Hi Chris.
Seems like a sensible way to handle to situation, by
educating the bosses, then letting them take the initiative!
Keith
On Tue, 21 Sep 2004, Conacher, Chris wrote:
To: Mike Andrews <mike@se.fit.edu>, webappsec@securityfocus.com
From: "Conacher, Chris" <Chris.Conacher@negt.com>
Subject: RE: XSS, SQL injection etc - permutations of input strings
Mike
I worked on a project with a very large software company training their
internal (not product) developers and application testers on application
security testing and development.
That company overcame the problem of what needed to be demonstrated before it
would be fixed by educating senior decision makers as to the potential
implications of xss, sql injection, buffer overflows, etc.
These people in turn decided that it was not acceptable for applications to
be deployed in the environment that had any potential for certain
vulnerabilities. Other vulnerabilities were assessed on the basis of
available time, resource implications, etc for fixing and were rated as to
priority or the level of exploitation that needed to be demonstrated. Note
that buffer overflows did not need to be shown to be exploitable as it was
considered that no developer working there should be allowing buffer
overflows in any situation.
This was then published as a company policy with great effect.
For example, all a tester had to show was that it was possible to bypass an
input validation designed to prevent sql injection by entering a tick a
returning an error and the application was kicked back to the developers for
them to fix.
This removed any ability of the developers to argue as to the 'real impact'
of a particular vulnerability and saved so much time in the to-ing and
fro-ing between testers and developers.
The business basically understood that just because a tester is not able to
demonstrate serious potential for a vulnerability does not mean that there
are not people out there with more ability and time who could and made a
decision.
It removed the ability of the developers and testers to affect the decision
making process and became a business decision as what was acceptable to that
business.
Chris
Chris Conacher
Security Analyst
Ext: 34508
Tel: +1.503.833.4508
Email: chris.conacher@negt.com
