Strengthening application security through secure code reviews
Blog post from New Relic
In the fast-paced realm of digital innovation, secure code reviews are essential to ensure that software not only remains cutting-edge but also resilient against security vulnerabilities. Secure code reviews involve developers or security experts examining source code to identify and address potential security risks, prioritizing security best practices over traditional concerns of functionality and performance. Key components of secure code reviews include assessing authentication, input validation, session management, error handling, and cryptography, among others. The process generally involves defining the scope, conducting static analysis, performing manual reviews, providing feedback for remediation, and re-testing. Despite the challenges such as time constraints, skill gaps, and potential false positives from automated tools, integrating secure code reviews into the software development lifecycle is crucial. Automation of these reviews can enhance consistency, scalability, and provide near-instant feedback, with tools like New Relic's Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) offering real-time security insights.