Microsoft SDL Core Training Course

Day 1

IT Security and Secure Coding

• The nature of security
• Key IT security terminology
• Defining risk
• Various dimensions of IT security
• Requirements across different application domains
• Distinguishing between IT security and secure coding
• From vulnerabilities to botnets and cybercrime
  • The nature of security flaws
  • Factors contributing to complexity
  • Progression from infected systems to targeted attacks
• Categorization of security flaws
  • Landwehr’s taxonomy
  • The Seven Pernicious Kingdoms
  • OWASP Top Ten 2013
  • Comparative analysis of OWASP Top Ten (2003–2013)

Introduction to the Microsoft® Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)

• Agenda overview
• Applications under attack...
  • The evolution of cybercrime
  • The increasing focus of attacks on applications
  • The prevalence of vulnerabilities in smaller ISV applications
• The origins of the Microsoft SDL...
  • Microsoft’s security timeline...
  • Which applications are mandated to follow SDL?
• Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)
  • Overview of the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)
  • Pre-SDL Requirement: Security Training
  • Phase One: Requirements
  • Phase Two: Design
  • Phase Three: Implementation
  • Phase Four: Verification
  • Phase Five: Release – Response Plan
  • Phase Five: Release – Final Security Review
  • Phase Five: Release – Archive
  • Post-SDL Requirement: Response
  • SDL Process Guidance for LOB Apps
  • SDL Guidance for Agile Methodologies
  • The necessity of process improvement in secure software development

Secure Design Principles

• Attack surface
  • Strategies for reducing attack surface
  • Attack surface – illustrative example
  • Analysis of attack surface
  • Attack surface reduction – case studies
• Privacy
  • Privacy considerations
  • Understanding application behaviors and privacy concerns
• Defense in depth
  • Core SDL Principle: Defense in Depth
  • Defense in depth – example
• Least privilege principle
  • Least privilege – example
• Secure defaults
  • Secure defaults – examples

Secure Implementation Principles

• Agenda
• Context within the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)
• Fundamentals of buffer overflow
  • Intel 80x86 Processors – primary registers
  • Memory address layout
  • Function calling mechanisms in C/C++ on x86 architecture
  • Local variables and stack frames
  • Stack overflow
    • Buffer overflow on the stack
    • Exercises – introduction
    • Exercise BOFIntro
    • Exercise BOFIntro – determining stack layout
    • Exercise BOFIntro – crafting a simple exploit
• Input validation
  • Concepts in input validation
  • Integer-related issues
    • Representation of negative integers
    • Integer overflow
    • Arithmetic overflow – predicting the output
    • Exercise IntOverflow
    • Evaluating the value of Math.Abs(int.MinValue)?
  • Mitigating integer-related issues
    • Strategies for mitigating integer problems
    • Preventing arithmetic overflow in addition
    • Preventing arithmetic overflow in multiplication
    • Detecting overflow using the checked keyword in C#
    • Exercise – Applying the checked keyword in C#
    • Exceptions triggered by overflows in C#
  • Case study – Integer overflow in .NET
    • A real-world integer overflow vulnerability
    • Exploiting the integer overflow vulnerability
  • Path traversal vulnerability
    • Mitigation strategies for path traversal

Day 2

Secure Implementation Principles

• Injection
  • Common SQL Injection attack vectors
  • Blind and time-based SQL injection
  • Methods for protecting against SQL Injection
  • Command injection
• Broken authentication – password management
  • Exercise – The weakness of hashed passwords
  • Password management and storage best practices
  • Specialized hash algorithms for password storage
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
  • Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) overview
  • CSS injection
  • Exploitation: injection via other HTML tags
  • XSS prevention strategies
• Missing function-level access control
  • Filtering file uploads
• Practical cryptography
  • Achieving confidentiality through symmetric cryptography
  • Symmetric encryption algorithms
  • Block ciphers – modes of operation
  • Hashing or message digest
  • Hash algorithms
  • Message Authentication Code (MAC)
  • Ensuring integrity and authenticity with symmetric keys
  • Confidentiality through public-key encryption
  • Rule of thumb – possession of the private key
  • Common errors in password management
  • Exercise – Hard-coded passwords
  • Summary

Secure Verification Principles

• Differentiating functional testing from security testing
• Security vulnerabilities
• Prioritization
• Security testing within the SDLC
• Steps in test planning (risk analysis)
• Scoping and information gathering
  • Stakeholders
  • Assets
  • The attack surface
  • Security objectives for testing
• Threat modeling
  • Threat modeling concepts
  • Attacker profiles
  • Threat modeling using attack trees
  • Threat modeling based on misuse/abuse cases
  • Misuse/abuse cases – a simple web shop example
  • STRIDE per element approach to threat modeling – MS SDL
  • Identifying security objectives
  • Diagramming – examples of DFD elements
  • Data flow diagram – example
  • Threat enumeration – MS SDL’s STRIDE and DFD elements
  • Risk analysis – classification of threats
  • The DREAD threat/risk ranking model
• Security testing techniques and tools
  • General testing approaches
  • Techniques for various SDLC stages
• Code review
  • Code review for software security
  • Taint analysis
  • Heuristics
• Static code analysis
  • Static code analysis overview
  • Exercise – Utilizing static code analysis tools
• Testing the implementation
  • Manual run-time verification
  • Comparison of manual vs. automated security testing
  • Penetration testing
  • Stress tests
• Fuzzing
  • Automated security testing – fuzzing
  • Challenges associated with fuzzing
• Web vulnerability scanners
  • Exercise – Using a vulnerability scanner
• Environment checking and hardening
  • Common Vulnerability Scoring System – CVSS
  • Vulnerability scanners
  • Public databases
• Case study – Forms Authentication Bypass
  • NULL byte termination vulnerability
  • The Forms Authentication Bypass vulnerability in code
  • Exploiting the Forms Authentication Bypass

Knowledge Sources

• Secure coding resources – a starter kit
• Vulnerability databases
• .NET secure coding guidelines on MSDN
• .NET secure coding cheat sheets
• Recommended books – .NET and ASP.NET