What are secure coding practices?
D2 · Threats · CompTIA Security+ SY0-701Secure coding practices are techniques, standards, and habits that software developers use to write code that is resistant to security vulnerabilities from the start (security by design).
Key practices:
✅ Input validation — validate and sanitize all input
✅ Parameterized queries — prevent SQL injection
✅ Output encoding — prevent XSS
✅ Error handling — don't expose stack traces or sensitive info
✅ Least privilege — apps run with minimum required permissions
✅ Secrets management — no hardcoded credentials
✅ Dependency management — scan third-party libraries for vulnerabilities
Key practices:
✅ Input validation — validate and sanitize all input
✅ Parameterized queries — prevent SQL injection
✅ Output encoding — prevent XSS
✅ Error handling — don't expose stack traces or sensitive info
✅ Least privilege — apps run with minimum required permissions
✅ Secrets management — no hardcoded credentials
✅ Dependency management — scan third-party libraries for vulnerabilities
Secure coding is cheaper than fixing vulnerabilities post-deployment. OWASP Top 10 is the standard list of web application security risks. SAST (Static Application Security Testing) analyzes source code. DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) tests running applications. DevSecOps integrates security into the development pipeline.