The SANS institute has released an article listing the top 25 most dangeurs programming errors as a preventive action to secure software development, limit cyber crime and provide enterprises with a basis for buying their software.
Most of these errors are still not assessed by programmers which might not be totally aware of the fall-outs of their breaches.
This list of programming errors might be used for the following purposes:
- Software buyers will be able to buy much safer software.
- Programmers will have tools that consistently measure the security of the software they are writing.
- Colleges will be able to teach secure coding more confidently.
- Employers will be able to ensure they have programmers who can write more secure code.
The Top 25 is organized into three high-level categories that contain multiple CWE (Community Weakness Enumeration) entries.
Insecure Interaction Between Components
These weaknesses are related to insecure ways in which data is sent and received between separate components, modules, programs, processes, threads, or systems.
- CWE-20 – Improper Input Validation
- CWE-116 – Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output
- CWE-89 – Failure to Preserve SQL Query Structure (aka ‘SQL Injection’)
- CWE-79 – Failure to Preserve Web Page Structure (aka ‘Cross-site Scripting’)
- CWE-78 – Failure to Preserve OS Command Structure (aka ‘OS Command Injection’)
- CWE-319 – Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information
- CWE-352 – Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
- CWE-362 – Race Condition
- CWE-209 – Error Message Information Leak
Risky Resource Management
The weaknesses in this category are related to ways in which software does not properly manage the creation, usage, transfer, or destruction of important system resources.
- CWE-119 – Failure to Constrain Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer
- CWE-642 – External Control of Critical State Data
- CWE-73 – External Control of File Name or Path
- CWE-426 – Untrusted Search Path
- CWE-94 – Failure to Control Generation of Code (aka ‘Code Injection’)
- CWE-494 – Download of Code Without Integrity Check
- CWE-404 – Improper Resource Shutdown or Release
- CWE-665 – Improper Initialization
- CWE-682 – Incorrect Calculation
Porous Defenses
The weaknesses in this category are related to defensive techniques that are often misused, abused, or just plain ignored.
- CWE-285 – Improper Access Control (Authorization)
- CWE-327 – Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm
- CWE-259 – Hard-Coded Password
- CWE-732 – Insecure Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
- CWE-330 – Use of Insufficiently Random Values
- CWE-250 – Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
- CWE-602 – Client-Side Enforcement of Server-Side Security
More detailed information on each weakness can be found on the Mitre’s CWE website by following the CWE entry link.
Although most of these might look trivial, many developers do not have a proper security validation process to ensure a robust code for their programs. Sometimes this might be due to delays, sometimes to lazyness or unawareness. Take a good grip for this list and validate that your code conforms to each principle listed in there. You will contribute to a safer cyber world and software continuum.
