This site is the archived OWASP Foundation Wiki and is no longer accepting Account Requests.
To view the new OWASP Foundation website, please visit https://owasp.org

Difference between revisions of "OWASP Summer of Code 2008 Applications"

From OWASP
Jump to: navigation, search
(P006 OWASP Corporate Application Security Rating Guide and P025 OWASP Positive Security Project)
(P006 OWASP Corporate Application Security Rating Guide and P025 OWASP Positive Security Project)
Line 542: Line 542:
 
'''Benefits'''
 
'''Benefits'''
  
The whole community will be benefited from these initiatives. With the adequate support from OWASP to maintain the projects active and liaise with big players on the market, we can expect the following:
+
The whole community will be benefited from these initiatives. With the adequate support from OWASP to maintain the projects active and liaise with big players on the market, we can expect the following:
  
The community will receive a Security Rating Guide that will allow them to compare their own security practices within the market. As this will be a public document, suppliers and buyers worldwide will share the same information allowing them to adequate the expectations on the usage of security services and tools.
+
The community will receive a Security Rating Guide that will allow them to compare their own security practices within the market. As this will be a public document, suppliers and buyers worldwide will share the same information allowing them to adequate the expectations on the usage of security services and tools.
  
The Security Rating Guide can be used as a marketing tool by the companies, allowing them to sell security as a business value and avoiding the old-fashion and inadequate FUD approach.
+
The Security Rating Guide can be used as a marketing tool by the companies, allowing them to sell security as a business value and avoiding the old-fashion and inadequate FUD approach.
  
The knowledge and relationship developed during the production of the Security Rating Guide will allow us to produce the deliverables on Positive Security Project with real information, increasing the credibility of the initiative for the market.
+
The knowledge and relationship developed during the production of the Security Rating Guide will allow us to produce the deliverables on Positive Security Project with real information, increasing the credibility of the initiative for the market.
  
The Security Rating Guide and the Positive Security Project can be walk in parallel, merging their information to support a concise and continuous marketing campaign to encourage a positive approach on the market.
+
The Security Rating Guide and the Positive Security Project can be walk in parallel, merging their information to support a concise and continuous marketing campaign to encourage a positive approach on the market.
  
As an open community free from commercial pressures, OWASP can use both projects to support the evaluation of security products for the market, allowing the organization to receive profits from these services and support current and future projects.
+
As an open community free from commercial pressures, OWASP can use both projects to support the evaluation of security products for the market, allowing the organization to receive profits from these services and support current and future projects.
  
 
'''Summarized Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)'''
 
'''Summarized Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)'''
Line 584: Line 584:
 
''(1) Support from OWASP Foundation is required to liaise with companies and associations worldwide
 
''(1) Support from OWASP Foundation is required to liaise with companies and associations worldwide
  
(2) Support from OWASP Foundation and community are required to evaluate adequate marketing templates and translate original documents for their own languages
+
''(2) Support from OWASP Foundation and community are required to evaluate adequate marketing templates and translate original documents for their own languages''
  
(3) Support from OWASP community is required to spread the word on all countries were OWASP members are located.''
+
''(3) Support from OWASP community is required to spread the word on all countries were OWASP members are located.''
'''
+
'''''
  
 
Project Control'''
 
Project Control'''

Revision as of 15:54, 20 March 2008

This page contains project Applications to the OWASP Summer Of Code 2008

A few notes

  • If you want to apply for a SoC 2008 sponsorship you HAVE TO USE THIS PAGE for your application.
  • You can propose your project in any form you wish, but the best proposals will be well thought out, clear and concise, and reflective of your passion for the topic. We strongly suggest that you include this information in your proposal.

Applications - {Fill in below}

The Application Security Desk Reference - ASDR

  • Leonardo Cavallari Militelli
  • Proposal: Make OWASP ASDR Project a release quality document.

The ASDR is a reference volume that contains basic information about all the foundational topics in application security. It intends to replace and refresh Honeycomb Project with a new structure for articles and relationship between categories, thus making it a release quality doc.

This idea raised when finished the Attack Reference Guide for OWASP Spring Of Code 2007, where it was identified that OWASP reference articles need some special attention. Jeff Williams is totally supporting this project.

We already have defined which type of article we should include on Desk Reference, as follows:

  • Road Map: A complete project roadmap can be found on ASDR Table of Contents. Basically, the following activities should be performed, some of them already started:
    • Define articles templates for each reference type
    • Define subcategories for articles classification
    • Compile first DRAFT version of ASDR Book
    • Articles development & Call for Volunteers
    • Articles revision
    • First version of OWASP ASDR book

OWASP Code review guide, V1.1

  • Eoin Keary,

Code Review Guide Proposal:

Introduction:The code review guide is currently at version RC 2.0 and the second best selling OWASP book. I have received many positive comments regarding this initial version and believe it’s a key enabler for the OWASP fight against software insecurity.

It has even inspired individuals to build tools based on its information and I have convinced such people (Alessio Marziali) to open source their tool and make it an OWASP project.

The combination of a book on secure code review and a tool to support such an activity is very powerful as it gives the developer community a place to start regarding secure application development.

Proposal: I am proposing that I improve the code review guide from a number of aspects. This should place the guide as a de facto secure code review guide in the application security industry.

Additional and expanded Chapters:

Transactional analysis
Expand chapter.
Examples via diagrams.

Threat Modeling and Analysis
The approach to examining an application to be reviewed.
Focusing on areas of interest.

Example reports and how to write one
How to determine the risk level of a finding.

Automated code review
Code crawler documentation and usage.

Rich Internet Applications
Expanded chapters on Flash, Ajax.

The OWASP ESAPI (Enterprise Security API)
What it is, Why use it. What to review.

Code review Metrics:
How to compile, use and analyse metrics.
Rolling out metrics in the Enterprise.

Integrating Code review with an existing SDLC Integration of Secure Code review with an existing SDLC.
Secure Code review roadmap definition.
Documentation requirements.
Scope definition.
SDLC steering comittee establishment.
Performace criteria, benchmarks and metrics.
Integration of SDLC results into key IT governance areas.
Critical success factors.


The OWASP Testing Guide v3

  • Matteo Meucci
  • The OWASP Testing Guide v2 was a great success, with thousand downloads and many many Companies that have adopted it as standard for a Web Application Penetration Testing.

Now it's time to begin a new project that is based on v2 but improve it and complete it.

In the OWASP Testing Guide v2 we have split the set of tests in 8 sub-categories:

   * Information Gathering
   * Business logic testing
   * Authentication Testing
   * Session Management Testing
   * Data Validation Testing
   * Denial of Service Testing
   * Web Services Testing
   * AJAX Testing 

The following are my thoughts about the new OWASP Testing Guide v3:

1) Authorization testing missing. As Jeff and Dave said many time before it's important to create a new category. 2) Information gathering is not a set of vulnerabilities --> not in report --> new category: Passive mode analysis 3) Infrastructural test --> new category 4) Web Services section needs improvement 5) AJAX Testing section needs improvement 6) New category: Client side Testing. AJAX and Flash Testing

  • This document analyze the OWASP Testing Guide v2 vulnerabilities and a plan for create the new v3.


Code Crawler

  • Alessio Marziali (aka nTze)

Description
This tool is aimed at assisting code review practitioners. It is a static code review tool which searches for key topics within .NET and J2EE/JAVA code. The aim of the tool is to accompany the OWASP Code review Guide and to implement a total code review solution for "everyone"; Where "everyone" means "more" companies performing secure software activities.

Key areas of improvement:
Reporting
- PDF - Microsoft Office Compatible Word Document - HTML

Scanning
- Multiple File scanned at the same time
-- Open Microsoft Visual Studio's Solutions

Bigger Database
Which will provide more information about the threats such vulnerability type (XSS,SQL Injection, Remote File Inclusion etc).
Security Software Life Cycle
A feature that will let you save the threats for each project/document, so the reviewer can check how the development is going from a “security prospective” during the entire software lifecycle.

Improvement of the code scan system.

The Owasp Orizon Project

  • Paolo Perego (aka thesp0nge),
  • The Owasp Orizon Project,

Introduction

The Owasp Orizon Project born in 2006 in order to provide a framework to all Owasp projects developing code review services.

The project is in a quite stable stage and it is usable for Java static code review and some dynamic tests against XSS. Owasp Orizon includes also APIs for code crawling, usable for code crawling tools.

Milk project is a java code review tool I'm writing using Orizon as background engine. Its goal is to show engine capabilities.

Objectives and deliverables

  • plugin architecture for static code review library: this planned feature will be announced (hopefully, if my CFP will be accepted) to next Owasp European App conf.
  • starting C# support
  • upgrade from Alpha quality project to Beta quality project in accord to Owasp Project Assessment criteria

Why I should be sponsored for the project

Owasp Orizon is the first Owasp project I'm involved in. I'm also contributor of Owasp Italian chapter managed by Matteo Meucci and I'm talking at various speeches about application security and safe coding best practices.

I'm a security consultant working in ethical hacking and we're approaching code review and safe topics right now. I'm a developer too so I understand also the "dark side" of the problem developing code with security in mind.

I work using the "release early release often" paradigm so to be concrete and let other people having something usable to work with.

In the last year Owasp Orizon evolved a lot with a good static code review engine and a lot of code was written to give Owasp guys the best framework as possible to be used for writing code review tools. I hope to pursuit my goals again with SoC 2008.

Skavenger

  • Matthias Rohr

Introduction

Skavenger is a web application security assessment toolkit which arised from many years of professional experience in the web application assessment field and is the result of nearly one your of work.

It passively analyzes traffic logged by various MITM proxies (such as WebScarab and Burp) as well as other sources (like Firefox's LiveHTTPHeader plugin) and helps to identify various kinds of possible vulnerabilities (such as XSS, CRLF injection, an insecure session management and several kinds of information disclosure). Skavenger's modular design allows the integration of custom scanning modules without any knowledge about the tool at all.

Skavenger is completely written in Perl and can be downloaded from: https://sourceforge.net/projects/skavenger/

Objectives and deliverables

Here are some ideas:

  • A GUI to monitor and analyze scanning results
  • More sophisticated scanner modules (e.g. for better backend identification and more platform specific tests)
  • Database integration
  • API's to integrate modules in other languages (such as Python or Java).
  • Better source integration with custom Firefox, Burp or (of course) WebScarab plugins


OWASP .NET Project Leader

  • Mark Roxberry

Project Proposal

Assume the lead of the OWASP .NET Project. Ensure that information, materials and software are relevant to building secure .NET web applications and services. Provide deep content for all roles related to .NET web applications and services including:

  • Architectural guidance
  • Developer tools, information and checklists
  • IT professional content (for those that deploy and maintain .NET websites)
  • Penetration testing resources
  • Incident response resources


The OWASP .NET Project Leader will actively recruit .NET contributors, including personnel from Microsoft, but others throughout the .NET ecosystem. Including experts from communities from large companies to ISVs, from enterprise architects to ALT.NET developers will be important for the overall reach of the OWASP .NET project. Other communities to consider include developers who use Mono (.NET for Linux), including Moonlight (Silverlight for Linux).

The OWASP .NET Project Leader will actively contribute to the OWASP projects that require .NET resources, by recruiting resources or contributing to the project.

I propose to have the project active in 1-3 months, with continuous recruitment efforts for contributors for the life of the project. Metrics for success can include number of contributors, number of articles, search engine ranks for pages and site visit counts. For the application however, I will submit that within 3 months I can provide a baseline to set site goals for each metric.

Why I should be sponsored for the project

I have previously contributed to the OWASP Test Guide v2 project, providing content and reviewed content. I care about the OWASP mission. In fact, I have used the OWASP Top 10 to teach developers about vulnerabilities in web applications.

I have 15 years of technical leadership experience using Microsoft technologies. I have lead small and large teams as a technical lead, lead developer and architect on small and large projects. I am a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a Certified Ethical Hacker. I am on top of current trends and required to be informed regarding .NET web development and security, including, for example ASP.NET MVC, Silverlight, Unity, Entity Framework. I am personally interested in providing security resources to .NET developers globally, specific and applicable to their projects.

OWASP Backend Security Project

  • Full name: Carlo Pelliccioni
  • Project: OWASP Backend Security Project
  • Project description:
OWASP Backend Security Project is a new project created to improve and to collect the existant information about the backend security.
The project is composed by three sections (security development, security hardening and security testing).
The aim is to define the guidelines for the companies and IT professionals working in the security field into processes development and back-end components management/testing in the enterprise architecture.
  • Objectives:
Overview
Create a section with an introduction about the project (high-level description) explaining the main
goals.
Development
Include the writings already existant in OWASP wiki concerning PHP,
JAVA and ASP.NET and extend the projects' sections with new contents.
Hardening
Create new guidelines about the dbms hardening
Testing
Include the writings already existant in OWASP wiki about security testing.
Create new articles about security testing.

OWASP Classic ASP Security Project

  • Juan Carlos Calderon

Executive Summary
I am interested in making P018 - OWASP Classic ASP Security Project happen, Classic ASP 2.0 and 3.0 applications are still largely used as this technology is more than 10 years old and was largely used. there are thousands of sites on the wild that need guidance on the security arena. This is where OWASP can come up and provide help for “making the Web a better place” and continue spreading the word on security. I have always be a passionate of the technology (regardless of its inconveniences such as being old and DLL-hell prone) and I am really exited on the idea of sharing my knowledge of this area to the world and what best that though OWASP.

Objectives and Deliverables
Create a secure framework for Classic ASP application by complementing existing OWASP projects with documentation for this particular technology and the creation of security libraries. More specifically:

  • Creation of a Common Object Repository for ASP applications based on OWASP ESAPI Project including objects and/or references to libraries for security applications all this aligned with OWASP Top10 and OWASP Guide .
  • Create Documentation aligned to OWASP Code Review Project Checklist providing additional technology-specific checks.
  • Addition of expression for Code Review Tool to support Classic ASP applications.
  • Implementation of Version 1 of Stinger for ASP either by using an installable COM library or ISAPI.
  • This same module will compliment the OWASP Validation Documentation Project.

Why should I be sponsored for the project?
I have 10 years of experience on Web technologies. During 8 years I have performed and leaded hundreds of Security Source Code Reviews and Black box testing on Web Applications. On my current job I lead 30 people in diverse locations all of them working on the Application Security arena, so I am accustomed to execute and deliver.

Also I’ve had close contact with OWASP since 2005 [1] by making possible the translation of OWASP Top 10 2004 [2] and OWASP Testing Guide V1.17 [3] to Spanish.

Internationalization Guidelines and OWASP-Spanish Project

  • Juan Carlos Calderon

Executive Summary
The main goal of OWASP is to spread the word about security (“Our mission is to make application security "visible," so that people and organizations can make informed decisions about application security risks.”) and OWASP has done great work so far :). And now it’s time for a next big step.

The number of native and secondary speakers in the world for Chinese, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic and Indi languages are estimated in similar number to English speaking or even more (Some References at Ethnologue, Encarta, Wikipedia). I think is a good time for OWASP to reach those that do not speak English to have full access to all the OWASP materials, not just a couple of documents.

OWASP, while open to translations, do not have clear guidelines on how to translate OWASP contents and (AFAIK) there is no multi-language support in OWASP.org site. This is understandable as there is no formal project for internationalization so far.

Oportunity and Effort
This is great opportunity to make Spanish the first language on which the OWASP site and documentation is fully translated and at the same time share the experience with other people interested in the same objective, Bring OWASP to the world. And this is something I’ve being pushing for some time ago and that could be possible “at once” via SoC 2008.

I understand this is significant effort so to have it done I will count with the help of 6 people (friend of mine, all of them Security auditors with excellent English level) plus a few well known contributors from OWASP-Spanish effort, so the founding will be divided among the people involved in the same proportion of the work they do for the completion of this effort. This, to encourage delivery.

Objectives and Deliverables

  • Team up with Larry Casey to implement Multilanguage support in OWASP.org Mediawiki.
  • General Guidelines on minimum/recommended requirements to start a new language translation for OWASP Document and Site Pages
  • General Guidelines on minimum/recommended requirements to implement internationalization and localization (i18n) on OWASP Software
  • Full translation to Spanish of all the release-level document projects. Those are:
    • Top 10 2007
    • Guide 2 (Already translated)
    • Testing Guide (Already Translated)
    • Legal
    • FAQ
  • Full Translation of major sections of OWASP Site
    • Project Main Pages (Release, Beta and Alpha levels for both documents and tools projects)
    • Principles
    • References Section
    • Conferences
    • News (Those currently displayed in OWASP site)
    • About OWASP
  • Evaluation of Spanish translation approach for WebGoat and WebScarab and delivery of this document to Bruce and Rogan for possible implementation in near future.
  • Leverage for deploy of es.owasp.org, the domain already exists but is not redirecting correctly.
  • Create a Communication strategy to help and keep track on new pages or changes in significant pages so all the translations are in sync.

Out of Scope
Translation of the following sections are NOT in Scope

  • Local Chapters Pages
  • Presentations
  • Conferences
  • Videos
  • Blogs
  • All the projects deliverables in Alpha and Beta Stages
  • All the documentation “on development” like Guide Version 3.0
  • Translation of Pages, documentation or tools to other language other than Spanish according to the stated in above section.

Why should I be sponsored for the project?
I’ve being part of contributions to OWASP documents on the translation arena since 2005 [4], a few of them by making possible the translation of OWASP Top 10 2004 [5] and OWASP Testing Guide V1.17 [6] to Spanish. It is time to make the full job done :).

I have 10 years of experience on Web technologies. During 8 years I have performed and leaded hundreds of Security Source Code Reviews and Black box testing on Web Applications. On my current job I lead 30 people in diverse locations all of them working on the Application Security arena, so I am accustomed to execute and deliver.

The Ruby on Rails Security Guide v2

Heiko Webers

The last security guide for Rails [7] was a great success, with a lot of more secure web applications and continued awareness in the community of security issues. The Ruby on Rails Security Project [8] is the one and only source of information about Rails security topics, and I keep the community up-to-date with blog posts and conference talks in Europe. The Guide and the Project has been mentioned in several Rails books and web-sites.

Version 1 of the Ruby on Rails Security Guide was sponsored by the SpoC 07, set the standard for OWASP programming language specific guides in terms of the topic outline and has been published as a book [9]. Nevertheless I'm convinced that a more compact design and a "question-and-answer" style of writing will reach an even larger audience. Of course the new Guide will still include answers to the OWASP Top Ten security vulnerabilities.

A lot has changed since the publishing of the first Guide. Some new security holes have been found, there are new advises and most importantly Rails version 2.0 has been released. The new Ruby on Rails Security Guide aims at providing an up-to-date coding and configuration guide for the Rails community.

In the new Rails Security Guide I'd like to

  • update the entire book to match Rails 2.0
  • cover new topics, including, but not limited to:
    • Intranet and administration interface security,
    • phishing,
    • real-world attack situations,
    • short excursus on server monitoring,
    • the new CookieStore session management,
    • vulnerabilities in popular plug-ins,
    • denial-of-service attacks
  • cover all OWASP Top Ten security vulnerabilities
  • a more compact writing style, more examples and "questions-and-answers"
  • introduce the OWASP and Rails security to a greater audience

OWASP Application Security Verification Standard

  • Mike

OWASP Application Security Verification Standard Proposal

Educational and professional background

The applicant is a hands-on senior professional services manager with a trademark of developing creative solutions to complex application security-related technical problems.

Application security experience and accomplishments

The applicant has a background in trusted product evaluation:

  • CC evaluation
  • CC evidence development, including operating system test code development
  • CC project management
  • TCSEC evaluation
  • TCSEC project management
  • TEF management
  • CCTL management

The applicant also has a background in security-related software development and integration:

  • PKI toolkit development
  • PK-E application integration
  • Secure web portal application development
  • Secure web portal integration
  • Secure instant messaging application development, including three patents

The applicant also has a background in cryptomodule testing:

  • FIPS 140 evaluation
  • FIPS 140 evidence development

Participation and leadership in open communities

The applicant does not have experience in contributing to open communities.

The opportunity, challenges, issues or need your proposal addresses

OWASP is looking for a commercially-workable open standard for performing application security verification efforts. The problem is that there is a huge range in the coverage and level of rigor available in the market, and consumers have no way to tell the difference between someone just running a grep tool, and someone doing painstaking code review and manual testing. So, a standard is needed.

Objectives or ways in which you will meet the goal(s)

The applicant’s proposal will address the above challenges as follows:

  • The applicant will define an evaluation framework that may be used to conduct OWASP Application Security Verification Standard certifications.
  • The applicant will define an OWASP Application Security Verification Standard which defines levels that applications may be certified against.

Specific activities and who will carry out these activities

The applicant will carry out these activities. Please see below for a proposed list of specific deliverables.

Specific deliverables and a rough project schedule so we can track progress

The applicant proposes the following deliverables:

  • Scheme Overview document. This will define the overall framework with roles, responsibilities, and processes.
  • Evaluation and Certification document. This will describe the evaluation and certification process.
  • Conditions for the Use of Trademarks. This will describe OWASP’s name, logo, and certificate may be used and referenced.
  • Evaluation Report Content Requirements. This will describe the content requirements of evaluation reports.
  • OWASP Application Security Verification Standard. This will define the levels that applications may be certified against.
  • OWASP Application Security Verification Standard Appendix A. This will define the required content of the OWASP Application Security Verification Standard Security Policy.
  • Policy Letter #1. Acceptance of Security Policies into OWASP Evaluation This will define the requirements to be listed as in evaluation on the OWASP web site.

The applicant proposes the following rough project schedule:

  • 2nd April. Project kickoff.
  • 15th June. Alpha Quality drafts of Scheme Overview document and of OWASP Application Security Verification Standard document completed.
  • 31st August. Project completion. Beta Quality drafts of all documents completed.

Long-term vision for the project

The long-term vision for the project is to normalize the range in the coverage and level of rigor available in the market when it comes to performing application security verification.

Any other reasons why you and your project should be selected.

The applicant has a uniquely-qualified perspective given his experience with TCSEC, TTAP, CC, FIPS 140-1, and FIPS 140-2 evaluation programs, and his real-world perspective as a developer and integrator of security-related applications.


GTK+ GUI for w3af project

Facundo Batista

Your educational and professional background

I'm Electronic Engineer with a Master in Engineer Innovation in Bologna University, Italy. I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and love reading books, playing tennis, and programming Python.

I worked in a mobile company for six years, in the Network Management department, then I was Chief Developer of a Mobile Content Provider, and now I'm Solution Architect in Multimedia & Systems Integration in Ericsson. Also I was professor in several universities, high schools and other institutions.


Application security experience and accomplishments

None, more than working in w3af. However, my proposal here is not related to the security part of the product, but to its graphical interface and usability.


Participation and leadership in open communities

I'm very involved in the free software and open source community. I'm a Python Core Developer and member of the Python Software Foundation by merit. I have a long history of talks given in several international (PyCon, EuroPython) and national (a lot!) conferences. I also teach Python in educational institutions, enterprises and as a private instructor. I founded Python Argentina, the national users groups, and I'm a very active member of it.

I also lead other open source projects (SMPPy, SiGeFi, etc.) and particpate in others (Docutils, w3af itself, etc.).


The opportunity, challenges, issues or need your proposal addresses

My main objective is to minimize the effort and learning curve of using w3af, providing a very usable graphical interface.

Note that as the interface is cross platform, being usable also in the win32 environment, it will help to popularize the w3af project.

This will allow users without information security knowledge to verify that their web applications are correctly programmed and configured.


Specific activities and who will carry out these activities

I will carry the following activities, detailed later in smaller steps:

- Design and code new windows and interfaces to increase the functionality of the project.

- Tuning of the process workflow, allowing a more intuitive way of working.

- Visual polishing for a more pleasant and intuitive tool.

- Usability tests and improvements.


Specific deliverables and a rough project schedule so we can track progress

New features implemented in the pyGTK user interface:

- Local proxy to trap and modify requests and responses sent from a browser.

- Manually send a request and analyze the response.

- Manually create a fuzzed requests based on tokens, so user can construct easily differents HTTP request with a regex-like semantics.

- Wizard to perform a vulnerability assessment.

- Graphical display of site map and vulnerabilities.

- Reload a plugin after its edited from within the pyGTK user interface.

- Embebed tool to encode/decode URL/Base64 and to hash sha1/md5.

- HTTP response side by side content compare.


Usability improvements in the pyGTK user interface:

- Meetings with a usability expert that the w3af team leader has already contacted and worked with.

- Kill all pending bugs and make a stable release.


Documentation:

- Users guide for the pyGTK user interface.

- Help system for the GUI itself


Long-term vision for the project

To provide the web application security community with a stable and fully featured framework to perform all the tasks included in a penetration test from within the project.


Any other reasons why you and your project should be selected

w3af is one of the most active web application security projects; the community that supports it is growing and we need the support of already established organizations like OWASP to keep working at the rate that we want to.

P006 OWASP Corporate Application Security Rating Guide and P025 OWASP Positive Security Project

by Eduardo Vianna de Camargo Neves, CISSP

Executive Summary

A common approach on most companies is to increase the protection of their assets after the occurrence of a considerable impact. However some companies learned that a positive approach on IT Security is most effective and can reduce the financial costs on responses to security incidents. Benchmarking the application security practices on the corporate world will allow us to understand what steps are required to keep the IT environment protected, using this knowledge to create a public Security Rating Guide that can be used to support the establishment of a security baseline within the community.

Moreover the information from this analysis can be used to support the development of a campaign to spread a positive security posture in the market. The liaison with companies that maintain good security practices will help to start this initiative from a higher degree and involve several actors on the security stage for the same direction to a market were security is understood as a business value.

Approach

Assessing public materials from the Top 50 Companies and Top 50 Software Companies, a rating guide will be produced showing tangible metrics that are achieved by those companies and allow them to be considered secure enough on a comparison to a baseline of good practices. As a result the Corporate Application Security Rating Guide will be produced and published for the community and the deliverables used to support the development of the Positive Security Project with facts from a real analysis.

Benefits

• The whole community will be benefited from these initiatives. With the adequate support from OWASP to maintain the projects active and liaise with big players on the market, we can expect the following:

• The community will receive a Security Rating Guide that will allow them to compare their own security practices within the market. As this will be a public document, suppliers and buyers worldwide will share the same information allowing them to adequate the expectations on the usage of security services and tools.

• The Security Rating Guide can be used as a marketing tool by the companies, allowing them to sell security as a business value and avoiding the old-fashion and inadequate FUD approach.

• The knowledge and relationship developed during the production of the Security Rating Guide will allow us to produce the deliverables on Positive Security Project with real information, increasing the credibility of the initiative for the market.

• The Security Rating Guide and the Positive Security Project can be walk in parallel, merging their information to support a concise and continuous marketing campaign to encourage a positive approach on the market.

• As an open community free from commercial pressures, OWASP can use both projects to support the evaluation of security products for the market, allowing the organization to receive profits from these services and support current and future projects.

Summarized Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

All the activities will be leaded by Eduardo V. C. Neves, which will be responsible as a single point of contact with the sponsors and to manage a team of compromised volunteers from OWASP community and participants from security communities and associations (i.e. ISSA, SANS and ISC2).

The activities will be carried on WBS summarized bellow. Dates presented should be considered as deadlines for the activities:

• Criteria establishment and definition of the Top 50 Companies and Top 50 Software Companies (April 11)

• Assessment of public materials to support the ranking establishment (April 18)

• Establishment of the Corporate Application Security Rating Guide (April 25)

• Publishing of the Corporate Application Security Rating Guide on OWASP web site and promotion over adequate channels (i.e. publications, blogs and associations) (May 09) (1)

• Criteria establishment and approval of marketing templates for Positive Security Project (May 16) (2)

• Development of the Positive Security Project material (i.e. blog and marketing sheets) (May 30)

• Liaison with the OWASP Members, Top 50 Companies and Top 50 Software Companies to present the project and negotiate their participation as supporters, sponsors or contributors. (June 27)

• Update on Corporate Application Security Rating Guide, including their score on Positive Security approach (July 4)

• Presentation of the Positive Security Project approach and Corporate Application Security Rating Guide on the market (July 31) (3)

• Conference calls with team members to evaluate the results of the initiatives in all countries and produce project´s documents (i.e. lessons learned, update on marketing material and evaluation of alternative approaches for the future steps). (August 15)

• Prepare project documentation and present to the OWASP community on the web site (August 31)

(1) Support from OWASP Foundation is required to liaise with companies and associations worldwide

(2) Support from OWASP Foundation and community are required to evaluate adequate marketing templates and translate original documents for their own languages

(3) Support from OWASP community is required to spread the word on all countries were OWASP members are located.


Project Control

The project will be managed following PRINCE2 Process Model and all control documents published for the OWASP community. The following mandatory project control documents are planned:

• Project Initiation Document: To document project´s background, definition, objectives, approach, etc.

• Communication Plan: To assure that OWASP Community are being continuous communicated about project status and deliverables achievement.

• Highlight Report: To provide the OWASP Community with a summary of the project status, progress and potential problems or areas where help may be required.

• End Project Report: To present project achievements. Should be considered the final project report.

More documents may be included during project development to support the control and assure a high quality level (i.e. issue log, project approach). Long Range Plan

Both projects should walk in parallel and be used as tools to support efforts to encourage and make the positive approach a reality on the IT Security field. These initiatives shall be supported by OWASP as long term plans and grow to a continuous world-wide campaign in this direction that must achieve big players on the market and be recognized by the community as a tool that must be used to evaluate security enabled companies and products.

Why me? Can be me, you or anyone that carries these projects in a professional fashion and assure that all deliverables are being achieved. The most important parts is to make it happen, talk and get the support from reputable associations and large companies (OWASP Members are a good start) and lead it as a long range responsibility. I am running to win this project because I believe in all of this. I see both as very valuable initiatives that can help companies to make more business; people to get more jobs and the whole community to win in a scenario where our contributions on the security market are recognized as business tools.