What is application security?

Application security is a set of measures designed to prevent data or code at the application level from being stolen or manipulated. It involves security during the application development and design phases as well as systems and approaches that protect applications after deployment. A good application security strategy ensures protection across applications used by internal or external stakeholders, such as employees, vendors, and customers.

Application security for cloud-native environments

In cloud-native environments, securing applications requires embedding security practices throughout the entire development process. This approach involves shifting security measures to the early stages of development, where infrastructure as code (IaC) and container security play a critical role. Automated security scanning and the use of specialized tools tailored to cloud-native architectures are essential for identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities, such as those in container images or misconfigured cloud resources. This proactive approach ensures that security is maintained as applications move through dynamic, continuously integrated and deployed environments.

But securing cloud-native applications doesn’t stop there. Due to the dynamic nature of cloud-native applications, it is essential to incorporate security during and after deployment. By combining preventive security measures with real-time insights, organizations will be well equipped to protect their applications and the data within them.

Importance of application security

Today’s applications are not only connected across multiple networks — they are often connected to the cloud, which leaves them open to cloud threats and vulnerabilities. Today, organizations are embracing additional security at the application level rather than only at the network level because application security gives them visibility into vulnerabilities that may help them prevent cyberattacks.

Security controls are a great baseline for any business’s application security strategy. These controls can minimize disruptions to internal processes, allow teams to respond quickly in case of a breach, and improve application software security. They can also be tailored to specific applications, so businesses can implement standards for each application as needed. Reducing security risks is the biggest benefit of application security controls.

What are application security controls?

Application security controls are techniques that improve the security of applications at the code level, reducing risk. These controls are designed to respond to unexpected inputs, such as those made by outside threats. With application security controls, the programmers who build the applications have more agency over responses to unexpected inputs. Application security helps businesses stave off threats with tools and techniques designed to reduce risk.

Application security controls are steps assigned to developers to implement security standards, which are rules for applying security policy boundaries to application code. One major standard with which businesses must comply is the National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication (NIST SP), which provides guidelines for selecting security controls.

There are different types of application security controls designed for different security approaches, and these controls include:

• Authentication: Confirming if a user’s identity is valid; necessary to enforce identity-based access
• Encryption: Converting information or data into code to prevent unauthorized access; can involve individual files or an entire project
• Logging: Examining user activity to audit incidents of suspicious activity or breaches
• Validity Checks: Making sure data entered and processed meets specific criteria
• Access Controls: Limiting access to applications based on IP addresses or otherwise authorized users

Challenges of modern application security

Some of the challenges presented by modern application security are common, such as inherited vulnerabilities and the need to find qualified experts for a security team. Other challenges involve looking at security as a software development issue and ensuring security throughout the application security life cycle. It is important to be aware of these challenges before beginning application security processes.

Common challenges for modern application security are bound to occur for any business interested in secure applications, and they include the following:

• Library vulnerabilities: Developers rely on code libraries. A code library is a collection of pre-written code that developers use to perform common tasks without having to write the code from scratch. Both proprietary and open-source libraries can contain vulnerabilities. 
• Third-party vulnerabilities: Third-party components include libraries, frameworks, plugins, APIs, and other external software used to add functionality or streamline development within an application. These components are also capable of introducing vulnerabilities. 
• Adopting a DevSecOps approach: A DevSecOps approach is the process of incorporating security measures throughout every phase of the IT process, also known as shift left.
• Finding qualified experts: Security teams play a vital role in application security, and finding experts or training security teams already in place is necessary.

Lack of a centralized management tool: Without a centralized tool to support development teams, a business will either have extra overhead dealing with each siloed application team or a lack of insight into reporting for applications.

Types of Application Security

Application security tools

Application security tools involve various types of security testing for different kinds of applications. Security testing has evolved since its inception, and there is a right time to use each security tool. Modern businesses need to secure applications to keep their data safe.

There are a variety of application security tools available:

• Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP): RASP provides personalized application protections based on insight into internal data. It integrates within the application’s runtime environment, offering real-time protection by monitoring internal behavior and blocking attacks as they occur.
• Software Composition Analysis (SCA): SCA is a process that automatically detects open-source software in code to evaluate security, compliance, and quality. It scans and analyzes open-source components within an application, identifying vulnerabilities and ensuring compliance with licensing requirements. This is crucial for preventing risks associated with open-source software.
• Static Application Security Testing (SAST): SAST is a security testing method that analyzes source code for vulnerabilities. It does so without executing the code, helping developers find vulnerabilities early. These vulnerabilities might include coding errors that could lead to security breaches, and finding them early helps reduce post-deployment fixes.
• Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST): DAST provides insight into how applications behave during production. It examines applications in their running state, simulating real-world attacks to identify runtime vulnerabilities that static analysis might miss.
• Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST): IAST is used to analyze code during testing. It combines SAST and DAST by analyzing running applications with deeper visibility, offering high accuracy in detecting vulnerabilities and identifying their sources.
• Mobile Application Security Testing (MAST): MAST products are designed to identify vulnerabilities in applications on mobile platforms. These tools address vulnerabilities unique to mobile platforms, such as insecure data storage and improper session handling. This is crucial for protecting user data on mobile devices.
• Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPPs): A CNAPP is a platform that secures cloud-native applications and infrastructure, integrating security into continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines to protect code, container images, and cloud environments.

Five application security best practices

Security best practices for web applications involve using security teams, tools, and application security controls in tandem. Whether a business needs cloud security, web application security, or API security, security best practices provide helpful guidelines.

1. Perform a threat assessment of your code and applications: Have an inventory of all your assets and highlight the most sensitive ones. Additionally, stay on top of the most common threats and vulnerabilities that can target these assets so you can appropriately plan.
2. Adopt a shift left approach: Adopting a shift left approach is essential to  including security throughout the application development process.
3. Prioritize remedial operations: Prioritize remedial operations to resolve threats after identifying them. Using CVSS ratings among other criteria while performing a threat assessment will help you prioritize operations more effectively.
4. Measure application security results with frequent testing: Test frequently and identify the most important metrics for your organization. Ensure that metrics are reasonable and easy to understand so that they can be used to determine if the application security program is compliant and if it will reduce risk.
5. Manage privileges: Manage and limit privileges by adopting the principle of least privilege (POLP), ensuring only the right teams have access to code and applications.

Three types of application security testing

There are three main approaches to application security testing: black box security testing, white box security testing, and gray box security testing.

• Black box security testing happens from the outside in. It simulates the approach of a real attacker with no prior knowledge of the way the application functions. Because this method doesn’t need knowledge of the individual application, it is technology-independent.
• White box penetration testing gives the tester full information about the network, system, and application along with credentials. This testing is faster and allows organizations to save on testing costs. White box testing is a great solution for quickly attacking an application from multiple vectors.
• Gray box penetration testing is in between the other methods, with limited information shared before testing. This often involves giving the tester privileged credentials to test the potential damage that attacks from a seemingly authorized user can cause. 

Each of these methods of penetration testing can be valuable for application security.

How CrowdStrike helps with application security

Application security is vital to protect businesses from outside threats. Application security tools work alongside security professionals and application security controls to deliver security throughout the application life cycle. With multiple types of tools and methods for testing available, achieving application security is well within reach.

The CrowdStrike Falcon® platform can help you keep applications secure. The Falcon platform proactively monitors and remediates misconfigurations while giving you visibility into potential insider threats across various hosts, cloud infrastructures, and business applications.