AppSec | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Application security testing is a critical component of modern software development, ensuring that applications are robust and resilient against malicious attacks. As cyber threats continue to evolve in complexity and frequency, the need to integrate comprehensive security measures throughout the SDLC has never been more essential. Traditional pentesting provides a crucial snapshot of an application's security posture, but when integrated across the SDLC, it allows for early detection and mitigation of vulnerabilities, reducing the risk of costly post-deployment fixes and enhancing overall security.  While the specifics for security testing vary for applications, web applications, and APIs, a holistic and proactive applications security strategy is essential for all three types. There are six core types of testing that every security professional should know about to secure their applications, regardless of what phase they are in in development or deployment.  In this artic...

Let's face it: AppSec and developers often feel like they're on opposing teams. You're battling endless vulnerabilities while they just want to ship code. Sound familiar? It's a common challenge, but there is a solution. Ever wish they proactively cared about security? The answer lies in a proven, but often overlooked, strategy: Security Champion Programs — a way to turn developers from adversaries into security advocates? Join our upcoming FREE webinar, " Turn Developers into Allies: The Power of Security Champion Programs, " to discover the secrets behind this game-changing approach. In this webinar, you'll learn: Overcoming the Resistance: Proven tactics to bridge the gap between developers and security, fostering a spirit of collaboration and trust. The Power of Effective Communication: Learn how to make security messaging resonate with developers, without the jargon overload. Creating a Culture of Champions: Discover how to build a Securi...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Secrets are meant to be hidden or, at the very least, only known to a specific and limited set of individuals (or systems). Otherwise, they aren't really secrets. In personal life, a secret revealed can damage relationships, lead to social stigma, or, at the very least, be embarrassing. In a developer's or application security engineer's professional life, the consequences of exposing secrets can lead to breaches of security, data leaks, and, well, also be embarrassing. And while there are tools available for detecting source code and code repositories, there are few options for identifying secrets in plain text, documents, emails, chat logs, content management systems, and more. What Are Secrets? In the context of applications, secrets are sensitive information such as passwords, API keys, cryptographic keys, and other confidential data that an application needs to function but should not be exposed to unauthorized users. Secrets are typically stored securely and access...

While the use of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has gained significant popularity as organizations embrace cloud computing and DevOps practices, the speed and flexibility that IaC provides can also introduce the potential for misconfigurations and security vulnerabilities.  IaC allows organizations to define and manage their infrastructure using machine-readable configuration files, which are typically version-controlled and treated as code. IaC misconfigurations are mistakes, or oversights, in the configuration of infrastructure resources and environments that happen when using IaC tools and frameworks. Discover the power of a comprehensive AppSec platform. Download this new whitepaper to discover how to effortlessly integrate application security into every stage of the software development life cycle. Learn about the role of integration and automation, the 7 requirements for choosing an AppSec platform, and how Checkmarx One™ simplifies security. Misconfigurations in Ia...

It might come as a surprise, but secrets management has become the elephant in the AppSec room. While security vulnerabilities like Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) often make headlines in the cybersecurity world, secrets management remains an overlooked issue that can have immediate and impactful consequences for corporate safety.  A recent study by GitGuardian found that 75% of IT decision-makers in the US and the UK reported at least one secret leaked from an application, with 60% causing issues for the company or employees. Shockingly, less than half of respondents (48%) were confident in their ability to protect application secrets "to a great extent." The study, named  Voice of Practitioners: The State of Secrets in AppSec  (available for free download  here ), provides a fresh perspective on managing secrets, which is often reduced to clichés that do not reflect the operational reality in engineering departments.  Despite their ubiquity in ...

If you're involved in securing the applications your organization develops, there is no question that Static Application Security Testing (SAST) solutions are an important part of a comprehensive application security strategy. SAST secures software, supports business more securely, cuts down on costs, reduces risk, and speeds time to development, delivery, and deployment of mission-critical applications.  SAST scans code early during development, so your AppSec team won't be scrambling to fix unexpected vulnerabilities right before that big launch is planned. You'll avoid surprises and launch delays without inadvertently releasing risky software to customers — or into production.  But if you consider SAST as a part of a larger AppSec platform, crucial for those who wish to  shift security everywhere  possible in the software development life cycle (SDLC), some SAST solutions outshine others.  Knowing what to focus on With a plethora of players in the market...

As software eats the world, the world faces a software security crisis. The movement to modern software such as cloud technologies and microservice architectures is essential to innovate quickly. Yet, nearly three in four developers say that security slows down Agile and DevOps. Neither developers nor security teams are to blame. DevOps speed is held back by a 15-year-old, scan-based application security (AppSec) model designed for the early 2000s. Traditional security tools cannot keep up with today's rapid development pace or modern application portfolio scale. However, sacrificing security for development speed places critical and confidential personal and business information at risk—from financial to healthcare data—and can disrupt operations or even cause outages. Code Scanners Cannot Meet Modern DevOps Legacy AppSec approaches that rely on point-in-time scanning are plagued by development delays and highly inaccurate results. Scans take many hours, if not days—not id...