Veracode, known for their application security testing offerings, has released their annual report on the state of software security, which focuses on software vulnerability trends and predictions.
According to their figures, 2013 will see a rise in presence of the ‘everyday hacker,’ due in part to easily accessed information. According to their report, Veracode says that applications will fail to meet OWASP Top 10 compliance 87% of the time. More over, those same applications will also fail the SANS Top 25 (69%) and internal policy requirements (70%) too. Thus, each application developed and pushed to the public has at least on type of exploitable problem. Such applications are why NASA, the FBI, Interpol, and the Pentagon (along with a few other minor agencies) lost a combined 1.6 million records last December after being targeted by Team Ghost Shell.
Interestingly enough, the December attacks focused on SQL Injection, which Veracode says remains a major hurdle in WebApp development, and why there will be a growth in the ‘everyday hacker’ this year.
A simple Google search for “SQL injection hack” provides 1.74 million results, including videos with explicit instructions on how to exploit SQL injection vulnerabilities, Veracode noted in a statement. SecurityWeek checked, and this search query (with the exact phrase in quotes) as of 10:30 a.m. EST, April 8, 2013 only returned 138,000 results. Still, the videos were there, and there were several helpful tutorials.
Their point is that such information makes it “possible for less technically skilled hackers to take advantage of this common flaw,” the company said.
Veracode found that 32 percent of web applications are still affected by SQL injection vulnerabilities, despite the fact they are easily detected and fixed. As a result, Veracode says that as many as 30 percent of breaches in 2013 will be from SQL injection attacks.
“Despite significant improvements in awareness of the importance of securing software, we are not seeing the dramatic decreases in exploitable coding flaws that should be expected,” said Chris Eng, vice president of research, Veracode.
The full report is available here.
Related Resource: Are Your Applications Secure? Test Your Code For Free