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Software Development Vulnerabilities – What They Are and How to Avoid them

Understanding what software development vulnerabilities are, how they are introduced, and why your organization should care should be of primary importance  — for both companies that develop software and companies that use third-party software for business operations. If your company develops applications and they enable a successful attack, you may be liable for the damage to the victims, resulting in negative impacts on your company’s reputation, ability to operate normally (at least for a period),  and financial bottom line. 

If your company uses software that results in a breach, the same may be true.

The good news is that, while it’s impossible to eliminate all software vulnerabilities, organizations can take active steps to minimize the risks to customers, the public, and themselves. The key is understanding which vulnerabilities are reachable, exploitable, and would have an impact on the business if they were compromised.

What is a Software Vulnerability?

The simplest explanation of the term “software vulnerability” is: “A security flaw, glitch, or weakness found in software code that could be exploited by an attacker (threat source).” Vulnerabilities may stem from coding mistakes, design gaps, outdated software, or unforeseen interactions between system components. Generally speaking, a software vulnerability is a weak structural design element that can be weaponized by threat actors, allowing them to insert malicious code, change or escalate permissions, disrupt business operations, steal sensitive data, or otherwise compromise the system’s functionality to further malicious objectives.

If your organization builds software (whether for commercial sale or internal purposes only), developers and security teams are likely to be aware of the software risk caused by software vulnerabilities introduced during software development. However, AppSec and DevOps teams’ lack of time, resources, advanced tools, ability to understand vulnerability severity, and reliable prioritization will cause vulnerabilities to either be missed or unaddressed. It’s therefore vital to practice astute application vulnerability management in this context.

The Impact of Vulnerabilities

Software vulnerabilities have long been exploited by attackers to compromise digital ecosystems at scale. They’ll use persistent and known vulnerabilities to gain control of systems, insert malicious code or binaries, and steal valuable data, causing a plethora of problems for anyone using that compromised software.

Reputational damage is only the tip of the iceberg

Allowing vulnerabilities to arise or persist in software your organization develops, either for sale or internal use, can result in reputational damage; loss of data, revenue, or customers; and even regulatory repercussions. All of this can be bad news for any organization on an individual basis, but when we’re talking about the supply chain and heavily distributed software or applications, the downstream impacts of vulnerable software are multiplied and amplified. 

The impact of exploited software weaknesses can be catastrophic; the 2017 WannaCry attack, for example, caused all kinds of chaos for the UK’s National Health Service, delaying operations, diagnoses, and other medical procedures for an entire country. It’s worth noting, however, that Microsoft had published a patch for the vulnerability a full 12 months before the attack, and organizations that hadn’t patched were the most likely cyber attack victims.

Companies, therefore, must implement a thorough AppSec program that includes defined processes and advanced tools that can help them identify, understand, prioritize, and remediate software vulnerabilities — as early in the software’s lifecycle as possible. Doing so is a combination of application security-centric processes, continuous monitoring, and contextualized vulnerability analysis throughout the entire software lifecycle, from design through runtime.

Common Software Vulnerabilities

What does a software vulnerability look like?

Software vulnerabilities can allow attackers to abuse features or functionality to exploit a system, users to make mistakes in configuring or securing systems or accounts, and enable zero-day attacks.

Implementation vs. Design flaws

One important distinction before we get into examples: While developers can fix poor implementation or compromised components, nothing can fix a fundamentally flawed software design except starting from scratch and ensuring that no known-vulnerable components are included in the codebase.

With that in mind, let’s talk briefly about some common types of vulnerabilities. For this (and the above note about design vs. implementation), we’ll lean on the combined brains and experience behind the Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP).

The Problem with Recycling Code and Other Software Components

Most software uses and reuses components, dependencies, libraries, and processes to reduce development time and make use of assets that solve common problems. In fact, it is estimated that up to 90% of software is open-source, third-party code. The catch, of course, is that if a flaw is found in a widely-used piece of code, it can be used to compromise many systems in a mass contagion. The Log4J is a perfect example of how one commonly-used library could expose multiple applications and millions of users to attack. Other well-known examples include the MOVEit and the SolarWinds breaches. 

The issue of software supply chain security and software dependency security is addressed in this dedicated article

Vulnerable and Outdated Components

A vivid example of this supply chain problem is the issue of old or unmaintained code or other components in software development. Rated by the OWASP community survey as the second most serious category after broken access control, keeping on top of potential vulnerabilities in old or abandoned code is critical. Your AppSec tooling should automate a lot of the process of monitoring security bulletins for components you use in your software development, as well as regularly scanning for vulnerabilities. This can involve tracking vulnerable or expired software – everything from out-of-date operating systems, APIs or other components, as well as runtime environments and libraries.

Access Control 

When access controls aren’t configured or enforced properly, they can allow malicious actors to access systems or components to which they are not authorized — what’s known as Broken Authentication by OWASP. A common cyber attack tactic is to escalate privileges from that of a basic user to one with administrative permissions; it’s often easier for a threat actor to steal user login credentials than it is to access administration-level credentials. This is why organizations must always implement the principle of least privilege wherever and whenever possible.

Insecure Storage of Sensitive Data

Cryptographic failures — be they encryption that is flawed, easily bypassed, or simply not present — are catastrophic flaws. Poor or no encryption of sensitive data, or storing sensitive data that needn’t be retained, is a significant vulnerability, creating a wide-open door for attackers to exploit applications. “Sensitive data” can be anything from commercially (or nationally) secret information to Personally Identifiable Information (PII), account details, login credentials, addresses, and payment details such as credit card or social security numbers. Prioritizing secure encryption practices, robust key management, and regular vulnerability assessments ensures applications — and the sensitive data they handle — remain protected against modern threats.

Injection flaws

Attackers can trick target systems into behaving differently by sending data as part of a command or query. A successful injection attack, such as a SQL injection, can trick a system into executing commands it shouldn’t or providing access to data that should not be visible to normal users. These attacks can also exploit vulnerabilities to manipulate how applications process user inputs, granting unauthorized access to sensitive data and exposing personal information, financial records, or intellectual property. Further, successful injection attacks can allow attackers to execute arbitrary commands or queries, effectively bypassing application logic and gaining control over underlying systems. 

Effective mitigation of injection attacks —through input validation, parameterized queries, and security testing — should be a cornerstone of every AppSec program to ensure applications remain resilient against such threats.

Insecure Design

“Shift left” is a common approach to software development to denote vulnerability assessment and application security testing early in the software development lifecycle. The goal of a “shift left” strategy is to catch issues before they are too complex or costly to fix, and help developers deploy secure software on time. 

When security testing and security audits don’t happen early and often, it is very possible that software gets deployed with fundamental security issues that are not possible to fix after the fact. By late stages of the SDLC, no manner of excellent coding skills, updates, or automated workflows can mitigate the risks of insecure design. The only remediation is to go back to the beginning.

[H3:]How Organizations Can Manage Secure Software Development

Software development must involve visibility and control throughout the entire lifecycle — also known as the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This cradle-to-grave approach for software development does not need to consume vast resources; with the help of automation and the emergence of Application Security Posture Management (ASPM), software vulnerabilities can be contained, analyzed for root causes, understood, and remedied.

How You Can Decrease the Likelihood and Impact of Software Vulnerabilities

Organizations looking to avoid vulnerabilities in software should follow best practices for assessing application vulnerabilities, including building a vulnerability assessment program, prioritization based on risk, threat modeling, dependency mapping, continuous monitoring for emerging issues, measurement and reporting, and pen-testing.

Regular audits to check for vulnerabilities against CVEs, employee training programs, incentives for best practice programming and development techniques, bug bounties, and the like all add extra layers of reassurance

The use of static code analysis (i.e., Static Application Security Testing) and Software Composition Analysis (SCA) should also be factored in to identify and help teams manage vulnerabilities.

Protect Against and Prioritize Vulnerabilities

One of the challenges of traditional AppSec tooling and process is the massive number of potential vulnerabilities and alerts produced, certainly more than enough to overwhelm most development teams. Fortunately, new capabilities are emerging that help AppSec and DevOps teams cut through the noise of irrelevant or low-priority findings, allowing them to focus on the things that could impact business operations. Teams looking to improve their AppSec processes and protect against vulnerable software should look for platforms that will automatically analyze vulnerabilities based on reachability and exploitability.

Keeping Track of Common Software Vulnerabilities

With an understanding of the importance of reachability and exploitability, it’s essential to recognize the wealth of resources available to software developers to help avoid vulnerabilities. Among these, the OWASP Top Ten stands out as a key reference point, offering guidance based on extensive collaboration and insights from thousands of developers. Its upcoming refresh in mid-2025 will continue to provide insights into critical vulnerabilities affecting web applications.

The U.S. National Vulnerability Database (NVD) is another vital resource, augmenting vulnerabilities published to the CVE list, with enriched context and data to guide organizations in prioritizing and addressing risks. Together, these resources, along with others like CISA KEV, form a robust foundation for implementing best practices.

Incorporating these trusted frameworks into your organization’s SDLC demonstrates a mature approach to application security. This alignment not only ensures adherence to industry standards but also empowers teams to proactively identify, assess, and mitigate vulnerabilities, strengthening the overall security posture of applications.

Conclusion

Modern software has become so intricate, interconnected, and complicated that vulnerabilities are inevitable. It’s easy, with 20:20 hindsight, to blame developers when the root cause is often a lot more nuanced than it may seem at first glance. 

The good news is that modern AppSec capabilities remove the complexity of managing this process — or managing a motley collection of tools pulled together to do the job. 

To find out more about how OX Security can help you on your software development security journey, get in touch here.

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