Threat Modeling, The most Crucial Process in Software Development Life Cycle(SDLC)- How to Protect Your Software Applications
Application Security is often ignored by most software developers in the application development process. This is one of the most crucial in building an application.
The hard question is Why would a developer choose to create a functional application that lacks security measures or the capability to safeguard users’ data?
It’s significant to note that threats represent a huge fraction of potential risks in application security. While it’s crucial to regularly assess and update security measures to stay ahead of emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
The specific threats an application faces can vary based on factors such as its architecture, technology stack, and the nature of its data and functionality, this is while Threat Modeling and its tools are critical.
Security checks using Threat modeling should be a priority during the design stage of a new application to help developers find vulnerabilities and become aware of the security implications of their Design, Code, Data and configuration decisions.
While noting that the ideal time to perform threat modeling is in the earliest stages of the SDLC, during the architecture phase of application development.
During this Design Phase, Threat Modeling identifies specific threats against the components of the architecture, such as the user interfaces, data processes, data flows, and data storage.
A lot of applications and organizations experience threats and security breaches today because they refuse to take proper precaution during the SDLC, hence faces threats and cyber attacks like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Injection Attacks, Security Misconfigurations, Account Takeover, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks et al.
Stages in Threat Modeling
The threat modelling process typically consists of these stages:
- Identify Assets and the scope
- Identify Threats
- Analyse Vulnerabilities
- Mitigation — Create countermeasures and Safeguards to protect against identified risks
- Iterate and update
Identify Assets:
This is the stage where the system or application under consideration is identified, along with its assets, components, and boundaries.
It's often known that you can’t protect what you don't know!
Questions like this might pop up:
Are you aware of the servers utilized for specific functions in your applications?
Which Libraries and Frameworks do your application use?
Do you know the security gaps in the libraries?
How often are they maintained and updated?
Do you possess knowledge regarding the open-source components incorporated in your applications?
Are you familiar with the dependencies associated with these components?
Define the boundaries of the application that is being analyzed. This includes identifying all the components, dependencies, and interfaces.
Identify Threats:
This is where potential threats or risks to the system are identified. These can include both technical threats, such as software vulnerabilities or network attacks, as well as non-technical threats, such as physical attacks or social engineering.
Analyse and Assess Vulnerabilities:
This happens by determining the vulnerabilities or weaknesses in the application that could be exploited by the identified threats. This can involve analyzing the system architecture, code reviews, or conducting penetration testing. Rate the risks by evaluating the likelihood and potential impact of each threat and vulnerability combination. This allows for prioritization of the most critical risks that need to be addressed.
Mitigation
Create countermeasures and Safeguards to protect against identified risks, by developing and prioritising strategies to mitigate or reduce the identified risks. This can involve implementing security controls, applying best practices, or making architectural changes.
Iterate and update:
Threat modeling is an iterative process, as the system evolves or new threats emerge, it’s important to revisit and update the threat model regularly.
Spotlighting Security Tool — IriusRisk
IriusRisk is a powerful tool that ensure security is woven into the design phase and followed through into production. This tool operates as a central orchestration point for teams to threat model and manage risk with real-time updates throughout the SDLC. By identifying security flaws in software architecture at the design phase, this threat modeling tool makes it possible to fix issues before code is written.
IriusRisk’s platform automates the threat modeling process, enabling developers to design and build secure software at scale.
Conclusion:
By engaging in Threat Modeling, organizations can proactively identify and address potential security risks, ultimately leading to a more robust and secure system or application.
Thank you!
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