RE: Inspecting Code for Security

["Luis Hernandez" <luish () microsoft com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: caleb.dods () bell ca [mailto:caleb.dods () bell ca] 
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 3:56 PM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com; secprog () securityfocus com
Subject: Inspecting Code for Security

I have a background in programming and code inspection. However our inspections were not targeted at security, instead 
they looked for logic errors, over complex code, missing comments, etc.
 
With security in mind what things other things should I be looking for in a code inspection? I can think of the 
following, but I'm sure there are others:
 
- buffers that could be overflowed
- ensuring all input is validated (checked to ensure it is of the proper
type & format) 
- ensuring passwords & other encrypted date is not stored unencrypted in memory
- ensuring strong encryption is used
- ensuring no easter eggs / backdoors are left in the code
- ???
 
Thanks

--------------------------
 

I'd give Writing Secure Code a read. It has extensive info about common faults in code & design, and even suggests 
better project development methodology.

http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/5957.asp

- Luis

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