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A security bug or security defect is a software bug that can be exploited to gain unauthorized access or privileges on a computer system. Security bugs introduce security vulnerabilities by compromising one or more of:

• Authentication of users and other entities
• Authorization of access rights and privileges
• Data confidentiality
• Data integrity

Security bugs do not need be identified nor exploited to be qualified as such and are assumed to be much more common than known vulnerabilities in almost any system.

Causes

Security bugs, like all other software bugs, stem from root causes that can generally be traced to either absent or inadequate:

• Software developer training
• Use case analysis
• Software engineering methodology
• Quality assurance testing
• and other best practices

Taxonomy

Security bugs generally fall into a fairly small number of broad categories that include:

• Memory safety (e.g. buffer overflow and dangling pointer bugs)
• Race condition
• Secure input and output handling
• Faulty use of an API
• Improper use case handling
• Improper exception handling
• Resource leaks, often but not always due to improper exception handling
• Preprocessing input strings before they are checked for being acceptable

Mitigation

See software security assurance.

See also

• Computer security
• Hacking: The Art of Exploitation
• IT risk
• Threat (computer)
• Vulnerability (computing)
• Hardware bug
• Secure coding

References

1. ^ "CWE/SANS TOP 25 Most Dangerous Software Errors". SANS. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
2. "Software Quality and Software Security". 2008-11-02. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
3. Alhazmi, Omar H.; Woo, Sung-Whan; Malaiya, Yashwant K. (Jan 2006). "Security vulnerability categories in major software systems". Proceedings of the Third IASTED International Conference on Communication, Network, and Information Security.

Further reading

• Open Web Application Security Project (21 August 2015). "2013 Top 10 List".
• "CWE/SANS TOP 25 Most Dangerous Software Errors". SANS. Retrieved 13 July 2012.

v t e Information security
Related security categories	Computer security Automotive security Cybercrime Cybersex trafficking Computer fraud Cybergeddon Cyberterrorism Cyberwarfare Electromagnetic warfare Information warfare Internet security Mobile security Network security Copy protection Digital rights management
Threats	Adware Advanced persistent threat Arbitrary code execution Backdoors Bombs Fork Logic Time Zip Hardware backdoors Code injection Crimeware Cross-site scripting Cross-site leaks DOM clobbering History sniffing Cryptojacking Botnets Data breach Drive-by download Browser Helper Objects Viruses Data scraping Denial-of-service attack Eavesdropping Email fraud Email spoofing Exploits Fraudulent dialers Hacktivism Infostealer Insecure direct object reference Keystroke loggers Malware Payload Phishing Voice Polymorphic engine Privilege escalation Ransomware Rootkits Scareware Shellcode Spamming Social engineering Spyware Software bugs Trojan horses Hardware Trojans Remote access trojans Vulnerability Web shells Wiper Worms SQL injection Rogue security software Zombie
Defenses	Application security Secure coding Secure by default Secure by design Misuse case Computer access control Authentication Multi-factor authentication Authorization Computer security software Antivirus software Security-focused operating system Data-centric security Obfuscation (software) Data masking Encryption Firewall Intrusion detection system Host-based intrusion detection system (HIDS) Anomaly detection Information security management Information risk management Security information and event management (SIEM) Runtime application self-protection Site isolation

• Computer security
• Software bugs
• Software testing