Secure Coding: Principles and Practices

Mark G. Graff, Kenneth R. Van Wyk0596002424, 9780596002428

Practically every day, we read about a new type of attack on computer systems and networks. Viruses, worms, denials of service, and password sniffers are attacking all types of systems – from banks to major e-commerce sites to seemingly impregnable government and military computers – at an alarming rate. Despite their myriad manifestations and different targets, nearly all attacks have one fundamental cause: the code used to run far too many systems today is not secure. Flaws in its design, implementation, testing, and operations allow attackers all-too-easy access. Secure Coding, by Mark G. Graff and Ken vanWyk, looks at the problem of bad code in a new way. Packed with advice based on the authors’ decades of experience in the computer security field, this concise and highly readable book explains why so much code today is filled with vulnerabilities, and tells readers what they must do to avoid writing code that can be exploited by attackers. Writing secure code isn’t easy, and there are no quick fixes to bad code.