Certainly!

Below are detailed answers to each of your questions:

Explain your top 3 favorite OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities and why
1. Injection (e.g., SQL Injection)
o Why: Injection vulnerabilities, such as SQL Injection, are critical
because they can allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on
the server, potentially leading to data breaches, data loss, or
even full system compromise. These vulnerabilities are often
easy to exploit yet can have severe consequences.
o Example: An attacker can manipulate a SQL query by injecting
malicious SQL code through an input field, gaining unauthorized
access to the database.
2. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
o Why: XSS vulnerabilities are prevalent and can be exploited to
execute malicious scripts in a user's browser, leading to session
hijacking, defacement, or redirection to malicious sites. They can
affect the trust users have in a website.
o Example: An attacker injects a script into a comment section
that executes when other users view the comment, stealing their
session cookies.
3. Broken Authentication and Session Management
o Why: Weak authentication and session management can allow
attackers to impersonate users, leading to unauthorized access
to sensitive information. Ensuring robust authentication
mechanisms is crucial for maintaining the security of user
accounts.
o Example: If session IDs are not properly invalidated after logout,
an attacker could reuse them to gain unauthorized access.
How does TCP 3-way handshake work?
The TCP 3-way handshake is a process used to establish a reliable connection
between a client and a server. It involves three steps:
1. SYN (Synchronize): The client sends a SYN packet to the server to
initiate a connection.
2. SYN-ACK (Synchronize-Acknowledge): The server responds with a
SYN-ACK packet, indicating it received the SYN and is ready to
establish a connection.
3. ACK (Acknowledge): The client sends an ACK packet back to the
server, confirming the connection is established.
This handshake ensures that both parties are ready to communicate and
agree on initial sequence numbers for the data packets.
Why is TLS important in cybersecurity and can you explain the use
of TLS in detail for a website?
TLS (Transport Layer Security) is crucial for cybersecurity as it provides
encryption, data integrity, and authentication for data transmitted over
networks. Here's a detailed explanation of its use for a website:
1. Encryption: TLS encrypts the data exchanged between the client and
the server, preventing eavesdroppers from reading sensitive
information such as login credentials, personal data, and payment
details.
2. Data Integrity: TLS ensures that the data sent and received is not
tampered with during transmission. Any alteration of data can be
detected.
3. Authentication: TLS uses digital certificates to authenticate the
server (and optionally the client), ensuring that the client is
communicating with the legitimate server.
How TLS works for a website:
 When a user visits a website (e.g., https://example.com), the browser
initiates a TLS handshake with the server.
 The server responds with its digital certificate, which includes the
server's public key.
 The browser verifies the certificate against trusted Certificate
Authorities (CAs).
 If the certificate is valid, the browser generates a session key, encrypts
it with the server's public key, and sends it to the server.
 The server decrypts the session key with its private key.
 Both the browser and the server now use the session key to encrypt
and decrypt the data exchanged during the session.
How SSL/TLS makes my content secured over the internet?
SSL/TLS secures content over the internet through the following
mechanisms:
1. Encryption: Data is encrypted before transmission, making it
unreadable to anyone who intercepts it.
2. Authentication: Digital certificates authenticate the server, ensuring
that users are communicating with the legitimate server and not an
imposter.
3. Integrity: Data integrity checks ensure that the data has not been
altered during transmission.
What happens when you type google.com in your browser?
When you type "google.com" in your browser, the following steps occur:
1. DNS Resolution: The browser queries the DNS server to resolve the
domain name "google.com" to an IP address.
2. TCP Connection: The browser establishes a TCP connection with the
server at the resolved IP address using the 3-way handshake.
3. TLS Handshake: If the website uses HTTPS, a TLS handshake is
performed to establish a secure connection.
4. HTTP Request: The browser sends an HTTP GET request to the server
for the webpage.
5. Server Response: The server processes the request and sends back
the requested webpage.
6. Rendering: The browser renders the webpage for the user to view.
What’s the difference between SAST and SCA?
 SAST (Static Application Security Testing): SAST analyzes the
source code or binary code of an application to identify security
vulnerabilities. It is performed early in the development lifecycle and
helps developers fix issues before the application is deployed.
o Example: Checking for SQL injection vulnerabilities in the source
code.
 SCA (Software Composition Analysis): SCA identifies and manages
open-source components and their vulnerabilities within an application.
It helps ensure that third-party libraries and dependencies are secure
and up-to-date.
o Example: Detecting a known vulnerability in an open-source
library used by the application.
What is SQLi and how would you prevent/mitigate it?
SQL Injection (SQLi) is a vulnerability that allows attackers to manipulate
SQL queries by injecting malicious input into an application. This can lead to
unauthorized access to the database, data leakage, or data manipulation.
Prevention/Mitigation:
1. Parameterized Queries: Use prepared statements and
parameterized queries to separate SQL code from user input.
2. Input Validation: Validate and sanitize user inputs to ensure they
conform to expected formats.
3. Least Privilege: Limit database user privileges to minimize the
impact of a successful injection attack.
4. Stored Procedures: Use stored procedures to execute SQL code,
reducing the risk of injection.
5. Web Application Firewalls (WAF): Deploy WAFs to detect and block
malicious SQL injection attempts.
Explain XSS with a few examples and how it can be avoided in the
current software world.
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a vulnerability that allows attackers to inject
malicious scripts into webpages viewed by other users. There are three main
types of XSS:
1. Stored XSS: The malicious script is stored on the server (e.g., in a
database) and executed when users view the affected page.
o Example: An attacker posts a comment containing a script that
steals session cookies when other users view the comment.
2. Reflected XSS: The malicious script is reflected off a web server,
typically via a URL parameter, and executed in the user's browser.
o Example: An attacker sends a link with a malicious script in the
URL. When the user clicks the link, the script executes.
3. DOM-based XSS: The malicious script is executed as a result of
modifying the DOM environment in the user's browser.
o Example: An attacker manipulates the DOM to execute a script
that captures user input.
Prevention/Mitigation:
1. Input Validation: Validate and sanitize all user inputs to ensure they
do not contain malicious scripts.
2. Output Encoding: Encode output to ensure that any user input
displayed on the webpage is treated as data, not executable code.
3. Content Security Policy (CSP): Implement CSP to restrict the
sources from which scripts can be loaded and executed.
4. Escaping: Properly escape special characters in user inputs to prevent
them from being interpreted as code.
How to avoid brute-force attacks on an application. Let’s say the
login page. Explain everything that comes to your mind.
To avoid brute-force attacks on a login page, consider the following
measures:
1. Account Lockout: Temporarily lock accounts after a certain number of
failed login attempts.
2. CAPTCHA: Implement CAPTCHA to distinguish between human users
and automated bots.
3. Rate Limiting: Limit the number of login attempts from a single IP
address within a specific time frame.
4. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Require additional verification
methods (e.g., SMS, email, authenticator apps) beyond just a
password.
5. Strong Password Policies: Enforce strong password policies to make
passwords harder to guess.
6. Monitoring and Alerts: Monitor login attempts and set up alerts for
suspicious activity.
7. IP Whitelisting: Restrict access to the login page from known, trusted
IP addresses.
8. Password Hashing: Store passwords securely using strong hashing
algorithms (e.g., bcrypt, Argon2).
9. Session Management: Ensure proper session management to
prevent session hijacking.
Tell us about a time when you had to learn something new really
quickly and how did you go about it?
Example Response: During a recent project, I was tasked with integrating a
new third-party API into our application. This API was critical for enhancing
our application's functionality, but I had no prior experience with it. Here’s
how I approached the task:
1. Initial Research: I started by reading the API documentation
thoroughly to understand its capabilities, endpoints, and authentication
mechanisms.
2. Online Resources: I searched for tutorials, blog posts, and forums
where developers shared their experiences and best practices for using
the API.
3. Hands-On Practice: I created a small test project to experiment with
the API, making simple requests and handling responses to get a feel
for its behavior.
4. Ask for Help: I reached out to colleagues who had experience with
similar APIs and asked for their insights and advice.
5. Iterative Development: I integrated the API into our application
incrementally, testing each step to ensure it worked correctly and
handling any issues that arose.
6. Documentation: I documented my findings and the integration
process to help future team members who might work with the API.
By combining thorough research, hands-on practice, and seeking help from
experienced colleagues, I was able to quickly learn and successfully
integrate the new API into our application.

Explain CORS, SOP, and CSP from a security point of view

1. CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing):
o Security Point of View: CORS is a security feature
implemented by browsers to control how resources on a web
page can be requested from another domain. It is designed to
prevent malicious websites from making unauthorized requests
to a different domain.
o How it Works: When a web page makes a request to a different
domain (cross-origin request), the browser sends an HTTP
OPTIONS request (preflight request) to the target server to check
if the cross-origin request is allowed. The server responds with
specific headers (e.g., Access-Control-Allow-Origin) indicating
whether the request is permitted.
o Example: A web application hosted on https://example.com
wants to fetch data from https://api.example.com. The server at
https://api.example.com must include the Access-Control-Allow-
Origin: https://example.com header in its response to allow the
request.
2. SOP (Same-Origin Policy):
o Security Point of View: SOP is a security mechanism that
restricts how documents or scripts loaded from one origin can
interact with resources from another origin. It prevents malicious
scripts on one page from accessing sensitive data on another
page through the browser.
o How it Works: SOP allows scripts running on pages originating
from the same site (same protocol, host, and port) to access
each other's data but restricts access to data from different
origins.
o Example: A script on https://example.com cannot access the
DOM or cookies of a page loaded from
https://anotherexample.com.
3. CSP (Content Security Policy):
o Security Point of View: CSP is a security standard that helps
prevent various types of attacks, such as Cross-Site Scripting
(XSS) and data injection attacks, by specifying which sources of
content are trusted.
o How it Works: CSP allows web developers to define a whitelist
of trusted content sources through HTTP headers (e.g., Content-
Security-Policy). The browser enforces these policies, blocking
any resources that do not match the specified sources.
o Example: A CSP header like Content-Security-Policy: default-src
'self'; script-src 'self' https://trusted.cdn.com allows scripts to be
loaded only from the same origin and https://trusted.cdn.com.
How is CSRF dangerous for an application and what must be done to
prevent CSRF in an application?
CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) is dangerous because it tricks
authenticated users into performing unwanted actions on a web application
where they are authenticated. This can lead to unauthorized actions such as
changing account details, making transactions, or modifying data.
Prevention/Mitigation:
1. CSRF Tokens: Include unique, unpredictable tokens in forms and URLs
that are verified on the server side. These tokens should be tied to the
user's session.
2. SameSite Cookies: Use the SameSite attribute for cookies to restrict
them from being sent in cross-origin requests.
3. Double Submit Cookies: Send a CSRF token in both a cookie and a
request parameter and verify that they match on the server side.
4. Referer Header Validation: Check the Referrer header to ensure
requests are coming from trusted origins.
5. User Interaction: Require user interaction (e.g., CAPTCHA) for
sensitive actions to ensure the request is intentional.
Explain the concept of input validation and why it is crucial for
secure coding. Provide examples.
Input Validation is the process of ensuring that user input is correct, safe,
and conforms to expected formats before processing it. It is crucial for secure
coding because it helps prevent various types of attacks, such as SQL
Injection, XSS, and buffer overflows.
Examples:
1. SQL Injection Prevention:
o Example: Validate that input for a user ID is numeric before
using it in a SQL query.
o Code: if (!is_numeric($user_id)) { throw new Exception("Invalid
input"); }
2. XSS Prevention:
o Example: Validate and sanitize user input before displaying it on
a webpage.
o Code: echo htmlspecialchars($user_input, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-
8');
3. Buffer Overflow Prevention:
o Example: Validate the length of input to ensure it does not
exceed the buffer size.
o Code: if (strlen($input) > MAX_LENGTH) { throw new
Exception("Input too long"); }
How do you approach secure error handling and logging in an
application?
Secure Error Handling:
1. Generic Error Messages: Display generic error messages to users to
avoid revealing sensitive information.
o Example: Instead of showing "SQL syntax error," show "An error
occurred. Please try again later."
2. Detailed Logging: Log detailed error information on the server side
for debugging and auditing purposes.
o Example: Log the stack trace, user ID, and request details in a
secure log file.
3. Exception Handling: Use try-catch blocks to handle exceptions
gracefully and ensure the application remains functional.
Secure Logging:
1. Sensitive Data: Avoid logging sensitive information such as
passwords, credit card numbers, or personal data.
2. Access Control: Restrict access to log files to authorized personnel
only.
3. Log Rotation: Implement log rotation to manage log file sizes and
ensure old logs are archived securely.
4. Integrity: Ensure log integrity by using checksums or digital
signatures to detect tampering.
Discuss the role of encryption in secure coding and some best
practices for implementing it.
Role of Encryption: Encryption is essential for protecting sensitive data
both in transit and at rest. It ensures that even if data is intercepted or
accessed by unauthorized parties, it remains unreadable without the
decryption key.
Best Practices:
1. Use Strong Algorithms: Use industry-standard encryption algorithms
such as AES-256 for symmetric encryption and RSA-2048 or higher for
asymmetric encryption.
2. Key Management: Implement secure key management practices,
including key rotation, secure storage, and access control.
3. TLS for Data in Transit: Use TLS to encrypt data transmitted over
networks, ensuring confidentiality and integrity.
4. Encrypt Sensitive Data at Rest: Encrypt sensitive data stored in
databases, files, and backups.
5. Avoid Hardcoding Keys: Never hardcode encryption keys in the
source code. Use secure key management services or environment
variables.
What are some best practices for managing secrets and sensitive
information in code?
1. Environment Variables: Store secrets and sensitive information in
environment variables instead of hardcoding them in the source code.
2. Secret Management Tools: Use secret management tools and
services (e.g., AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault) to securely
store and manage secrets.
3. Access Control: Restrict access to secrets to only those components
and personnel that need them.
4. Encryption: Encrypt secrets both in transit and at rest.
5. Audit and Rotation: Regularly audit access to secrets and rotate
them periodically to minimize the impact of potential exposure.
How do you ensure the security of third-party libraries and
dependencies in your code?
1. Reputable Sources: Use libraries and dependencies from reputable
sources and official repositories.
2. Regular Updates: Keep libraries and dependencies up to date with
the latest security patches.
3. Vulnerability Scanning: Use tools to scan for known vulnerabilities in
third-party libraries (e.g., Snyk, OWASP Dependency-Check).
4. Review and Audit: Review the code and security practices of third-
party libraries before integrating them.
5. Minimal Use: Use the minimal set of dependencies required for your
application to reduce the attack surface.
What are the key differences between manual code review and
automated static analysis?
1. Manual Code Review:
o Human Insight: Involves human reviewers who can understand
the context and logic of the code.
o Custom Issues: Can identify custom security issues and logic
flaws that automated tools might miss.
o Time-Consuming: Can be time-consuming and may not scale
well for large codebases.
2. Automated Static Analysis:
o Speed: Quickly scans the entire codebase for known security
vulnerabilities and coding issues.
o Consistency: Provides consistent results and can be integrated
into CI/CD pipelines for continuous monitoring.
o Limited Context: May miss context-specific issues and
generate false positives or false negatives.
Describe your approach to conducting a secure code review. What
do you look for first?
Approach:
1. Preparation: Understand the application's architecture, functionality,
and security requirements.
2. Review Plan: Create a review plan outlining the scope, objectives,
and areas of focus.
3. Automated Tools: Use automated static analysis tools to identify
common vulnerabilities.
4. Manual Review: Conduct a manual review focusing on critical areas
such as authentication, authorization, input validation, and error
handling.
5. Documentation: Document findings, recommendations, and any
remediation steps.
First Look:
1. Authentication and Authorization: Ensure proper implementation
of authentication and authorization mechanisms.
2. Input Validation: Check for proper input validation and sanitization to
prevent injection attacks.
3. Error Handling: Review error handling to ensure no sensitive
information is exposed.
4. Data Protection: Verify that sensitive data is encrypted in transit and
at rest.
Can you give an example of a security vulnerability you discovered
during a code review and how you addressed it?
Example: During a code review, I discovered a SQL Injection vulnerability in
a web application. The application was directly concatenating user input into
SQL queries without proper sanitization.
How I Addressed It:
1. Identified the Issue: Pointed out the specific lines of code where user
input was being concatenated into SQL queries.
2. Recommended Fix: Suggested using parameterized queries to
separate SQL code from user input.
3. Implemented Fix: Worked with the development team to refactor the
code and implement parameterized queries.
4. Tested: Conducted thorough testing to ensure the vulnerability was
resolved and no new issues were introduced.
Which secure coding standards do you follow during a code review
(e.g., OWASP, CERT)?
During a code review, I follow several secure coding standards, including:
1. OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project): Focuses on web
application security and provides guidelines for preventing common
vulnerabilities.
2. CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team): Provides secure
coding standards for various programming languages and focuses on
preventing security flaws and vulnerabilities.
3. CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration): A comprehensive list of
common software weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
How do you balance between finding security issues and
maintaining development velocity during a secure code review?
1. Prioritization: Focus on critical security issues that pose the highest
risk to the application.
2. Incremental Reviews: Conduct incremental code reviews to catch
issues early and avoid large, time-consuming reviews.
3. Automated Tools: Use automated static analysis tools to quickly
identify common vulnerabilities, allowing manual reviews to focus on
complex issues.
4. Collaboration: Work closely with the development team to integrate
security practices into the development process and provide timely
feedback.
5. Training: Provide security training to developers to help them write
secure code from the start, reducing the number of issues found during
reviews.
Describe the STRIDE threat modeling methodology and provide
examples of each threat type.
STRIDE is a threat modeling methodology used to identify and categorize
potential security threats. It stands for:
1. Spoofing: Impersonating another user or system.
o Example: An attacker gains access to a system by using stolen
credentials.
2. Tampering: Modifying data or code.
o Example: An attacker alters data in transit between a client and
server.
3. Repudiation: Denying the performance of an action.
o Example: A user denies making a transaction, and there is no
way to prove otherwise.
4. Information Disclosure: Exposing sensitive information.
o Example: An application leaks user data through verbose error
messages.
5. Denial of Service (DoS): Disrupting service availability.
o Example: An attacker floods a server with requests, causing it to
crash.
6. Elevation of Privilege: Gaining higher privileges than authorized.
o Example: A user exploits a vulnerability to gain administrative
access to a system.
How do you prioritize threats identified during a threat modeling
exercise?
1. Impact: Assess the potential impact of each threat on the application's
confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
2. Likelihood: Evaluate the likelihood of each threat being exploited
based on factors such as ease of exploitation and attacker motivation.
3. Risk Assessment: Calculate the overall risk by combining the impact
and likelihood of each threat.
4. Mitigation Effort: Consider the effort required to mitigate each threat
and the resources available.
5. Business Priorities: Align threat prioritization with business priorities
and objectives.
How would you integrate threat modeling into an Agile development
process?
1. Early Integration: Integrate threat modeling into the early stages of
the Agile development process, such as during sprint planning or
design phases.
2. Iterative Approach: Conduct threat modeling iteratively for each
sprint or feature, focusing on new and changed components.
3. Collaboration: Involve cross-functional teams, including developers,
testers, and security experts, in the threat modeling process.
4. Documentation: Maintain updated threat models and documentation
as the application evolves.
5. Continuous Improvement: Regularly review and update threat
models based on new insights, vulnerabilities, and changes in the
application.

1. Where do we need security in the SDLC phase?

Security should be integrated into every phase of the Software Development
Life Cycle (SDLC):
 Planning: Define security requirements and risk assessment.
 Design: Threat modeling, secure design principles, and architecture
reviews.
 Implementation: Secure coding practices, code reviews, and static
analysis.
 Testing: Dynamic analysis, penetration testing, and security testing.
 Deployment: Secure configuration, environment hardening, and
vulnerability management.
 Maintenance: Continuous monitoring, patch management, and
incident response.
2. What would you suggest for input sanitization?
Input sanitization involves validating and cleaning user inputs to prevent
malicious data from causing harm. Key practices include:
 Whitelist Validation: Only allow known good data.
 Escaping: Properly escape special characters in inputs.
 Regular Expressions: Use regex to enforce input patterns.
 Libraries: Utilize well-maintained libraries for input validation.
3. What should a developer do for secrets management?
Developers should follow these best practices for secrets management:
 Environment Variables: Store secrets in environment variables.
 Secrets Management Tools: Use tools like AWS Secrets Manager,
HashiCorp Vault, or Azure Key Vault.
 Encryption: Encrypt secrets both at rest and in transit.
 Access Control: Limit access to secrets based on the principle of least
privilege.
4. What are some strategies for ensuring secure session
management in web applications?
Secure session management strategies include:
 Session Tokens: Use secure, random session tokens.
 HTTPS: Ensure all session data is transmitted over HTTPS.
 Expiration: Set appropriate session expiration times.
 Regeneration: Regenerate session IDs after login.
 Secure Cookies: Use secure, HttpOnly, and SameSite cookie
attributes.
5. How do you handle security misconfigurations in development
and production environments?
To handle security misconfigurations:
 Configuration Management: Use automated tools to manage and
audit configurations.
 Environment Segregation: Separate development, testing, and
production environments.
 Baseline Configurations: Establish and enforce secure baseline
configurations.
 Regular Audits: Conduct regular security audits and vulnerability
scans.
6. Discuss the importance of least privilege and role-based access
control in application security.
 Least Privilege: Ensures users and systems have the minimum
access necessary, reducing the attack surface.
 Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Assigns permissions based on
roles rather than individuals, simplifying management and enhancing
security.
7. How do you ensure that logging and monitoring are implemented
securely and do not expose sensitive information?
To secure logging and monitoring:
 Log Sanitization: Remove or mask sensitive data in logs.
 Access Control: Restrict access to logs to authorized personnel only.
 Encryption: Encrypt logs both in transit and at rest.
 Monitoring: Implement real-time monitoring and alerting for
suspicious activities.
8. What are the challenges of implementing SDL in a fast-paced
development environment, and how do you overcome them?
Challenges include:
 Time Constraints: Security activities can slow down development.
 Awareness: Developers may lack security knowledge.
 Integration: Difficulty integrating security tools into CI/CD pipelines.
Overcome these by:
 Automation: Use automated security tools.
 Training: Provide ongoing security training for developers.
 Shift Left: Integrate security early in the SDLC.
9. Describe the various phases of SDL and the security activities
involved in each phase.
 Requirements: Define security requirements.
 Design: Conduct threat modeling and design reviews.
 Implementation: Apply secure coding practices and static analysis.
 Verification: Perform dynamic analysis, penetration testing, and code
reviews.
 Release: Ensure secure deployment and configuration.
 Response: Monitor, respond to incidents, and patch vulnerabilities.
10. How can an attacker exploit SSRF and what an application
developer must do to prevent SSRF?
Exploitation:
 An attacker tricks the server into making requests to unintended
locations, potentially accessing internal services or sensitive data.
Prevention:
 Input Validation: Validate and sanitize user inputs.
 Allowlist: Restrict requests to a predefined list of safe URLs.
 Network Segmentation: Isolate internal services from the internet.
 Timeouts and Limits: Implement request timeouts and rate limits.
11. What step would you plan to ensure developers follow secure
coding practices?
 Training: Regular security training sessions.
 Guidelines: Provide secure coding guidelines and checklists.
 Code Reviews: Conduct regular security-focused code reviews.
 Tools: Integrate static and dynamic analysis tools into the CI/CD
pipeline.
12. How would you make developers aware and involved in secure
code development?
 Workshops: Conduct hands-on security workshops.
 Gamification: Use security challenges and competitions.
 Feedback: Provide constructive feedback during code reviews.
 Recognition: Recognize and reward secure coding practices.
13. How do you handle typical developer and security clash
situations?
 Collaboration: Foster a collaborative culture between developers and
security teams.
 Education: Educate developers on the importance of security.
 Compromise: Find a balance between security and usability.
 Tools: Use tools that integrate seamlessly into the development
workflow.
14. What were your interesting findings in the secure code review?
 Common Issues: SQL injection, XSS, insecure deserialization, and
hardcoded credentials.
 Best Practices: Adoption of secure coding standards, use of
parameterized queries, and proper input validation.
15. What are the common vulnerabilities you have experienced so
far?
 SQL Injection: Improper handling of user inputs in SQL queries.
 Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): Inadequate input sanitization.
 Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF): Lack of anti-CSRF tokens.
 Insecure Authentication: Weak password policies and insecure
storage.
16. How would you approach identifying and mitigating security
risks in a large, legacy codebase that hasn’t been regularly
maintained for security?
 Assessment: Conduct a comprehensive security assessment.
 Prioritization: Prioritize vulnerabilities based on risk.
 Refactoring: Refactor critical sections of the code.
 Monitoring: Implement continuous monitoring and regular security
reviews.
17. Describe a strategy to ensure secure coding practices in a multi-
team development environment, especially when teams are working
on interdependent components.
 Standardization: Establish and enforce secure coding standards.
 Training: Provide regular security training for all teams.
 Communication: Facilitate regular inter-team communication and
collaboration.
 Tools: Use consistent security tools and practices across teams.
18. How would you implement and enforce a secure coding standard
in a globally distributed development team?
 Documentation: Provide comprehensive and accessible
documentation.
 Training: Conduct virtual training sessions.
 Automation: Use automated tools to enforce standards.
 Reviews: Implement regular code reviews and audits.
19. How would you design a security strategy to protect a
microservices architecture from both external and internal threats?
What are the challenges you might face while designing and
implementing it?
Strategy:
 API Gateway: Use an API gateway for centralized security controls.
 Authentication: Implement strong authentication and authorization
mechanisms.
 Encryption: Encrypt data in transit and at rest.
 Monitoring: Implement comprehensive logging and monitoring.
Challenges:
 Complexity: Managing security across numerous services.
 Consistency: Ensuring consistent security policies.
 Performance: Balancing security with performance.
20. Describe how you would conduct threat modeling for a cloud-
native application. What specific security concerns are most critical
in any cloud native application?
Threat Modeling:
 Identify Assets: Determine critical assets and data.
 Identify Threats: Use frameworks like STRIDE to identify threats.
 Assess Risks: Evaluate the impact and likelihood of threats.
 Mitigation: Develop mitigation strategies.
Critical Concerns:
 Data Security: Protecting data at rest and in transit.
 Identity and Access Management: Ensuring secure access controls.
 Configuration Management: Securing cloud configurations.
 Monitoring: Implementing robust monitoring and incident response.
21. Can you provide an example of how you have implemented SDL
in a past project?
 Example: In a past project, we integrated SDL by:
o Planning: Defining security requirements early.
o Design: Conducting threat modeling sessions.
o Implementation: Using static analysis tools.
o Testing: Performing penetration testing.
o Deployment: Ensuring secure configurations.
o Maintenance: Implementing continuous monitoring.
22. What are some key metrics you would track to measure the
effectiveness of an SDL program?
 Vulnerability Density: Number of vulnerabilities per line of code.
 Time to Remediation: Average time to fix vulnerabilities.
 Security Training Completion: Percentage of developers completing
security training.
 Incident Frequency: Number of security incidents over time.
23. How would you design a safe and secure password mechanism?
 Hashing: Use strong hashing algorithms like bcrypt, scrypt, or Argon2.
 Salting: Add a unique salt to each password before hashing.
 Peppering: Optionally, add a secret pepper to further secure
passwords.
 Policies: Enforce strong password policies and regular password
changes.
24. Can you explain the password hashing function and the
importance of salt? Also, how salting and hashing passwords are
used in this domain?
 Hashing: Converts a password into a fixed-length string of characters.
 Salting: Adds a unique value to each password before hashing to
prevent rainbow table attacks.
 Usage: Store the hashed and salted passwords in the database.
During authentication, hash and salt the input password and compare
it with the stored hash.
25. You use the SCA tool to find vulnerabilities in 3rd party libraries.
How would you mitigate those vulnerabilities found and risks
associated with third-party libraries and frameworks?
 Assessment: Evaluate the impact of the vulnerabilities.
 Updates: Update to the latest secure versions of libraries.
 Patching: Apply patches if available.
 Isolation: Isolate vulnerable components if updates are not possible.
 Monitoring: Continuously monitor for new vulnerabilities.
26. Your company is developing a new financial application that
handles sensitive customer data, including banking information.
Describe how you would approach threat modeling for this
application. What specific threats would you consider, and how
would you prioritize and mitigate them?
Approach:
 Identify Assets: Customer data, banking information.
 Identify Threats: Data breaches, unauthorized access, fraud.
 Assess Risks: Evaluate the impact and likelihood of each threat.
 Mitigation: Implement encryption, strong authentication, and regular
audits.
Specific Threats:
 Data Breaches: Encrypt data at rest and in transit.
 Unauthorized Access: Implement multi-factor authentication.
 Fraud: Monitor transactions for suspicious activities.
27. You are tasked with performing a secure code review for a web
application that has been recently developed. During the review,
you find several instances where user inputs are directly
concatenated into SQL queries. Explain how you would address this
issue and guide the development team to implement a secure
solution.
 Issue: Direct concatenation of user inputs leads to SQL injection
vulnerabilities.
 Solution: Use parameterized queries or prepared statements.
 Guidance: Educate the development team on secure coding practices
and provide examples of parameterized queries.
28. A development team is working on a new feature that requires
handling and storing user passwords. They plan to use a simple
hash function (e.g., MD5) to store these passwords. As a security
architect, how would you advise them on securely handling and
storing passwords? Provide a detailed explanation of best practices.
 Issue: MD5 is not secure for password hashing.
 Advice: Use strong hashing algorithms like bcrypt, scrypt, or Argon2.
 Best Practices:
o Salting: Add a unique salt to each password.
o Peppering: Optionally, add a secret pepper.
o Hashing: Use a secure hashing algorithm.
o Storage: Store the hashed and salted passwords securely.
29. During a code review, you discover that the application does not
properly handle errors and exceptions. For example, stack traces
are exposed to end users, which could potentially reveal sensitive
information. Describe how you would rectify this situation and
implement secure error handling and logging practices.
 Issue: Exposing stack traces reveals sensitive information.
 Solution:
o Error Handling: Implement custom error pages.
o Logging: Log errors securely without exposing sensitive data.
o Monitoring: Monitor logs for suspicious activities.
o Guidance: Educate the development team on secure error
handling practices.
30. A critical vulnerability is discovered in a third-party library used
extensively in your company’s application. Explain the process you
would follow to assess the impact, communicate with stakeholders,
and implement a fix. How would you prevent similar issues in the
future?
 Assessment: Evaluate the impact of the vulnerability on the
application.
 Communication: Inform stakeholders about the vulnerability and its
potential impact.
 Fix: Update the library to a secure version or apply patches.
 Prevention: Regularly monitor for vulnerabilities, use automated
tools, and establish a vulnerability management process.
31. You are designing the architecture for a new e-commerce
platform that includes a web application, mobile application, and
backend APIs. Outline the security architecture you would propose,
including key components and technologies to ensure robust
security across all layers.
 Web Application: Implement HTTPS, secure session management,
and input validation.
 Mobile Application: Use secure storage, encrypted communication,
and strong authentication.
 Backend APIs: Use API gateways, rate limiting, and secure
authentication.
 Database: Encrypt data at rest and implement access controls.
 Monitoring: Implement comprehensive logging and monitoring.
32. How would you review an architecture to prevent an automated
brute force attack or dictionary attack (think of different brute force
attack techniques)?
 Rate Limiting: Implement rate limiting on login attempts.
 Account Lockout: Temporarily lock accounts after multiple failed
attempts.
 CAPTCHA: Use CAPTCHA to prevent automated attacks.
 Multi-Factor Authentication: Implement multi-factor authentication
for added security.
 Monitoring: Monitor for unusual login patterns and alert on suspicious
activities.
These answers should provide a comprehensive understanding of various
security practices and strategies in software development and application
security.