delete their own comments unless they have specific administrative permissions.

4. Comment Flooding: Implement rate limiting to prevent comment spam and ensure that the system can handle high volumes of comments without degradation in performance.

5. Data Validation: Validate all user inputs for appropriate content, length, and type to prevent malicious data from being stored or processed.

6. User Privacy: Make sure that user data displayed with comments (like usernames or timestamps) does not violate user privacy or expose sensitive information.

7. Session Management: Ensure secure session management practices to prevent session hijacking or fixation attacks.

8. Error Handling: Properly handle errors to avoid leaking information about the backend system through error messages.

9. Logging and Monitoring: Implement logging of key actions like comment postings, edits, and deletions to detect and respond to suspicious activity quickly.

10. Secure Storage: Use secure methods for storing user data and comments in the database, including encryption if necessary to protect sensitive data.

11. Secure Transmission: Ensure that all data transmitted, including comments and user authentication information, is encrypted using TLS (Transport Layer Security).

12. CSRF Protection: Guard against Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks that could trick a logged-in user into submitting a forged comment.

These are not hypothetical: they're straight from AppSec Assistant! As a security expert, you may have additional suggestions. You may even have some domain specific context that isn't available to AppSec Assistant. But, you probably considered most of these points for this hypothetical ticket. Your specific guidance can still be added as a comment or in a conversation, and AppSec Assistant is just lightening your load.

Best Practices for Implementation

No tool is a silver bullet. To truly benefit from AppSec Assistant, it's essential to integrate it thoughtfully into your existing processes. Train your team, refine your workflows, and remember that the app scales your security efforts; it doesn't replace the need for a well-trained security team who have strong relationships with your developers.

Ready to Scale Up?

Scaling your application security should be about smart solutions, not just brute force. AppSec Assistant is a testament to that philosophy. If you're ready to streamline and reinforce your security posture, why not give it a go? The results might just redefine your approach to application security.