Application Security Weekly

This week's interview dives deep into the state of biometrics with two Forrester Research analysts!

This discussion compares and contrasts regional approaches to biometrics; examine the security challenges and benefits of their implementation; and reveal how biometrics holds the keys to a range of engagement models of the future.

Andras Cser dives into the technical end of things and explains how biometrics can be resilient to attack. We can't replace our fingerprints or faces, but as Andras explains, there's no need to, thanks to how biometrics actually work. Then, Enza takes us through the latest on privacy in biometrics - a concern for both consumers, and businesses tasked with complying with privacy regulations and avoiding costly fines.

Finally, get a sneak peek into the upcoming Forrester Security & Risk Summit. Whether you're an industry professional or just curious about the implications of biometrics, this episode delivers insights you won't want to miss!

This week, in the Application Security News, we dismiss magical thinking and discuss what generative AI will actually be able to do for us.

We also discuss whether Secure by Design's goals are practical or not.

OSC&R releases a report on software supply chain that should be interesting, though neither of us had time to read it yet.

Also, Watchtowr has some fun with Citrix VDI!

Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes!

In this week's interview, Melinda Marks' joins us to discuss her latest research. Her recent report Modernizing Application Security to Scale for Cloud-Native Development delves into many aspects and trends affecting AppSec as it matures, particularly in cloud-first organizations.

We also discuss the fuzzy line between "cloud-native" AppSec and everything else that refuses to disappear, particularly for organizations that weren't born cloud-native and still have legacy workloads to worry about.

Integrating security into the SDLC and CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code (IaC) trends, best of breed vs platform, and other aspects of AppSec get discussed as well!

This week, in the Application Security News, we spend a lot of time on some recent vulnerabilities. We take this opportunity to talk about how to determine whether or not a vulnerability is worth a critical response.

Can AI fully automate DevSecOps Governance? Adrian has his reservations, but JLK is bullish.

Is it bad that 70% of DevSecOps professionals don't know if code is AI generated or not?

All that and more on this week's news segment.

Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes!

After spending a decade working for appsec vendors, Grant McKracken wanted to give something back. He saw a gap in the market for free or low-cost services for smaller organizations that have real appsec needs, but not a lot of means to pay for it. He founded DarkHorse, who offers VDPs and bug bounties to organizations of all sizes for free, or for as low of cost as possible.

While not a non-profit, the company's goal is to make these services as cheap as possible to increase accessibility for smaller or more budget-constrained organizations. The company has also introduced the concept of "fractional pentesting", access to cyber talent when and how you need it, based on what you can afford. This implies services beyond just offensive security, something we'll dive deeper into in the interview.

We don't see DarkHorse ever competing with the larger Bug Bounty platforms, but rather providing services to the organizations too small for the larger platforms to sell to.

Microsoft delays Recall AGAIN, Project Zero uses an LLM to find a bugger underflow in SQLite, the scourge of infostealer malware, zero standing privileges is easy if you have unlimited time (but no one does), reverse engineering Nintendo's Alarmo and RedBox's... boxes.

Bonus: the book series mentioned in this episode The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell.

Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes!

Better TLS implementations with Rust, fuzzing, and managing certs, appsec lessons from the everlasting transition to IPv6, LLMs for finding vulns (and whether fuzzing is better), and more!

Also check out this presentation from BSides Knoxville that we talked about briefly, https://youtu.be/DLn7Noex_fc?feature=shared

Generative AI has been the talk of the technology industry for the past 18+ months. Companies are seeing its value, so generative AI budgets are growing. With more and more AI agents expected in the coming years, it’s essential that we are securing how consumers interact with generative AI agents and how developers build AI agents into their apps. This is where identity comes in. Shiven Ramji, President of Customer Identity Cloud at Okta, will dive into the importance of protecting the identity of AI agents and Okta’s new security tools revealed at Oktane that address some of the largest issues consumers and businesses have with generative AI right now.

Segment Resources: https://www.okta.com/oktane/ https://www.okta.com/press-room/press-releases/okta-helps-builders-easily-implement-auth-for-genai-apps-secure-how/

Today, there isn’t an identity security standard for enterprise applications that ensures interoperability across all SaaS and IDPs. There also isn’t an easy way for an app, resource, workload, API or any other enterprise technology to make itself discoverable, governable, support SSO and SCIM and continuous authentication. This lack of standardization is one of the biggest barriers to cybersecurity today. Arnab Bose, Chief Product Officer, Workforce Identity Cloud at Okta, joins Security Weekly's Mandy Logan to discuss the need for a new, comprehensive identity security standard for enterprise applications, and the work Okta is doing alongside other industry players to institute a framework for SaaS companies to enhance the end-to-end security of their products across every touchpoint of their technology stack.

Segment Resources: https://www.okta.com/oktane/ https://www.okta.com/press-room/press-releases/okta-openid-foundation-tech-firms-tackle-todays-biggest-cybersecurity/ https://www.okta.com/press-room/press-releases/okta-is-reducing-the-risk-of-unmanaged-identities-social-engineering/

This segment is sponsored by Oktane, to view all of the CyberRisk TV coverage from Oktane visit https://securityweekly.com/oktane.

Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes!

Building cloud native apps doesn't mean you're immune to dealing with legacy systems. Cloud services have changed significantly over the last decade, both in the security controls available to them and the sheer volume of services that CSPs provide. Scott Piper shares some history of cloud security, the benefits of account separation, and how ratcheting security helps orgs stay on a paved path.

Segment resources:

• https://www.wiz.io/blog/a-security-community-success-story-of-mitigating-a-misconfiguration
• http://flaws.cloud
• http://flaws2.cloud
• https://promptairlines.com

Get a free demo of Wiz!

Flaws that arise from inconsistent parsing of JSON and email addresses, CISA's guide to bad software practices, abusing a security disclosure process to take over a WordPress plugin, and more!

Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes!

Looking at vulnerable code in Ivanti (Perl) and Magento (PHP), fuzzing is perfect for parsers, handling tenant isolation when training LLMs, Microsoft's small steps towards secure design, and more!

Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes!

Zed Attack Proxy has been a crucial web app testing tool for decades. It's also had a struggle throughout 2024 to obtain funding that would enable the tool to add more features while remaining true to its open source history. Simon Bennetts, founder of ZAP, and Ori Bendet from Checkmarx update us on that journey, share some exploration of LLM fuzzing that ZAP has been working on, and what the future looks like for this well-loved project.

Segment Resources:

• https://www.zaproxy.org/blog/2024-09-24-zap-has-joined-forces-with-checkmarx/
• https://www.zaproxy.org/blog/2024-09-30-improving-fuzzing-payloads-for-llms-with-fuzzai/
• https://checkmarx.com/press-releases/checkmarx-joins-forces-with-zap-to-supercharge-dynamic-application-security-testing-dast-for-the-enterprise-and-enhance-community-growth/
• KICS: https://github.com/Checkmarx/kics
• 2MS: https://github.com/Checkmarx/2ms

The many lessons to take away from a 24-year old flaw in glibc and the mastery in crafting an exploit in PHP, changing a fuzzer's configuration to find more flaws, fuzzing LLMs for prompt injection and jailbreaks, security hardening of baseband code, revisiting the threat models in Microsoft's Recall, and more!

Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes!

More remote car control via web interfaces, an RCE in CUPS, Microsoft reduces attack surface, migrating to memory safety, dealing with dependency confusion, getting rid of password strength calculators, and more!

Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes!

APIs are essential to modern application architectures, driving rapid development, seamless integration, and improved user experiences. However, their widespread use has made them prime targets for attackers, especially those deploying sophisticated bots. When these bots exploit business logic, they can cause considerable financial and reputational damage. In this discussion, David Holmes offers insights into the latest trends in API and bot attacks and provides strategies to defend against these threats.

Segment Resources:

• The Economic Impact of API and Bot Attacks: https://www.imperva.com/resources/resource-library/reports/the-economic-impact-of-api-and-bot-attacks/
• The True Cost of API Insecurity and Bot Attacks in 2024: https://www.imperva.com/resources/resource-library/webinars/the-true-cost-of-api-insecurity-and-bot-attacks-in-2024/

This segment is sponsored by Imperva. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/imperva to learn more about them!

Fuzzing network traffic in OpenWRT, parsing problems lead to GitLab auth bypass, more fuzzing finds vulns in a JPEG parser, and more!

Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes!

When a conference positioned as a day of security for developers has to be canceled due to lack of interest from developers, it's important to understand why there was so little interest and why appsec should reconsider its approach to awareness. Dustin Lehr discusses how appsec can better engage and better deliver security concepts in a way that makes developers not only feel like their time is well used, but that the content appeals to them.

Segment Resources: - The Security Champion Program Success Guide -- A free guide that includes all steps necessary to build a successful security champion program, with real-world recommendations and examples: https://securitychampionsuccessguide.org/ - Let's Talk Software Security -- A free global virtual community where we host monthly open discussions on appsec topics: https://www.meetup.com/lets-talk-software-security/

A takeover of the MOBI TLD for $20, configuring an LLM for a CTF, firmware flaw in an SSD, Microsoft talks kernel resilience, six truths of cyber risk quantification, and more!

Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes!