The Top Vulnerabilities in Software Security

Did you know that in 2020, over 18,000 vulnerabilities were created?  When your computer is linked to an insecure network your software security can be compromised. This happens without proper protocols in place. Updates that are forgotten, product flaws, and unresolved developer issues expose your clients to computer security risks. All of this is vulnerabilities in your enterprises’ software security. Keep reading to hear the top vulnerabilities in software security and how they can affect your enterprise as a whole.  

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What is a Vulnerability?

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A vulnerability in an asset or property that can be attacked by one or more cyber threats, where an asset is defined as everything of value to the organization, its business operations, and their continuity, including information resources that support the enterprise's goal.  

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The Top Vulnerabilities 

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Logging and monitoring are inadequate

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It's risky to have insufficient logging and monitoring processes. This exposes your information to alteration, extraction, and even deletion. When this happens, your enterprise is exposed to various attacks and is a cause of disrupted operations.

 Errors in Injection

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When untrusted data is given as part of a command, injection issues can occur. The targeted machine can then be duped into executing unwanted commands as a result of the attack. Untrustworthy attackers may gain access to protected data as a result of an attack which is harmful for your enterprise. In all, this is what we refer to as a error in the injection.  

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 Exposed Sensitive Data 

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Your employees address, passwords, and account numbers are all examples of sensitive data that must be carefully protected. If it isn't, malicious hackers will exploit the flaws to gain access. This happens every day and sensitive information is how managers can protect all of their employees. Overall, if it’s exposed, everything else is as well.  

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Using Components with Vulnerabilities That Have Been Recognized 

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Libraries, frameworks, and other software modules make up components. The components are frequently run with the same privileges as your application in your enterprise. If a component is weak, an untrustworthy hacker can take advantage of it. This results in significant data loss or a server takeover in your enterprise. Don’t let this happen.  

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 XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) flaws 

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 Deceitful agents can take advantage of cross-site scripting flaws within targeted users to perform their own scripts. Cross-site scripting problems can arise in one of two ways: 

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• When a program puts untrusted data in a new web page without authenticating it. 

• When a browser API that can create HTML or JavaScript is used to update an existing webpage with user-supplied data. 

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Watch out for these during software check-ups and evaluations. Since anything can find it’s way into a software or network and inject scripts into it. Be watchful of this.  

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How to Avoid These Vulnerabilities?  

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Logging and monitoring: 

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Verify that all login, access control, and server-side input validation errors are logged with enough user context to identify suspicious or malicious accounts, and that the logs are kept for long enough to allow for delayed forensic investigation. It is also important to make sure that logs are generated in a format that a centralized log management solution that can simply consume.  

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Injections: 

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The good news is that preventing injection is as simple as correctly screening your input and considering whether or not an input can be trusted. The bad news is that all input must be carefully screened unless it can be trusted without question. 

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It is recommended to rely on your enterprise’s framework's filtering procedures because filtering is difficult to get right like crypto. If you don't use frameworks, you should really consider if doing so makes sense in your server security setting.  

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Exposed Sensitive Data 

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To begin with, you must limit your exposure. Shred sensitive data if you don't need it. It is impossible to steal data that you do not have. You probably don't want to deal with being PCI compliant, therefore don't keep credit card information. Besides, create an account with a payment processor like Stripe or Braintree. Lastly, encrypting sensitive data will keep it safe.

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Using Components with Vulnerabilities That Have Been Recognized 

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It is a good idea to use a vulnerable product technique that uses a more pragmatic approach. It should analyse program reliance both during building time and during runtime to quickly find insecure software that should be changed. Tools span the entire life cycle of an application. Your enterprise should only get new dependencies from official sources from safe channels when bringing them into your enterprise. Lastly, new components are only added if they actually provide a feature that isn't currently supported by anything else in the app. 

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XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) flaws: 

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There's a simple web-based security solution for preventing this. Don't give them out the HTML tags. This also protects against HTML injection. This is a similar assault in which the attacker injects plain HTML data. These include photos or loud invisible flash players. Not particularly damaging but certainly annoying (“please fix this problem!”).  

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How We Can Help 

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As you can tell after reading this blog, the top 5 vulnerabilities in software security are serious. Knowing them and understanding how to prevent them in your enterprise will allow you to move more efficiently and properly.

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We always say prevention is key. If you can prevent these vulnerabilities, you are on the way to a safer future and long lifespan. So, book a free consultation call with us here to speak with one of our experts. We are here to find the best solution for your enterprise.  

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