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 the complexity of security issues
  • Progression from infected systems to targeted attacks
• Classification of security flaws
  • Landwehr’s taxonomy
  • The Seven Pernicious Kingdoms
  • OWASP Top Ten 2013
  • Comparison of OWASP Top Ten (2003 – 2013)

Introduction to the Microsoft® Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)

• Agenda
• Applications under attack
  • The evolution of cybercrime
  • The increasing focus on application-layer attacks
  • The prevalence of vulnerabilities in smaller ISV applications
• Origins of the Microsoft SDL
  • Microsoft’s security timeline
  • Which applications are required to adhere to SDL?
• Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)
  • Overview of the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle
  • 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 – Archiving
  • Post-SDL Requirement: Response
  • SDL Process Guidance for Line of Business (LOB) Applications
  • SDL Guidance for Agile Methodologies
  • The role of process improvement in secure software development

Secure Design Principles

• Attack Surface
  • Reducing the attack surface
  • Illustrating the attack surface with examples
  • Analyzing the attack surface
  • Examples of attack surface reduction
• Privacy
  • The concept of privacy
  • Understanding application behaviors and privacy concerns
• Defense in Depth
  • SDL Core Principle: Defense in Depth
  • Practical examples of defense in depth
• Least Privilege Principle
  • Examples of implementing least privilege
• Secure Defaults
  • Examples of secure default configurations

Secure Implementation Principles

• Agenda
• Overview of the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)
• Fundamentals of Buffer Overflows
  • Intel 80x86 Processors – Primary Registers
  • Memory address layout
  • Function calling mechanisms in C/C++ on x86 architecture
  • Local variables and stack frames
  • Stack Overflows
    • Buffer overflows on the stack
    • Introduction to exercises
    • Exercise: BOFIntro
    • Exercise: BOFIntro – Determining stack layout
    • Exercise: BOFIntro – Creating a simple exploit
• Input Validation
  • Concepts of input validation
  • Integer Issues
    • Representation of negative integers
    • Integer overflow
    • Arithmetic overflow – Predicting the output
    • Exercise: IntOverflow
    • Determining the value of Math.Abs(int.MinValue)
  • Mitigating Integer Issues
    • Strategies for integer issue mitigation
    • Preventing arithmetic overflow in addition
    • Preventing arithmetic overflow in multiplication
    • Detecting overflow using the checked keyword in C#
    • Exercise: Utilizing 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 Attacks
  • Common SQL Injection attack techniques
  • Blind and time-based SQL injection
  • Methods for preventing SQL Injection
  • Command Injection
• Broken Authentication and Password Management
  • Exercise: The weaknesses of hashed passwords
  • Password management and storage best practices
  • Hash algorithms designed for password storage
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
  • Understanding Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
  • CSS injection
  • Exploitation via other HTML tags
  • Prevention strategies for XSS
• Lack of Function-Level Access Control
  • Filtering file uploads
• Practical Cryptography
  • Achieving confidentiality with symmetric cryptography
  • Symmetric encryption algorithms
  • Block ciphers and modes of operation
  • Hashing or message digests
  • Common hash algorithms
  • Message Authentication Codes (MAC)
  • Ensuring integrity and authenticity with symmetric keys
  • Achieving confidentiality with public-key encryption
  • Guidelines regarding the possession of private keys
  • Common mistakes in password management
  • Exercise: Hard-coded passwords
  • Conclusion

Secure Verification Principles

• Distinguishing functional testing from security testing
• Overview of security vulnerabilities
• Prioritizing security issues
• Integrating security testing into the SDLC
• Steps in test planning (risk analysis)
• Scoping and Information Gathering
  • Identifying stakeholders
  • Identifying assets
  • Mapping the attack surface
  • Defining security objectives for testing
• Threat Modeling
  • Overview of threat modeling
  • Profiling attackers
  • 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 in MS SDL
  • Identifying security objectives
  • Diagramming – Examples of DFD elements
  • Data flow diagrams – Examples
  • Threat enumeration – MS SDL’s STRIDE and DFD elements
  • Risk analysis – Classifying 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
  • Overview of static code analysis
  • Exercise: Using static code analysis tools
• Testing the Implementation
  • Manual run-time verification
  • Manual vs. automated security testing
  • Penetration testing
  • Stress testing
• Fuzzing
  • Automated security testing – Fuzzing
  • Challenges associated with fuzzing
• Web Vulnerability Scanners
  • Exercise: Utilizing a vulnerability scanner
• Environment Checking and Hardening
  • Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS)
  • Vulnerability scanners
  • Public vulnerability 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