Structuring and Scaling an Application Security Program

© 2015 Denim Group – All Rights Reserved

Structuring and Scaling!an Application Security Program!!Dan Cornell!@danielcornell


My Background

•  Dan Cornell, founder and CTO of Denim Group

•  Software developer by background (Java, .NET, etc)

•  OWASP San Antonio

2


Denim Group Background

•  Secure software services and products company •  Builds secure software •  Helps organizations assess and mitigate risk of in-house developed and third party

software •  Provides classroom training and e-Learning so clients can build software securely

•  Software-centric view of application security •  Application security experts are practicing developers •  Development pedigree translates to rapport with development managers •  Business impact: shorter time-to-fix application vulnerabilities

•  Culture of application security innovation and contribution •  Develops open source tools to help clients mature their software security programs

•  Remediation Resource Center, ThreadFix •  OWASP national leaders & regular speakers at RSA, SANS, OWASP, ISSA, CSI •  World class alliance partners accelerate innovation to solve client problems

3


So You Want To Roll Out a Software Security Program?

•  Great!

•  What a software security program ISN’T •  Question: “What are you doing to address software security concerns?” •  Answer: “We bought scanner XYZ”

•  What a software security program IS •  People, process, tools (naturally) •  Set of activities intended to repeatedly produce appropriately-secure software

4


Challenges Rolling Out Software Security Programs

•  Resources •  Raw budget and cost issues •  Level of effort issues

•  Resistance: requires organizational change •  Apparently people hate this

•  Open source tools •  Can help with raw budget issues •  May exacerbate problems with level of effort

•  View the rollout as a multi-stage process •  Not one magical effort •  Use short-term successes and gains to fuel further change

5


6

You can’t defend unknown attack surface

If everything is important then nothing is important


[Translation]

Find out what applications you have in your organization

Decide the relative importance of

applications and treat them differently based on this

7


What Is Your Software Attack Surface?

8

Software You Currently Know About

Why? •  Lots of value flows through it •  Auditors hassle you about it •  Formal SLAs with customers mention it •  Bad guys found it and caused an

incident (oops)

What? •  Critical legacy systems •  Notable web applications



9

Add In the Rest of the Web Applications You Actually Develop and Maintain

Why Did You Miss Them? •  Forgot it was there •  Line of business procured through non-

standard channels •  Picked it up through a merger /

acquisition

What? •  Line of business applications •  Event-specific applications



10

Add In the Software You Bought from Somewhere

Why Did You Miss Them? •  Most scanner only really work on web

applications so no vendors pester you about your non-web applications

•  Assume the application vendor is handling security

What? •  More line of business applications •  Support applications •  Infrastructure applications



11

MOBILE! THE CLOUD!

Why Did You Miss Them? •  Any jerk with a credit card and the ability

to submit an expense report is now runs their own private procurement office

What? •  Support for line of business functions •  Marketing and promotion


Attack Surface: The Security Officer’s Journey

•  Two Dimensions: •  Perception of Software Attack Surface •  Insight into Exposed Assets

12

Perception

Insi

ght



•  As perception of the problem of attack surface widens the scope of the problem increases

13

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications




14

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications

Client-Server Applications




15

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications


Desktop Applications




16

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications



Cloud Applications and Services




17

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications




Mobile Applications



•  Discovery activities increase insight

18

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications




19

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications




20

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications



•  Over time you end up with a progression

21

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications




22

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications







23

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications






24

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications







25

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications


Mobile Applications



•  When you reach this point it is called “enlightenment” •  You won’t reach this point

26

Perception

Insi

ght

Web Applications




Mobile Applications


Value and Risk Are Not Equally Distributed

•  Some Applications Matter More Than Others •  Value and character of data being managed •  Value of the transactions being processed •  Cost of downtime and breaches

•  Therefore All Applications Should Not Be Treated the Same •  Allocate different levels of resources to assurance •  Select different assurance activities •  Also must often address compliance and regulatory requirements

27


Do Not Treat All Applications the Same

•  Allocate Different Levels of Resources to Assurance •  Select Different Assurance Activities

•  Also Must Often Address Compliance and Regulatory Requirements

28


An Application Test

What Goes Into An Application Test?

29


Dynamic Analysis


30

Static Analysis


Automated Application Scanning


31

Static Analysis

Manual Application Testing


Automated Application Scanning


32

Automated Static Analysis

Manual Application Testing

Manual Static Analysis


Una

uthe

ntic

ated

A

utom

ated

Sca

n


33

Automated Static Analysis

Blin

d

Pene

trat

ion

Test

ing

Manual Static Analysis

Aut

hent

icat

ed

Aut

omat

ed S

can

Info

rmed

M

anua

l Tes

ting


Una

uthe

ntic

ated

A

utom

ated

Sca

n


34

Aut

omat

ed

Sour

ce C

ode

Scan

ning

Blin

d

Pene

trat

ion

Test

ing

Man

ual S

ourc

e C

ode

Rev

iew

Aut

hent

icat

ed

Aut

omat

ed S

can

Info

rmed

M

anua

l Tes

ting

Aut

omat

ed

Bin

ary

Ana

lysi

s M

anua

l Bin

ary

Ana

lysi

s


How To Allocate Scarce Resources?

•  What Do You HAVE To Do? •  What discretion do you have within these constraints?

•  What Is Left Over?

•  Strategies •  Breadth-first •  Depth-first •  Hybrid

35


Breadth-First

•  Do Base-level Security Testing of Everything •  Well, everything you can find •  And everything you test with automation

•  Automation is key

•  Understand the limitations •  Some applications cannot be effectively scanned •  Often scans are unauthenticated •  Whole classes of vulnerabilities are out of testing scope

36


Depth-First

•  Do Deeper Testing of Critical Applications

•  Typically Combination of Automation and Manual Testing

•  Understand the Limitations •  Some applications remain unexamined •  And breaches to those applications put shared resources and infrastructure at

risk

37


Hybrid

•  Combination of Automation and Manual Testing Across Portfolio

•  This is where most organizations end up •  Often because regulatory and compliance mandates

•  Know Your Gaps

38


39

You can’t defend unknown attack surface

If everything is important then nothing is important


[Translation]

Find out what applications you have in your organization

Decide the relative importance of

applications and treat them differently based on this

40


Software Assurance Maturity Model (OpenSAMM) •  Open framework to help organizations formulate and implement a

strategy for software security that is tailored to the specific risks facing the organization

•  Useful for: •  Evaluating an organization’s existing software security practices •  Building a balanced software security program in well-defined iterations •  Demonstrating concrete improvements to a security assurance program •  Defining and measuring security-related activities within an organization

•  Main website:

•  http://www.opensamm.org/

41


Using OpenSAMM You Can…

•  Evaluate an organization’s existing software security practices •  Build a balanced software security assurance program in well-

defined iterations •  Demonstrate concrete improvements to a security assurance

program •  Define and measure security-related activities throughout an

organization

[This slide content © Pravir Chandra]


Review of Existing Secure SDLC Efforts



CLASP

•  Comprehensive, Lightweight Application Security Process

•  Centered around 7 AppSec Best Practices

•  Cover the entire software lifecycle (not just development)

•  Adaptable to any development process

•  Defines roles across the SDLC

•  24 role-based process components

•  Start small and dial-in to your needs



Microsoft SDL

•  Built internally for MS software •  Extended and made public for others •  MS-only versions since public release



Touchpoints

•  Gary McGraw’s and Cigital’s model



Lessons Learned

•  Microsoft SDL

•  Heavyweight, good for large ISVs

•  Touchpoints

•  High-level, not enough details to execute against

•  CLASP

•  Large collection of activities, but no priority ordering

•  ALL: Good for experts to use as a guide, but hard for non-security folks to use off the shelf



Drivers for a Maturity Model

•  An organization’s behavior changes slowly over time

•  Changes must be iterative while working toward long-term goals

•  There is no single recipe that works for all organizations

•  A solution must enable risk-based choices tailor to the organization

•  Guidance related to security activities must be prescriptive

•  A solution must provide enough details for non-security-people

•  Overall, must be simple, well-defined, and measurable



Therefore, a Viable Model Must...

•  Define building blocks for an assurance program

•  Delineate all functions within an organization that could be improved over time

•  Define how building blocks should be combined

•  Make creating change in iterations a no-brainer

•  Define details for each building block clearly

•  Clarify the security-relevant parts in a widely applicable way (for any org doing software dev)



Understanding the Model



SAMM Business Functions

•  Start with the core activities tied to any organization performing software development

•  Named generically, but should resonate with any developer or manager



SAMM Security Practices

•  From each of the Business Functions, 3 Security Practices are defined

•  The Security Practices cover all areas relevant to software security assurance

•  Each one is a ‘silo’ for improvement



Under Each Security Practice

•  Three successive Objectives under each Practice define how it can be improved over time

•  This establishes a notion of a Level at which an organization fulfills a given Practice

•  The three Levels for a Practice generally correspond to:

•  (0: Implicit starting point with the Practice unfulfilled)

•  1: Initial understanding and ad hoc provision of the Practice

•  2: Increase efficiency and/or effectiveness of the Practice

•  3: Comprehensive mastery of the Practice at scale



Check Out This One...



Per Level, SAMM Defines...

•  Objective

•  Activities

•  Results

•  Success Metrics

•  Costs

•  Personnel

•  Related Levels



Approach to Iterative Improvement

•  Since the twelve Practices are each a maturity area, the successive Objectives represent the “building blocks” for any assurance program

•  Simply put, improve an assurance program in phases by:

1.  Select security Practices to improve in next phase of assurance program

2. Achieve the next Objective in each Practice by performing the corresponding Activities at the specified Success Metrics



Applying the Model



Conducting Assessments

•  SAMM includes assessment worksheets for each Security Practice



Assessment Process

•  Supports both lightweight and detailed assessments

•  Organizations may fall in between levels (+)



Creating Scorecards

•  Gap analysis

•  Capturing scores from detailed assessments versus expected performance levels

•  Demonstrating improvement

•  Capturing scores from before and after an iteration of assurance program build-out

•  Ongoing measurement

•  Capturing scores over consistent time frames for an assurance program that is already in place



Roadmap Templates

•  To make the “building blocks” usable, SAMM defines Roadmaps templates for typical kinds of organizations

•  Independent Software Vendors

•  Online Service Providers

•  Financial Services Organizations

•  Government Organizations

•  Organization types chosen because

•  They represent common use-cases

•  Each organization has variations in typical software-induced risk

•  Optimal creation of an assurance program is different for each



Building Assurance Programs



Case Studies

•  A full walkthrough with prose explanations of decision-making as an organization improves

•  Each Phase described in detail

•  Organizational constraints

•  Build/buy choices

•  One case study exists today, several more in progress using industry partners



Exploring the Model’s Levels and Activities



The SAMM 1.0 release



SAMM and the Real World



SAMM History

•  Beta released August 2008 •  1.0 released March 2009

•  Originally funded by Fortify

•  Still actively involved and using this model •  Released under a Creative Commons Attribution

Share-Alike license •  Donated to OWASP and is currently an OWASP

project



Expert Contributions

•  Built based on collected experiences with 100’s of organizations

•  Including security experts, developers, architects, development managers, IT managers



Industry Support

•  Several more case studies underway



The OpenSAMM Project

•  http://www.opensamm.org

•  Dedicated to defining, improving, and testing the SAMM framework

•  Always vendor-neutral, but lots of industry participation

•  Open and community driven

•  Targeting new releases every 6-12 months

•  Change management process

•  SAMM Enhancement Proposals (SEP)



OpenSAMM Resources

•  Nick Coblentz - SAMM Assessment Interview Template (xls/googledoc)

•  Christian Frichot - SAMM Assessment Spreadsheet (xls)

•  Colin Watson - Roadmap Chart Template (xls)

•  Jim Weiler - MS Project Plan Template (mpp) •  Denim Group – ThreadFix (web application)



Quick Recap on Using SAMM

•  Evaluate an organization’s existing software security practices •  Build a balanced software security assurance program in well-

defined iterations •  Demonstrate concrete improvements to a security assurance

program •  Define and measure security-related activities throughout an

organization



The Problems of Scale

•  Too many applications

•  Too many developers

•  Not enough security professionals

•  Everything moves too fast: •  Releases •  New technologies (ie mobile, cloud)


Some Approaches to Scale

•  Automate everything you possibly can •  But realize you can’t automate everything

•  Asymmetric warfare •  Identify security champions on development teams and have them spread the

word

•  Track metrics •  Learn what works and what does not •  Put your self in a position to better characterize application security risks

alongside network/infrastructure security risks (and all the other risks in a scary and ever-changing world)


Questions / Contact Information

Dan Cornell Principal and CTO [email protected] Twitter @danielcornell (844) 572-4400

www.denimgroup.com www.threadfix.org

75

Structuring and Scaling an Application Security Program

Technology

Transcript of Structuring and Scaling an Application Security Program