Secure Coding Practices
Treating security as a bolt-on step comes too late. A Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC) folds security into every phase instead, alongside Privacy by Design and Security by Design principles. That means going deeper into OWASP Top 10 exploitation and remediation (injection, broken authentication, IDOR, SSRF), running a secure code review against an OWASP-aligned checklist, scanning dependencies with Software Composition Analysis tools (OWASP Dependency-Check, Snyk), and threat modelling with STRIDE at the architecture level rather than just per feature.
Starting Points
- OWASP Foundation. OWASP in SDLC.
- OWASP Developer Guide. Secure Development Foundations.
- OWASP Cheat Sheet Series. Secure Code Review Cheat Sheet.
- OWASP. Dependency-Check; Snyk Docs. OWASP Top 10 Scanning.
- Input validation and secure coding
Key Points
- You integrate security systematically into the development process following SSDLC principles: security requirements are defined early, threat modelling happens at design time, and security checks are part of your Definition of Done.
- You apply Privacy by Design and Security by Design in architectural decisions: minimising data collection, enforcing least privilege, and documenting sensitive data flows.
- You identify and demonstrate, in a controlled lab context, at least two OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities and implement and explain the corresponding remediations.
- You conduct a structured secure code review on a peer's code using an OWASP-aligned checklist, and produce a written findings report with severity and remediation advice.
- You run OWASP Dependency-Check and/or Snyk, triage findings by severity, and remediate or explicitly accept risk for at least one vulnerable dependency.
- You link at least two regulatory obligations (CRA, GDPR) to concrete technical measures you implemented.