WGU Secure-Software-Design WGU Secure Software Design (D487, KEO1) Exam Exam Practice Test

The secure coding best practice that requires authentication before allowing any files to be uploaded, and limits the types of files to only those needed for the business purpose, falls under the category of File Management. This practice is crucial for preventing unauthorized file uploads, which can be a common vector for attacks such as uploading malicious files or scripts. By enforcing authentication, the application ensures that only legitimate users can upload files. Additionally, restricting the file types to those necessary for business operations minimizes the risk of uploading potentially harmful files that could compromise the system.

Fuzzing is an automated or semi-automated software testing technique that involves providing invalid, unexpected, or random data to the inputs of a computer program1. This process is designed to uncover coding errors, security vulnerabilities, and other potential issues within the software by observing how it behaves under unexpected or malformed inputs. Fuzzing is particularly effective because it can expose corner cases that have not been properly dealt with and can be used to test programs that take structured inputs, such as file formats or protocols2.

Comprehensive and Detailed In-Depth Explanation:

The scenario outlines the process of decommissioning a legacy application after a new product has successfully taken over its functions. This corresponds to the End of Life phase in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

The End of Life phase involves retiring outdated systems and transitioning users to newer solutions. This phase ensures that obsolete applications are systematically phased out, reducing maintenance costs and potential security vulnerabilities associated with unsupported software.

In this case, running both the legacy and new applications concurrently provided a safety net to ensure the new system's stability. After confirming the new product's reliability, the organization proceeds to disable the legacy system, marking its End of Life.

Manual peer review refers to the systematic examination of software source code by developers other than the original author. This practice is recognized as a valuable tool for reducing software defects and improving the quality of software projects. It involves developers inspecting the code to find and fix mistakes overlooked in the initial development phase, which enhances both the overall quality of software and the developers’ skills. Peer code review is less formal and more “lightweight” than the code inspections performed in the past, and it provides benefits such as knowledge transfer, increased team awareness, and creation of alternative solutions to problems.

The activity being performed is the final privacy review. This step is crucial in the Ship phase of the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL), where the security team assesses if there are any changes or unresolved issues that could impact the requirements for handling personal information. These requirements are typically documented in the earlier stages of the development lifecycle, and the final privacy review ensures that the software complies with these requirements before release.

The activity described pertains to the review of noncommercial software libraries to ensure compliance with the legal specifications set by the authors. This is part of the open-source licensing review, which is a critical activity in the Ship phase of the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL). This review ensures that all open-source components are used in accordance with their licenses, which is essential for legal and security compliance.

Comprehensive and Detailed In-Depth Explanation:

In the context of software security, a threat model is a structured representation that identifies potential threats to the system, evaluates their severity, and guides the development of mitigation strategies. When a security assessment reveals vulnerabilities or areas of concern, it's imperative to update the threat modeling artifacts to reflect these findings. This ensures that the threat model remains an accurate and current representation of the system's security posture.

By updating the threat modeling artifacts, the team documents the identified threats and outlines necessary coding and architectural changes to mitigate these threats. This proactive approach allows for the integration of security considerations early in the design and development phases, reducing the likelihood of vulnerabilities in the deployed system.

This practice aligns with the Design business function of the OWASP Software Assurance Maturity Model (SAMM), which emphasizes the importance of incorporating security into the software design process. Within this function, the Threat Assessment practice focuses on identifying and evaluating potential threats to inform security requirements and design decisions. Updating threat modeling artifacts is a key activity within this practice, ensuring that security assessments directly influence the system's design and architecture.

An intercept proxy, also known as a proxy server, sits between a web client (such as a browser) and an external server to filter, monitor, or manipulate the requests and responses passing through it. This can be used for legitimate purposes, such as security testing and user privacy, but it can also be exploited by attackers to alter web traffic in a way that the developer did not intend, potentially leading to security vulnerabilities.

The practice described is Code review, which is a part of secure software development best practices. Code reviews are conducted to ensure that the code adheres to accepted coding patterns and meets the team’s quality standards. This process involves the examination of source code by a person or a group other than the author to identify bugs, security vulnerabilities, and ensure compliance with coding standards.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

This is an example of Input validation, which involves ensuring all user inputs conform to expected formats, lengths, and content before processing. Restricting field lengths and validating accepted data types prevents injection attacks, buffer overflows, and improper data handling. Access control (B) restricts user permissions, communication security (C) protects data in transit, and data protection (D) focuses on confidentiality and integrity of stored data. OWASP Secure Coding Practices and Microsoft SDL emphasize rigorous input validation as a first line of defense against many vulnerabilities.

The task described involves assessing a document management application that has been in use for many years. This scenario typically requires a security strategy that addresses the unique challenges of legacy code. Legacy code refers to software that has been around for a long time and may not have been developed with current security standards in mind. A security strategy for legacy code would include measures to ensure that the application complies with current organizational policies, which may involve code reviews, updates, and the implementation of modern security practices to mitigate any potential vulnerabilities inherent in older code12.

ASF Authentication Threats: The Web Application Security Frame (ASF) authentication category encompasses threats related to how users and systems prove their identity to the application. This includes issues like weak passwords, compromised credentials, and inadequate access controls.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): RBAC is a well-established security principle that aligns closely with addressing authentication threats. It involves assigning users to roles and granting those roles specific permissions based on the principle of least privilege. This limits the attack surface and reduces the impact of a compromised user account.

Let's analyze the other options:

B. Credentials and tokens are encrypted: While vital for security, encryption primarily protects data at rest or in transit. It doesn't directly address authentication risks like brute-force attacks or weak password management.

C. Cookies have expiration timestamps: Expiring cookies are a good practice, but their primary benefit is session management rather than directly mitigating authentication-specific threats.

D. Sensitive information is scrubbed from error messages: While essential for preventing information leakage, this practice doesn't address the core threats within the ASF authentication category.

The secure coding practice being described is Access Control. This practice ensures that access to data and features within a system is restricted and controlled. The description given indicates that the product has mechanisms to prevent the display of personally identifiable information (PII), restrict the printing of private documents, and require elevated privileges to access archived documents. These are all measures to control who has access to what data and under what circumstances, which is the essence of access control.

The type of threat described is Tampering. This threat occurs when an attacker intercepts and manipulates data being sent from the client to the server, such as form data being submitted to an API. The attacker may alter the data to change the intended operation, inject malicious content, or compromise the integrity of the system. Tampering attacks are a significant concern in secure software design because they can lead to unauthorized changes and potentially harmful actions within the application.

Option D best addresses security change management, here's why:

Focus on Change: The question directly asks about a modification to how remote administration is secured. This aligns with the core goal of security change management, which is to evaluate and control the security implications of changes to systems.

Security-Specific: The question is explicitly concerned with security, not general functionality or requirements.

Practical Aspect: Remote administration access is a frequent target for attackers, making it a common area for security change management scrutiny.

To combat identity spoofing threats, a mitigation technique that is often used is requiring user authorization. This involves implementing strong authentication methods to verify the identity of users before granting access to sensitive information or systems. Techniques such as two-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA) are effective in reducing the risk of unauthorized access, as they require users to provide multiple pieces of evidence to confirm their identity, making it much harder for attackers to spoof an identity successfully.

Security change management within the change management process involves ensuring that any changes, including updates or modifications to software, do not introduce new vulnerabilities and are in line with security policies. The question about securing remote administration directly reflects this component because it addresses the security considerations that must be managed when changes are made to how software is accessed and controlled remotely. This includes implementing secure protocols, authentication methods, and monitoring to prevent unauthorized access or breaches, which are crucial when managing changes in a secure manner.

The Asset-centric approach to threat modeling focuses on identifying and protecting the assets that are most valuable to an organization. This method prioritizes the assets themselves, assessing their sensitivity, value, and the impact on the business should they be compromised. It is a strategic approach that aims to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the organization’s key assets.

Comprehensive and Detailed In-Depth Explanation:

The scenario describes a stage where the developed features are deployed to a pre-production environment for verification by analysts. This aligns with the Testing phase of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

In the Testing phase, the system undergoes various evaluations to ensure it meets the specified requirements and functions correctly. This includes deploying the software in an environment that simulates production to identify and rectify defects before the actual deployment. The primary goal is to validate the software's quality and performance.

According to the SDLC framework, after the development (coding) phase, the next step is Testing, where the system is rigorously evaluated. This phase is crucial to detect issues that may not have been apparent during development and to ensure that the software operates as intended in a controlled setting before live deployment.

Authentication is the most effective control for the scenario because it directly addresses who is using the public computers:

User Identification: Authentication requires users to identify themselves (e.g., library card, login credentials) before accessing the computers. This links actions to specific individuals, making it easier to control unauthorized activity.

Policy Enforcement: Combined with other controls (e.g., content filtering), authentication enables the library to implement policies restricting downloads. If users violate the policy, their identities can be used for consequences.

Deterrent: Knowing they can be identified discourages users from attempting illegal downloads.

 The principle of running with the least privilege is a fundamental security concept that involves granting users only the permissions they need to perform their tasks and no more. This minimizes the risk of a user gaining access to administrator-level functionality that they are not authorized to use. By limiting the privileges of user accounts to the bare minimum necessary, the potential damage from various attacks, such as privilege escalation, is significantly reduced.