Robert C. Seacord

Fred Long

Dhruv Mohindra

Dean F. Sutherland

David Svoboda

“A must-read for all Java developers. . . . Every developer has a responsibility to author code that is free of significant security vulnerabilities. This book provides realistic guidance to help Java developers implement desired functionality with security, reliability, and maintainability goals in mind.” –Mary Ann Davidson, Chief Security Officer, Oracle Corporation Organizations worldwide rely on Java code to perform mission-critical tasks, and therefore that code must be reliable, robust, fast, maintainable, and secure. Java™ Coding Guidelines brings together expert guidelines, recommendations, and code examples to help you meet these demands. Written by the same team that brought you The CERT® Oracle ® Secure Coding Standard for Java™, this guide extends that previous work’s expert security advice to address many additional quality attributes. You’ll find 75 guidelines, each presented consistently and intuitively. For each guideline, conformance requirements are specified; for most, noncompliant code examples and compliant solutions are also offered. The authors explain when to apply each guideline and provide references to even more detailed information. Reflecting pioneering research on Java security, Java™ Coding Guidelines offers updated techniques for protecting against both deliberate attacks and other unexpected events. You’ll find best practices for improving code reliability and clarity, and a full chapter exposing common misunderstandings that lead to suboptimal code. With a Foreword by James A. Gosling, Father of the Java Programming Language

75 Recommendations for Reliable and Secure Programs

Java Coding Guidelines

A detailed introduction to the C programming language for experienced programmers. The world runs on code written in the C programming language, yet most schools begin the curriculum with Python or Java. Effective C bridges this gap and brings C into the modern era--covering the modern C17 Standard as well as potential C2x features. With the aid of this instant classic, you'll soon be writing professional, portable, and secure C programs to power robust systems and solve real-world problems. Robert C. Seacord introduces C and the C Standard Library while addressing best practices, common errors, and open debates in the C community. Developed together with other C Standards committee experts, Effective C will teach you how to debug, test, and analyze C programs. You'll benefit from Seacord's concise explanations of C language constructs and behaviors, and from his 40 years of coding experience. You'll learn: • How to identify and handle undefined behavior in a C program • The range and representations of integers and floating-point values • How dynamic memory allocation works and how to use nonstandard functions • How to use character encodings and types • How to perform I/O with terminals and filesystems using C Standard streams and POSIX file descriptors • How to understand the C compiler's translation phases and the role of the preprocessor • How to test, debug, and analyze C programs Effective C will teach you how to write professional, secure, and portable C code that will stand the test of time and help strengthen the foundation of the computing world.

An Introduction to Professional C Programming

Effective C

Written by renowned author Robert Seacord, Effective C is an in-depth look at the C programming language. Seacord introduces the language's basic data types and code structures while simultaneously addressing best practices, common errors, and open debates in the C community. Readers will also learn how to debug, test, and analyze C programs and benefit from detailed yet concise explanations of C language constructs and behaviors

Learn the Root Causes of Software Vulnerabilities and How to Avoid Them Commonly exploited software vulnerabilities are usually caused by avoidable software defects. Having analyzed tens of thousands of vulnerability reports since 1988, CERT has determined that a relatively small number of root causes account for most of the vulnerabilities. Secure Coding in C and C++, Second Edition, identifies and explains these root causes and shows the steps that can be taken to prevent exploitation. Moreover, this book encourages programmers to adopt security best practices and to develop a security mindset that can help protect software from tomorrow’s attacks, not just today’s. Drawing on the CERT’s reports and conclusions, Robert C. Seacord systematically identifies the program errors most likely to lead to security breaches, shows how they can be exploited, reviews the potential consequences, and presents secure alternatives. Coverage includes technical detail on how to Improve the overall security of any C or C++ application Thwart buffer overflows, stack-smashing, and return-oriented programming attacks that exploit insecure string manipulation logic Avoid vulnerabilities and security flaws resulting from the incorrect use of dynamic memory management functions Eliminate integer-related problems resulting from signed integer overflows, unsigned integer wrapping, and truncation errors Perform secure I/O, avoiding file system vulnerabilities Correctly use formatted output functions without introducing format-string vulnerabilities Avoid race conditions and other exploitable vulnerabilities while developing concurrent code The second edition features Updates for C11 and C++11 Significant revisions to chapters on strings, dynamic memory management, and integer security A new chapter on concurrency Access to the online secure coding course offered through Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative (OLI) Secure Coding in C and C++, Second Edition, presents hundreds of examples of secure code, insecure code, and exploits, implemented for Windows and Linux. If you’re responsible for creating secure C or C++ software–or for keeping it safe–no other book offers you this much detailed, expert assistance.

Secure Coding in C and C++

This book is an essential desktop reference for the CERT C coding standard. The CERT C Coding Standard is an indispensable collection of expert information. The standard itemizes those coding errors that are the root causes of software vulnerabilities in C and prioritizes them by severity, likelihood of exploitation, and remediation costs. Each guideline provides examples of insecure code as well as secure, alternative implementations. If uniformly applied, these guidelines will eliminate the critical coding errors that lead to buffer overflows, format string vulnerabilities, integer overflow, and other common software vulnerabilities.

98 Rules for Developing Safe, Reliable, and Secure Systems

The CERT C Coding Standard

“At Cisco, we have adopted the CERT C Coding Standard as the internal secure coding standard for all C developers. It is a core component of our secure development lifecycle. The coding standard described in this book breaks down complex software security topics into easy-to-follow rules with excellent real-world examples. It is an essential reference for any developer who wishes to write secure and resilient software in C and C++.” —Edward D. Paradise, vice president, engineering, threat response, intelligence, and development, Cisco Systems Secure programming in C can be more difficult than even many experienced programmers realize. To help programmers write more secure code, The CERT® C Coding Standard, Second Edition, fully documents the second official release of the CERT standard for secure coding in C. The rules laid forth in this new edition will help ensure that programmers’ code fully complies with the new C11 standard; it also addresses earlier versions, including C99. The new standard itemizes those coding errors that are the root causes of current software vulnerabilities in C, prioritizing them by severity, likelihood of exploitation, and remediation costs. Each of the text’s 98 guidelines includes examples of insecure code as well as secure, C11-conforming, alternative implementations. If uniformly applied, these guidelines will eliminate critical coding errors that lead to buffer overflows, format-string vulnerabilities, integer overflow, and other common vulnerabilities. This book reflects numerous experts’ contributions to the open development and review of the rules and recommendations that comprise this standard. Coverage includes Preprocessor Declarations and Initialization Expressions Integers Floating Point Arrays Characters and Strings Memory Management Input/Output Environment Signals Error Handling Concurrency Miscellaneous Issues

The CERT® C Coding Standard, Second Edition

An essential element of secure coding in the C programming language is well documented and enforceable coding standards. Coding standards encourage programmers to follow a uniform set of rules and guidelines determined by the requirements of the project and organization, rather than by the programmer's familiarity or preference. Once established, these standards can be used as a metric to evaluate source code (using manual or automated processes). The CERT C Secure Coding Standard provides rules and recommendations for secure coding in the C programming language. The goal of these rules and recommendations is to eliminate insecure coding practices and undefined behaviours that can lead to exploitable vulnerabilities. The application of the secure coding standard will lead to higher-quality systems that are robust and more resistant to attack. The book is intended to be used as a reference by both programming teams and individuals. it is based on the web site created for this standard. While the web site will be dynamic, organizations will need a reference that's fixed in time.

The CERT C Secure Coding Standard

A code companion developers will turn to again and again as they seek to protect their systems from attackers.

The only comprehensive set of guidelines for secure Java programming - from the field's leading organizations, CERT and Oracle • •Authoritative, end-to-end code-level requirements for building secure systems with any recent version of Java, including the new Java 7 •Presents techniques that also improve safety, reliability, dependability, robustness, availability, maintainability, and other attributes of quality. •Includes extensive risk assessment guidance, plus references for further information. This is the first authoritative, comprehensive compilation of code-level requirements for building secure systems in Java. Organized by CERT's pioneering software security experts, with support from Oracle's own Java platform developers, it covers every facet of secure software coding with Java 7 SE and Java 6 SE, and offers value even to developers working with other Java versions. The authors itemize the most common coding errors leading to vulnerabilities in Java programs, and provide specific guidelines for avoiding each of them. They show how to produce programs that are not only secure, but also safer, more reliable, more robust, and easier to maintain. After a high-level introduction to Java application security, eighteen consistently-organized chapters detail specific guidelines for each facet of Java development. Each set of guidelines defines conformance, presents both noncompliant examples and corresponding compliant solutions, shows how to assess risk, and offers references for further information. To limit this book's size, the authors focus on 'normative requirements': strict rules for what programmers must do for their work to be secure, as defined by conformance to specific standards that can be tested through automated analysis software. (Note: A follow-up book will present 'non-normative requirements': recommendations for what Java developers typically 'should' do to further strengthen program security beyond testable 'requirements.')

The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java

“In the Java world, security is not viewed as an add-on a feature. It is a pervasive way of thinking. Those who forget to think in a secure mindset end up in trouble. But just because the facilities are there doesn’t mean that security is assured automatically. A set of standard practices has evolved over the years. The Secure® Coding® Standard for Java™ is a compendium of these practices. These are not theoretical research papers or product marketing blurbs. This is all serious, mission-critical, battle-tested, enterprise-scale stuff.” —James A. Gosling, Father of the Java Programming Language An essential element of secure coding in the Java programming language is a well-documented and enforceable coding standard. Coding standards encourage programmers to follow a uniform set of rules determined by the requirements of the project and organization, rather than by the programmer’s familiarity or preference. Once established, these standards can be used as a metric to evaluate source code (using manual or automated processes). The CERT® Oracle® Secure Coding Standard for Java™ provides rules designed to eliminate insecure coding practices that can lead to exploitable vulnerabilities. Application of the standard’s guidelines will lead to higher-quality systems–robust systems that are more resistant to attack. Such guidelines are required for the wide range of products coded in Java–for devices such as PCs, game players, mobile phones, home appliances, and automotive electronics. After a high-level introduction to Java application security, seventeen consistently organized chapters detail specific rules for key areas of Java development. For each area, the authors present noncompliant examples and corresponding compliant solutions, show how to assess risk, and offer references for further information. Each rule is prioritized based on the severity of consequences, likelihood of introducing exploitable vulnerabilities, and cost of remediation. The standard provides secure coding rules for the Java SE 6 Platform including the Java programming language and libraries, and also addresses new features of the Java SE 7 Platform. It describes language behaviors left to the discretion of JVM and compiler implementers, guides developers in the proper use of Java’s APIs and security architecture, and considers security concerns pertaining to standard extension APIs (from the javax package hierarchy).The standard covers security issues applicable to these libraries: lang, util, Collections, Concurrency Utilities, Logging, Management, Reflection, Regular Expressions, Zip, I/O, JMX, JNI, Math, Serialization, and JAXP.

"The security of information systems has not improved at a rate consistent with the growth and sophistication of the attacks being made against them. To address this problem, we must improve the underlying strategies and techniques used to create our systems. Specifically, we must build security in from the start, rather than append it as an afterthought. That's the point of Secure Coding in C and C++. In careful detail, this book shows software developers how to build high-quality systems that are less vulnerable to costly and even catastrophic attack. It's a book that every developer should read before the start of any serious project." --Frank Abagnale, author, lecturer, and leading consultant on fraud prevention and secure documents Learn the Root Causes of Software Vulnerabilities and How to Avoid Them Commonly exploited software vulnerabilities are usually caused by avoidable software defects. Having analyzed nearly 18,000 vulnerability reports over the past ten years, the CERT/Coordination Center (CERT/CC) has determined that a relatively small number of root causes account for most of them. This book identifies and explains these causes and shows the steps that can be taken to prevent exploitation. Moreover, this book encourages programmers to adopt security best practices and develop a security mindset that can help protect software from tomorrow's attacks, not just today's. Drawing on the CERT/CC's reports and conclusions, Robert Seacord systematically identifies the program errors most likely to lead to security breaches, shows how they can be exploited, reviews the potential consequences, and presents secure alternatives. Coverage includes technical detail on how to Improve the overall security of any C/C++ application Thwart buffer overflows and stack-smashing attacks that exploit insecure string manipulation logic Avoid vulnerabilities and security flaws resulting from the incorrect use of dynamic memory management functions Eliminate integer-related problems: integer overflows, sign errors, and truncation errors Correctly use formatted output functions without introducing format-string vulnerabilities Avoid I/O vulnerabilities, including race conditions Secure Coding in C and C++ presents hundreds of examples of secure code, insecure code, and exploits, implemented for Windows and Linux. If you're responsible for creating secure C or C++ software--or for keeping it safe--no other book offers you this much detailed, expert assistance.

Robert C. Seacord

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