Bugs and flaws

[gem at cigital.com (Gary McGraw)]

Hi all,

I'm afraid I don't concur with this definition.  Here's a (rather vague) flaw example that may help clarify what I 
mean.  Think about an error of omission where an API is exposed with no A&A protection whatsoever.  This API may have 
been designed not to have been exposed originally, but somehow  became exposed only over time.

How do you find errors of omission with a static analysis tool?  

This is only one of salzer and schroeder's principles in action.  What of the other 9?

gem

P.s. Five points to whoever names the principle in question.

P.p.s. The book is out www.swsec.com

 -----Original Message-----
From:   Brian Chess [mailto:brian at fortifysoftware.com]
Sent:   Sat Feb 04 00:56:16 2006
To:     sc-l at securecoding.org
Subject:        RE: [SC-L] Bugs and flaws

The best definition for "flaw" and "bug" I've heard so far is that a flaw is
a successful implementation of your intent, while a bug is unintentional.  I
think I've also heard "a bug is small", a flaw is big", but that definition
is awfully squishy.

If the difference between a bug and a flaw is indeed one of intent, then I
don't think it's a useful distinction.  Intent rarely brings with it other
dependable characteristics.

I've also heard "bugs are things that a static analysis tool can find", but
I don't think that really captures it either.  For example, it's easy for a
static analysis tool to point out that the following Java statement implies
that the program is using weak cryptography:

    SecretKey key = KeyGenerator.getInstance("DES").generateKey();

Brian

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