Application Threats and Mitigation, Essay Example

There is no way of completely securing a software program. However, periodic penetration testing and code reviews are conducted by professional security professionals and consultants for exploiting vulnerabilities and security flaws within an application. It is now considered as a fundamental fact that if any application is connected and operates on the network, it can be exploited and compromised. Organizations are keen to build a layered defense of protection to counter threats from internal and external entities. Likewise, there is a requirement of constantly monitor live traffic from and to the World Wide Web, remote connections, real time interaction of users to applications, Internet gateways and client interactions with the applications. Code reviews are essential, as patches from vendors must be tested first before implementation into the live environment. However, for effective implementation of patches, patch management practices must be documented and standardized. Likewise, there are efficient tools available for performing effective patch management. Secondly, configuration management also plays an essential role for ensuring security for applications. For instance, if a faulty hardware component is replaced with the new one, it is important to address issues with hardware compatibility issues, as any mal functioned device can be vulnerable. Thirdly, change management procedures must also be document and approved from the respective application owners prior any changes to the application. For instance, change request form requiring any changes within the application can be approved and documented for ensuring no vulnerable spots in the architecture and infrastructure. All the identified attack interfaces must be addressed by taking following factors into consideration (Mitigating security threats by minimizing software attack surfaces.2008):

• Uninstall and prevent unnecessary features
• Default utilities and programs that are installed within the operating systems must be utilized (If required)
• Strong access management by user authentication
• Remove all default passwords on the application server
• Configure only required protocols on the application server
• Limiting the unnecessary codes from the application
• Applying metrics to measure the attack surface on periodic basis
• Disabling unwanted protocols on the application server

Nowadays, hackers encapsulate a malicious code or a script for attacking a web page by using several techniques including obfuscation, polymorphism and encryption. As the anti-virus program detects viruses by signatures, malicious codes are able to bypass them by using these techniques. These types of methods are known ad passive attacks (Gharibi & Mirza, 2011). Likewise, encryption is the best security control that can be implemented for securing the code and ciphering the user data. Secondly, polymorphism is a technique that replicates an application partially so that it appears just like the original application. Similarly, for hiding the source code of an application, obfuscation techniques can be applied for making the code complex to exploit and analyze while keeping complete functionality (Gharibi & Mirza, 2011).

References

Gharibi, W., & Mirza, A. (2011). Software vulnerabilities, banking threats, botnets and malware self-protection technologies. International Journal of Computer Science Issues (IJCSI), 8(1), 236-241.

Mitigating security threats by minimizing software attack surfaces.(2008). Computer Economics Report, 30(5), 15-19.