Static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), and fuzzing are techniques used to automatically check software for potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses before the software goes into production. While each of these techniques varies slightly in implementation, their purpose is the same—to ensure that code doesn’t have any errors that could result in unsafe or insecure behavior in the future.
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Why is Static Application Security Testing Important?
Static application security testing is important because it allows you to automatically identify critical vulnerabilities in your code faster, scanning millions of code lines and ID’ing issues hidden in more complex and intricate codebases. As per 2019 Micro Focus Application Security Risk Report,” Analysis of Fortify on Demand (FoD) vulnerability data shows that 94% of over 11,000 Web applications contained bugs in security features, while code quality and API abuse issues have roughly doubled over the past 4 years.”
Automated Static Application Security Testing can be a huge time saver for development teams, allowing them to quickly update a few files rather than manually test every possible path through their application.
Without it, developers may not be able to accurately analyze 100% of their codebase promptly. Without Micro Focus resources dedicated to performing manual reviews throughout development, it would take much longer (if ever) for vulnerabilities to get caught before they were released.
Steps for Running Static Application Security Testing
The key steps to running testing effectively are finalizing the tool you’ll use, customizing the tool, prioritizing onboarding applications, and analyzing scan results. These steps help your team prepare for an effective, robust Static Application Security Testing program. Benefits of Coverity Static Application Security Testing
- Identifies vulnerabilities
- Guards against data breaches
- Helps keep hackers out of your systems
- Improves security and compliance
- Provides visibility into your code
- Reduces time spent finding and fixing defects
This is why organizations are paying more attention to application security, owing to its many benefits. Learn how to integrate these solutions into your SDLC with professional development and support services.
IDE
An integrated development environment (IDE) is a computer program that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. It may contain a compiler, interpreter, debugger, one or more editors, and a build system.
Secure DevOps or DevSecOps
DevOps methodologies have become an effective and efficient way to develop, deploy, and secure large-scale applications. DevSecOps builds on top of DevOps by systematically emphasizing security—and thus, organizations can use DevSecOps interchangeably with DevOps. Many businesses across a variety of industries are implementing DevSecOps to help improve application security, optimize their SDLCs, and meet compliance requirements in a shorter amount of time.
Fortify on Demand (FoD)
To help you secure applications, Fortify on Demand (FoD) is a cloud-based solution that provides real-time feedback and immediate resolution of vulnerabilities. With FoD, scan engines are updated with hundreds of new rules each month to keep pace with industry changes. Additionally, FoD allows you to control which aspects of your software need testing for maximum efficiency. So it’s not just about increasing code coverage anymore; it’s about getting to known bugs faster and more frequently as well.
SAST vs. DAST
Static application security testing tools help you find vulnerabilities in code. Static Application Security Testing is a free, lightweight approach that looks for vulnerabilities by checking your code for patterns associated with known attacks and weaknesses. DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) takes a more aggressive approach. Rather than just looking at your code statically, it actually executes it in an attempt to recreate real-world scenarios that would expose weaknesses. This allows DAST to take a more proactive approach to security testing.
[Static Application Security Testing] is a method used to identify potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses in software applications. These tools do not detect malicious intent but rather insecure code that can lead to unintended consequences or vulnerabilities.