What are the design principles for security?

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When creating a new application, design is one of the critical aspects of its structure. As applications have become more complex, so have the design structures needed to create a specific product. The primary source of these security concerns is malicious agents, such as hackers, who have caused enormous damage to different applications.

Although designing a foolproof security system for our application may be challenging, with sound design principles, we can build a secure application that prevents malicious agents from misusing our application. This doesn't prevent bugs and breaches from these agents. However, it creates a safer application that can tackle most security concerns.

We will now look at some fundamental design principles for secure applications and systems.

Fundamental Design Principles for Security

Principle of defence in depth

This principle of data security involves multiple layers and protocols. This is to prevent single points of failure and force hackers to infiltrate multiple independent layers before reaching their desired data source. The goal is to reduce attack surface area by utilizing validation checks, security auditing tools, and logging tools like Captcha and brute force detection.

Principle of fail-safe

The fail-safe principle aims to create a fail-safe mechanism to prevent access to sensitive information and prevent security leaks. This mechanism prevents users from accessing transaction results or transactional logs if a process fails, ensuring a secure system.

Principle of least privilege

The principle of least privilege is a minimalist approach to design security that restricts access to specific processes for their assigned tasks. It employs a need-to-know basis, such as role-based approaches, to prevent malicious agents from accessing sensitive information.

Principle of separation of privileges and duty

This principle aims to prevent individuals from gaining excessive authority, as misuse can negatively impact the project or lead to a breach. Misuse can result in data alteration or compromise, ensuring the integrity of the application.

Principle of open design

This design principle emphasizes that an application's source code must be open to all, preventing bugs and loopholes from being hidden behind abstractions. This principle encourages programmers to write secure code, such as ciphers, which have public source code and secret encryption keys.

Principle of least common mechanisms

The least common mechanism principle focuses on sharing minimal functions between users, reducing data transmissions and preventing unwanted access, promoting a secure system.

Principle of application of best coding practices

The principle of best coding practices involves using recommended practices to efficiently address edge cases, reduce system vulnerabilities, and ensure bug fixes and resolutions.

Which design principle promotes the idea of making the design of a system available for public scrutiny?

Principle of open design

Principle of defense in depth

Principle of separation of privileges and duty

Principle of least privilege

RELATED TAGS

security design principles

principles of security design

designing secure systems