Difference between revisions of "OWASP Security Ninja Project"

TEMPORARY NOTE: There is an existing project called the OWASP Security Ninjas Training Program, sponsored by OpenDNS. The project is a single module with labs training class. They used the Ninja metaphor, but not as the backdrop and marketing focus we would do with this new project. I am requesting that the existing Security Ninjas Training modify or relinquish their name.

Instructions are in RED text and should be removed from your document by deleting the text with the span tags. This document is intended to serve as an example of what is required of an OWASP project wiki page. The text in red serves as instructions, while the text in black serves as an example. Text in black is expected to be replaced entirely with information specific to your OWASP project.

The OWASP Security Principles

This is where you need to add your more robust project description. A project description should outline the purpose of the project, and the value it provides to application security. Ideally, project descriptions should be written in such a way that there is no question what value the project provides to the software security community. This section will be seen and used in various places within the Projects Portal. Poorly written project descriptions therefore detract from a project’s visibility, and project leaders should ensure that the description is meaningful.

Inevitably applications are designed with security principles architects knew about, security folks included. However, as this project demonstrates there are far more than just a 'few' principles, most of which never make it into the design.

For example, security design happens with perhaps a handful of principles:

• Least Privilege
• Perimeter Security
• Defence in Depth

However, we regularly see designs without separation of privilege!

Think about that, most web applications today have all their eggs in a single basket. The business logic, the identities, passwords, products, policy enforcement, security rules are all found in the same application database that makes up the typical website! It is little wonder then, that attacks on the database have been so completely devastating, since there is no separation of privilege!

The aim of this project, is to identify and describe a minimum functional set of principles that must be present in a secure design.

Description

The OWASP Security Ninja Program exists to educate, empower, and recognize developers and testers in the field of web application security. Security belts measure domain specific knowledge and application, ranging from white to black belt.

This section must include a shorter description of what the project is, why the project was started, and what security issue is being helped by the project deliverable. This description will be used to promote the project so make sure the description represents your project in the best way possible.

Although this is a sample template, the project is real! Please contribute to this project.

Over the course of my career, I have come across and collected a number of security aphorisms. These aphorisms constitute the fundamental principles of information security.

None of the ideas or truths are mine, and unfortunately, I did not collect the citations. Initially, I would like to identify the correct citations for each aphorism.

Additionally, many are re-statements of the same idea; thus, the 'collection of ideas' defines a fundamental principle. As such, I would also like to reverse engineer the principles from the aphorisms where appropriate, as well.

Licensing

Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

A project must be licensed under a community friendly or open source license.  For more information on OWASP recommended licenses, please see OWASP Licenses. While OWASP does not promote any particular license over another, the vast majority of projects have chosen a Creative Commons license variant for documentation projects, or a GNU General Public License variant for tools and code projects.

The OWASP Security Principles are free to use. In fact it is encouraged!!! Additionally, I also encourage you to contribute back to the project. I have no monopoly on this knowledge; however, we all have pieces of this knowledge from our experience. Let's begin by putting our individual pieces together to make something great. Great things happen when people work together.

The OWASP Security Principles are licensed under the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license], so you can copy, distribute and transmit the work, and you can adapt it, and use it commercially, but all provided that you attribute the work and if you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

What is OWASP Security Principles Project?

Here you should add a short description of what your project actually does. What is the primary goal of your project, and why is it important? The tangible deliverables are broken down into two categories: content and infrastructure. Content refers to any artifacts that contain specific learning. Infrastructure is any of the systems required to deliver the training to the learner.

On the content side, the deliverables are individual training module videos, assessments, and any associated slides or documentation that assist the learner in understanding the topic (and are used in the training video). Other deliverables may include virtual machines or lab based exercises available for download.

On the infrastructure side, front end interfaces, web servers, databases, storage, and a learning management system are required to deliver the training content to the Internet community. A front end interface and a custom piece of middleware are the main code based deliverables. A discussion will take place with the core team in the future to determine if any of the infrastructure is required, or if the content itself will be released.

The end goal is to identify, cite, and document the fundamental principles of information security. Once this is well organised, I think it would be great to publish this through the OWASP Press. Of course, it will always remain freely available, and any money collected will go directly into the project to absorb costs with any remaining funds going to the OWASP Foundation.

This document should serve as a guide to technical architects and designers outlining the fundamental principles of security.

Presentation

Coming Soon.

Project Leader

• Chris Romeo

Related Projects

• [OWASP Education Project]

Code Repository

The OWASP Security Ninja code will be stored on GitHub shortly.

News and Events

• [2015-12-06] Project site kicked off, and search for volunteers begins.

Classifications