How to Avoid Vulnerabilities in Software Development

Software application development is the latest trend that is revolutionizing the market and industries across the globe. With so many improvements in mobile apps, web apps, websites, and other channels, the end-users are highly anticipating the growth in the coming times as well. While users are expecting innovative solutions impaled with the latest trends and technologies, on the other hand, software application development companies are struggling with challenges that must be kept at bay for better app functioning.

We are talking about the vulnerabilities associated with software application development. Security flaws and vulnerabilities are few names to be highlighted here that hampers the development of a software app. Despite being equipped with the latest trends that elevate the user’s experience and improve the app performance, few hurdles continue to hamper the progress and growth of the app.

Here are the insights of the vulnerabilities that a software development company often face and what measures they implement to avoid those. If you are facing the same challenge, here are the ways to manage them.

Types of Vulnerabilities and how to avoid them

1) Unsecure Code

Coding is an integral part of software app development. If software app development companies do not follow the exercise of secure code app development, then they are exposing the app to multiple vulnerabilities both internally and externally. Mere app development doesn’t ensure that the app would function properly and undergo no threat at all. If a software app is developed in a short time, it is assumed that various security vulnerabilities are more likely to be ignored.

How to Avoid Unsecure Code Challenge

The best plan to avoid unsecured code practice is to follow the exercise of secure coding. It is a process of developing a software app that fundamentally protects the app from vulnerabilities, both internally and externally. They can implement best features like automation tools, encoding, encryption, input validation, and more to make the app secure and safe from threats.

2) Language Vulnerability

The language chosen to develop an app has its pros and flaws. No language is perfect and thus, a software development company needs to understand the client’s requirement first and then proceed on to choosing the right language to develop the app. A software application development company that chooses low-level languages like C, C++ is more vulnerable to a buffer overflow. Hackers can easily exploit the app by writing malicious code to adjacent memory once buffer capacity is full.

How to Avoid Language Vulnerability Challenge

The best practice is to choose the language that fits the user’s needs and is selected as per the type of software app that needs to be developed. For instance – Java is the most favored language that is opted to develop any kind of Android apps. Other than that, Swift is used to develop iOS apps. Both languages are the best fit for the type of app that is required to be developed.

3) Information Exposure

The data is very critical in the software app development process. All such critical data needs to be stored and secured so that it is protected from any kind of threat that could tamper the data. Information exposure is one such vulnerability in which data gets intentionally and unintentionally shared with the world. The potential attackers could take advantage of this data and use it for their own benefit. This type of vulnerability often occurs in the architecture and design or implementation phases of development.

How to Avoid Information Exposure Vulnerability Challenge

To eradicate the information exposure vulnerability, the custom software development company needs to design the program architecture in such a way that it could contain sensitive information to areas with explicit trust boundaries easily. It’s essential to secure and restrict connections between safe areas and endpoints using access controls.

The data exploitation could be minimized by verifying error messages and ensure that the user warning messages do not contain more information than necessary. Restriction of sensitive information from URLs and communication headers are other ideas to confine the information exposure.

Other practices to avoid or reduce vulnerabilities are:

• Intelligent Sources

Some hints and ideas from external sources do not hurt if they safeguards the software app from threats. Valid information from vulnerability databases and independent oversight groups helps a lot in discovering vulnerabilities and ideas on how to avoid and eradicate them.

• Assessments

The next thing that could be done is performing a vulnerability assessment on the app that needs to be developed. A regular and timely assessment ascertains the entire app and identifies the dents that could harm the overall app. A custom software development agency could test code statically, during runtime to ensure that any kind of vulnerabilities isn’t missed. Incorporating automatic testing tools into the development environments can help development companies to catch vulnerabilities at the early stage itself.

Conclusion

Wrapping up, software app development does not start with planning and end at launching. There are certain parameters which are equally essential for the software app growth and success. A software development firm needs to be sure that the software development is free of all vulnerabilities and does not hamper the functioning of the app at any cost. Thus, measures and ideas are implemented to cure and avoid any vulnerability or threat fully from the app for its better and effective processing.