Desktop application security in Java

Description

Description

Your application written in Java works as intended, so you are done, right? But did you consider feeding in incorrect values? 16Gbs of data? A null? An apostrophe? Negative numbers, or specifically -1 or -2^³¹? Because that’s what the bad guys will do – and the list is far from complete. Handling security needs a healthy level of paranoia, and this is what this course provides: a strong emotional engagement by lots of hands-on labs and stories from real life, all to substantially improve code hygiene. Mistakes, consequences, and best practices are our blood, sweat and tears. All this is put in the context of Java, and extended by core programming issues, discussing security pitfalls of the Java language and the runtime environment. So that you are prepared for the forces of the dark side.

So that nothing unexpected happens. Nothing.

Outline

• Cyber security basics
• Input validation
• Security features
• Time and state
• Errors
• Cryptography for developers
• Common software security weaknesses
• Wrap up

Audience

Java developers working on desktop applications

What you’ll learn

• Getting familiar with essential cyber security concepts
• Input validation approaches and principles
• Identify vulnerabilities and their consequences
• Learn the security best practices in Java
• Understanding how cryptography supports security
• Learning how to use cryptographic APIs correctly in Java

Preparedness

General Java development.

Standards and references

SEI CERT, CWE and Fortify Taxonomy

Platform

Desktop

Day 1

Security features

• Authentication
  • Authentication basics
  • Multi-factor authentication
  • Time-based One Time Passwords (TOTP)
  • Authentication weaknesses
  • Password management
    • Inbound password management
      • Storing account passwords
      • Password in transit
      • Lab – Is just hashing passwords enough?
      • Dictionary attacks and brute forcing
      • Salting
      • Adaptive hash functions for password storage
      • Lab – Using adaptive hash functions in JCA
      • Password policy
        • NIST authenticator requirements for memorized secrets
        • Password hardening
        • Using passphrases
      • Case study – The Ashley Madison data breach
        • The dictionary attack
        • The ultimate crack
        • Exploitation and the lessons learned
      • Password database migration
    • Outbound password management
      • Hard coded passwords
      • Best practices
      • Lab – Hardcoded password
      • Protecting sensitive information in memory
        • Challenges in protecting memory
        • Storing sensitive data in memory
        • Lab – Using secret-handling classes in Java
• Information exposure
  • Exposure through extracted data and aggregation
  • Case study – Strava data exposure
• Platform security
  • Java platform security
    • The Java programming language and runtime environment
    • Type safety and security
    • Security features of the JRE
      • The ClassLoader and the BytecodeVerifier
    • Application-level access control in Java
      • Permissions and the Security Manager
      • Privilege best practices
    • Role-based access control
      • Java Authentication and Authorization Services (JAAS)
    • Protecting Java code and applications
      • Code signing
      • Lab – Code signing and permissions

Time and state

• Race conditions
  • File race condition
    • Time of check to time of usage – TOCTTOU
    • TOCTTOU attacks in practice
    • Insecure temporary file
  • Database race conditions

Errors

• Error and exception handling principles
• Error handling
  • Returning a misleading status code
  • Reachable assertion
  • Information exposure through error reporting
• Exception handling
  • In the catch block. And now what?
  • Catching NullPointerException
  • Empty catch block
  • Overly broad throws
  • Improper completing of the finally block
  • Throwing undeclared checked exceptions
  • Swallowed ThreadDeath
  • Throwing RuntimeException, Exception, or Throwable
  • Lab – Exception handling mess

Day 3

Cryptography for developers

• Cryptography basics
• Java Cryptographic Architecture (JCA) in brief
• Elementary algorithms
  • Random number generation
    • Pseudo random number generators (PRNGs)
    • Cryptographically strong PRNGs
    • Using virtual random streams
    • Weak and strong PRNGs in Java
    • Lab – Using random numbers in Java
    • Case study – Equifax credit account freeze
  • Hashing
    • Hashing basics
    • Common hashing mistakes
    • Hashing in Java
    • Lab – Hashing in JCA
• Confidentiality protection
  • Symmetric encryption
    • Block ciphers
    • Modes of operation
    • Modes of operation and IV – best practices
    • Symmetric encryption in Java
    • Symmetric encryption in Java with streams
    • Lab – Symmetric encryption in JCA
  • Asymmetric encryption
    • The RSA algorithm
      • Using RSA – best practices
      • RSA in Java
  • Combining symmetric and asymmetric algorithms
    • Integrity protection
  • Message Authentication Code (MAC)
    • Calculating MAC in Java
    • Lab – Calculating MAC in JCA
  • Digital signature
    • Digital signature with RSA
    • Elliptic Curve Cryptography
      • ECC basics
      • Digital signature with ECC
    • Digital signature in Java
      • Lab – Digital signature with ECDSA in JCA
      • Some further key management challenges
  • Certificates
    • Certificates and PKI
    • X.509 certificates
    • Chain of trust
    • PKI actors and procedures
    • Certificate revocation

Common software security weaknesses

• Code quality
  • Code quality and security
  • Data handling
    • Initialization and cleanup
      • Constructors and destructors
      • Class initialization cycles
      • Lab – Initialization cycles
    • Unreleased resource
      • The finalize() method – best practices
  • Object oriented programming pitfalls
    • Accessibility modifiers
      • Are accessibility modifiers a security feature?
      • Accessibility modifiers – best practices
      • Overriding and accessibility modifiers
    • Inheritance and overriding
    • Mutability
      • Lab – Mutable object
    • Cloning

Wrap up

• Secure coding principles
  • Principles of robust programming by Matt Bishop
  • Secure design principles of Saltzer and Schroeder
• And now what?
  • Software security sources and further reading
  • Java resources