Security audit of source code (SAST)

Maximum in-depth analysis and maximum security guarantees

A code security audit is essential for a prevention-first approach in modern software development. Auditing the quality of code enhances code security, making it a beneficial procedure for any business.

Analysis of the source code will help you eliminate vulnerabilities even before your project sees the world. Get an exceptional level of security with our automatic and manual security analysis of the source code of your applications, services, and software components.

You will never achieve this level of assurance through penetration testing, purely automated code validation, or any other security measure.

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What is a code security audit?

A code security audit, also known as a software source code review, is the process of examining the source code of a software program to identify security vulnerabilities, licensing issues, and other coding errors.

The primary advantage of source code analysis is the early detection of potential problems, which helps to prevent any negative impact on users. It is a vital aspect of development, security, operations, and secure coding methodologies, and it is commonly used to assess compliance, legal, and cybersecurity concerns.

Types of Code Security Audits

There are two primary forms of software audits: static and dynamic.

  1. Static code analysis involves manual and automated methods for analysing the source code for common security issues, such as buffer overflows, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. This is done without executing the code.
  2. Dynamic code analysis involves analysing the code as it runs in a testing environment. This type of audit can help identify vulnerabilities that cannot be found through static analysis. It involves using tools to simulate real-world attacks and identify potential security weaknesses.

Advantages of Static Security Analysis over Dynamic

There are several benefits to using static security analysis:

1
Early detection of vulnerabilities
Static analysis can identify potential vulnerabilities in the source code before the application is deployed or tested. This can help developers address security issues early in the development process, reducing the cost and time needed to fix security issues later.
2
Coverage of entire codebase
Static analysis tools can analyse the entire codebase, including code that may not be executed during dynamic analysis. This can help identify security issues in less-used or rarely tested parts of the code.
3
Reduced false positives
Static analysis tools can provide more accurate results than dynamic analysis, reducing the number of false positives. This can help developers prioritise and address real security issues.
4
Integration with development tools
Many static analysis tools can be integrated with development tools, such as IDEs or version control systems, making it easier for developers to address security issues.
5
Scalability
Static analysis can be easily scaled to analyse large codebases or multiple projects simultaneously, making it ideal for organisations with a large number of applications to secure.

Importance

Not performing code security analysis can be risky, putting your software and company in a dangerous position. Code vulnerability scanning is typically considered the most crucial static analysis function since it helps to avoid cyberattacks on your deployed software long-term. Checking your sources with a trustworthy infrastructure can help detect vulnerabilities, allowing you to take rapid action and close the window for an attack.

Objective of analysis

The objective of this analysis is the source code security assessment of your systems or applications: checking the integrity and consistency of your code, secure coding principles, finding unsecure or deprecated functions, hidden logical bombs and traps, backdoors, undocumented features, non-optimal coding practices, and OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities:

  • A01 – Broken Access Control
  • A02 – Cryptographic Failures
  • A03 – Injection
  • A04 – Insecure Design
  • A05 – Security Misconfiguration
  • A06 – Vulnerable and Outdated Components
  • A07 – Identification and Authentication Failures 
  • A08 – Software and Data Integrity Failures
  • A09 – Security Logging and Monitoring Failures
  • A10 – Server-Side Request Forgery

At our company, we check for vulnerabilities like those listed above, but our capabilities are not limited to web applications, desktop applications, mobile applications, server applications, lambda functions, or smart contracts. We can audit any type of code.

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To achieve the objectives, auditors use two methods:  

 

1

SAST (Static Application Security Testing), which allows the auditor to analyse source code for known vulnerabilities using automated tools.

2

Manual source code review and analysis, to reveal unsecure and non-optimal coding practices, hidden logical bombs and traps, backdoors, and undocumented features.

We support:

We work with Java EE (JBoss, Tomcat, etc.), Java/Kotlin Android, Objective-C/Swift iOS/MacOS, PHP, Javascript, TypeScript, Ruby, Python, C/C++/Assembler, C#, Rlang, Solidity, Golang, Lua, Rust, Perl, and other programming languages.

The security analysis of your source code can be provided as a stand-alone project, in conjunction with white-box penetration testing, or as part of Application Security or Security Assessment services.

Service summary

⏳ Duration of project A few days to several months. Highly depends on the codebase size and complexity.
🎁 Can it be free or have a testing period? Free consultation and initial analysis of business requirements.
💼 What type of business needs it? Financial services, healthcare, government agencies, e-commerce and online businesses, and technology companies.
💡 When is this service needed? When you have regulatory requirements, sensitive information, security threats, M&A, etc., or see that a pentest is not enough.
📈 Your profit Prevented costly security breaches, improved security measures, increased customer trust and loyalty, and enhanced reputation.
⚙️ Our methods and tools Manual code review, automated code analysis tools, and dynamic testing.
📑 Deliverables Executive summary, a security report, a code review report, automated testing results, recommendations, and supporting documentation.

Check out our additional services and business cases. Send the form below to request a security analysis of your source code. Get a free consultation.

FAQ

Auditing source code involves analyzing and reviewing the code to identify any vulnerabilities, bugs, or errors. Here are some general steps that can be followed:

Understand the purpose of the code: Before beginning an audit, it is essential to understand the purpose of the code, what it is intended to do, and how it works.

Review the code: Review the code line by line, looking for any syntax errors, improper code formatting, or other issues that may cause the code to fail.

Analyze the code: Use static analysis tools to identify potential vulnerabilities, such as buffer overflows, null pointer dereferences, and other coding issues. These tools can help to find issues that may not be immediately obvious to the human eye.

Check for best practices: Verify that the code adheres to established coding standards and best practices, such as using secure coding practices and following industry standards.

Test the code: Run various tests to verify that the code works as intended and does not produce any unexpected results. This can include unit tests, integration tests, and functional tests.

Verify security: Assess the code for security vulnerabilities, such as injection flaws, authentication issues, and authorization problems.

Document the findings: Document any issues found during the audit, including the location of the issue, its severity, and any suggested remediation steps.

Remediate the issues: Work with the development team to address any issues found during the audit, such as fixing code bugs, improving the security of the code, and verifying that the fixes have been applied correctly.

By following these steps, you can ensure that the source code is secure, reliable, and free from vulnerabilities or errors.

Source code security auditing is the process of reviewing and analyzing the source code of an application to identify potential security vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and flaws. The goal of source code security auditing is to ensure that the application is secure and free from security risks, which could be exploited by attackers to gain unauthorized access, steal data, or cause other harm.

During the auditing process, a security expert or a team of experts examines the source code, looking for common security issues such as:

  • Input validation errors
  • Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities
  • SQL injection flaws
  • Access control issues
  • Authentication and authorization problems
  • Insecure cryptographic practices
  • Code injection vulnerabilities
  • Buffer overflow issues
  • Insecure configuration settings

Once the vulnerabilities are identified, the auditing team provides recommendations to fix them. The development team can then use this feedback to improve the security of the application by implementing the recommended changes.

Source code security auditing plays a crucial role in ensuring the security of software applications, particularly those that handle sensitive data or have high-security requirements. Without proper auditing, these applications are at risk of being compromised by attackers, leading to data breaches, compliance violations, and other security incidents.

By conducting regular source code security audits, organizations can proactively identify and address security vulnerabilities before they are exploited by attackers. This can help to reduce the risk of data breaches, compliance violations, and other security incidents, thereby protecting the organization's reputation and minimizing financial losses. Overall, source code security auditing is a critical component of the software development process and should be prioritized by organizations that value the security of their applications and data.

During a source code security audit, the following areas are typically checked:

Input validation: The audit team checks whether the application performs proper input validation to prevent various types of attacks, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and buffer overflow attacks.

Authentication and authorization: The audit team checks whether the application properly implements authentication and authorization controls, ensuring that only authorized users can access sensitive data and functionality.

Access control: The audit team checks whether the application uses appropriate access control mechanisms to limit users' privileges and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data.

Cryptography: The audit team checks whether the application uses strong encryption and hashing algorithms to protect sensitive data, such as passwords, credit card numbers, and other personal information.

Error handling: The audit team checks whether the application handles errors and exceptions properly, avoiding information leakage and preventing attackers from exploiting error messages.

Configuration management: The audit team checks whether the application uses secure configuration settings and whether the configuration is managed properly to prevent security misconfigurations.

Compliance: The audit team checks whether the application complies with relevant security standards and regulations, such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR.

Third-party libraries: The audit team checks whether the application uses third-party libraries and whether these libraries are up to date and free from known security vulnerabilities.

Business cases of projects we completed

Audit of smart contracts and blockchain
Business Automation
Information security incident response and investigation
Managed security and compliance (ISO 27001, etc.)
Security analysis of software source code
Security assessment: audits and penetration tests
Security Operations Center cases