Web Security and Commerce

Rules To Code By

Most security-related bugs in computer programs are simply that: bugs. For whatever reason, these faults keep your program from operating properly.

Over the years, we have developed a list of general principles by which to code. What follows is an excerpt from that list, edited for its particular relevance to CGI and API programs:

1. Carefully design the program before you start.

   Be certain that you understand what you are trying to build. Carefully consider the environment in which it will run, the input and output behavior, files used, arguments recognized, signals caught, and other aspects of behavior. List all of the errors that might occur, and how your program will deal with them. Write a code specification in English (or your native language) before writing the code in the computer language of your choice.

2. Check all values provided by the user.

   An astonishing number of security-related bugs arise because an attacker sends an unexpected value or an unanticipated format to a program or a function within a program. A simple way to avoid these types of problems is by having your CGI programs always check all of their arguments. Argument checking will not noticeably slow your CGI scripts, but it will make them less susceptible to hostile users. As an added benefit, argument checking and error reporting will make the process of catching nonsecurity-related bugs easier.

   The Seven Design Principles of Computer Security

   In 1975, Jerome Saltzer and M. D. Schroeder described ...