Why Vulnerable Code Is Shipped Knowingly

The push to develop and deploy applications faster has evolved from simply a goal for developers to a business-level priority that affects every organization's bottom line. To meet this goal, companies have begun to de-silo development, operations, and security, moving toward a DevSecOps model to deliver increased agility and speed in the software development life cycle (SDLC).

Often lost in the chaos of this cultural shift to a "need for speed" SDLC approach is the misalignment between DevOps and security practitioners' goals. Both teams must strive to balance their respective goals: getting new features out the door and minimizing software risk. We know this misalignment contributes to vulnerable code being shipped more often than it should be, but what most people don't realize is that this is happening knowingly, and quite often. According to a recent ESG research report, almost half (48%) of organizations are regularly pushing vulnerable code, and they know it.

The simple question this statistic raises is: why? Cybersecurity continues to be a priority concern for every organization, with one vulnerability holding the potential to diminish a brand's reputation — that took decades to build — in just a few seconds. So why are developers knowingly deploying vulnerable code?  

The findings of the report help shed some light on the reasons:

This data helps us understand that the business priority of speed of development and deployment is overshadowing the need for secure code. Organizations are acknowledging various risks regarding cybersecurity, speed, and business objectives, and they're willing to take on some of these risks because priorities are in opposition to one another. To address the frequency of knowingly publishing vulnerable code, we must look at the underlying causes that have caused such a challenging situation to arise.

First, developers — who ultimately own the responsibility for fixing flaws in code — don't have the training or access to security tools with the proper integrations to be effective at mitigating vulnerabilities. ESG's report found:

These challenges can and should be addressed to help developers reduce the volume of vulnerable code being shipped.

As security continues to shift left into the hands of developers, organizations need to continue to prepare for this culture change by modernizing their approach to AppSec.

For AppSec managers and CISOs looking to create an integrated DevSecOps approach, some common elements of effective AppSec programs include:

It's up to security and development team leaders to formalize an AppSec strategy that encompasses training, goal setting, tool integration, and policy enforcement without introducing too much friction.

Even with a robust application security program, organizations will still deploy vulnerable code! The difference is that they will do so with a thorough and contextual understanding of the risks they're taking rather than allowing developers or engineering managers — who lack security expertise — to make that decision. Application security requires a constant triage of potential risks, involving prioritization decisions that allow development teams to mitigate risk while still meeting key deadlines for delivery.

As application security has matured, no single testing technique has helped development teams mitigate all security risk. Teams typically employ multiple tools, often from multiple vendors, at various points in the SDLC. Usage varies, as do the tools that organizations deem most important, but most organizations end up utilizing a set of tools to satisfy their security needs.

Lastly, while most organizations provide developers with some level of security training, more than 50% only do so annually or less often. This is simply not frequent or thorough enough to develop secure coding habits. While development managers are often responsible for this training, in many organizations, application security analysts carry the burden of performing remedial training for development teams or individual developers who have a track record of introducing too many security issues. Organizations should seek more hands-on training tools that offer secure coding practices through interactive exercises based on modern threats that developers can practice exploiting and patching. A labs-based approach to developer enablement can improve time to resolve flaws and help developers learn to avoid flaws altogether.