Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

The SAST technique is a vulnerability scanner that focuses on the source code, as well as the assembly and byte code before it gets compiled and its white box testing. It can be run in your CI pipeline or even as an add-in for an existing IDE.

Importance of SAST

SAST tools help organizations to analyze the whole code base. They are significantly faster than human-performed secure code reviews. These programs can scan millions of lines of code in seconds. SAST technologies reliably detect important vulnerabilities like buffer overflows, SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and others. Since SAST does not require a working application and its user-friendliness like realtime feedback and graphical representations, developers use SAST in the early stages of the software development life cycle (SDLC) to find and resolve vulnerabilities.

How does the SAST Work

A static application security test is performed to check the code for potential vulnerabilities that could affect an application. During the analysis, SAST will look for various security issues such as SQL injections and unsanitized input. This tool will also check for other potential functional and security issues that could affect an application. Additionally, SAST will help the development team enforce coding standards.It's the best practice to start testing the code at the beginning of a project to ensure the code is secure. By static application testing, we easily remediate the issues that have been identified by the development team.

Benefits of SAST

Extensive Coding and Security flaws testing SAST is a stronghold of the Shift Left strategy, in which software is thoroughly tested for coding errors and security flaws. Even if a program is in its primitive stage and lacks the functionality to run, these tools may inspect it for flaws. That is the primary distinction between static and dynamic testing. Enhanced Code Scanning and Reporting SAST will scan millions of code strings in seconds. It quickly identifies the key problems and highlights the problematic code without any manual code reviews and human involvement. Easier Integration with CI/CD Pipelines Integrating SAST into current CI/CD pipelines enables developers to continually monitor their code, giving scrum masters and product owners with the data needed to manage their organization's security requirements. This results in faster vulnerability detection and mitigation.

Key concerns to be aware of

1. High risk of false positives.
2. The static report becomes outdated so quickly.
3. Language-dependent tool.
4. The identified issue is difficult to prove that it is a vulnerability.
5. In a Dynamic environment not able to identify vulnerabilities.

Key steps to effectively implement a SAST tool

Find the right tool Choose a static analysis program that can review the code of programs created in the programming languages you employ. Additionally, the tool has to be able to understand the framework that supports your applications. Create the infrastructure for scanning and deploying the tool In this phase, the license needs are taken care of, access control and authorization are set up, and the servers and databases need to be implemented once the tool is purchased.

Tool Customization Adjust the tool to meet the organization's requirements. For instance, you may set it up to identify more security flaws or minimize false positives by creating new criteria or changing current ones. Create dashboards to track scan findings, integrate the tool into the built environment, and provide personalized reports. Prioritize and application analyzation Put your apps onboard as soon as the tool is ready. Prioritize the high-risk applications to scan first if you have a lot of applications. The objective is to have scanned frequently, with application scans coordinated with the release status of the application in daily/monthly build or code check-in.Evaluate the scan results Triaging the scan findings in this stage involves removing false positives. The deployment teams should be informed of the issues as soon as the set of issues is found so that they can resolve the issues properly and promptly.

Provide governance, training Providing governance and training will educate the team on the uses and benefits of SAST in the SDLC process and helps the teams to use SAST effectively and extract valuable insights and reduce the potential vulnerabilities in the applications.

CD Bytes!

Managing SAST for every organization is an effective process and using the right tools protects the organizations against vulnerabilities and security threats while reducing risk, ensuring compliance, and preventing catastrophic data loss. Cloud Destinations assess, detect, and mitigate potential vulnerabilities exploitable by hackers. Thereby reducing the threat landscape and keeping the attack surface as small as possible by setting up a routine vulnerability assessment as per your needs for various compliance programs such as PCI, HIPAA and ISO 27001. Please reach out to info@clouddestinations.com for any business-related queries.

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