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"I just looked for the solution!" - On Integrating Security-Relevant Information in Non-Security API Documentation to Support Secure Coding Practices

  • Software developers build complex systems using plenty of third-party libraries. Documentation is key to understand and use the functionality provided via the libraries’ APIs. Therefore, functionality is the main focus of contemporary API documentation, while cross-cutting concerns such as security are almost never considered at all, especially when the API itself does not provide security features. Documentations of JavaScript libraries for use in web applications, e.g., do not specify how to add or adapt a Content Security Policy (CSP) to mitigate content injection attacks like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). This is unfortunate, as security-relevant API documentation might have an influence on secure coding practices and prevailing major vulnerabilities such as XSS. For the first time, we study the effects of integrating security-relevant information in non-security API documentation. For this purpose, we took CSP as an exemplary study object and extended the official Google Maps JavaScript API documentation with security-relevant CSP information in three distinct manners. Then, we evaluated the usage of these variations in a between-group eye-tracking lab study involving N=49 participants. Our observations suggest: (1) Developers are focused on elements with code examples. They mostly skim the documentation while searching for a quick solution to their programming task. This finding gives further evidence to results of related studies. (2) The location where CSP-related code examples are placed in non-security API documentation significantly impacts the time it takes to find this security-relevant information. In particular, the study results showed that the proximity to functional-related code examples in documentation is a decisive factor. (3) Examples significantly help to produce secure CSP solutions. (4) Developers have additional information needs that our approach cannot meet. Overall, our study contributes to a first understanding of the impact of security-relevant information in non-security API documentation on CSP implementation. Although further research is required, our findings emphasize that API producers should take responsibility for adequately documenting security aspects and thus supporting the sensibility and training of developers to implement secure systems. This responsibility also holds in seemingly non-security relevant contexts.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Author:Peter Leo Gorski, Sebastian Möller, Stephan WieflingORCiD, Luigi Lo Iacono
Parent Title (English):IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Volume:48
Issue:9
First Page:3467
Last Page:3484
ISSN:0098-5589
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:1044-opus-56314
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2021.3094171
Publisher:IEEE
Publishing Institution:Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg
Date of first publication:2021/07/01
Copyright:© 2021 IEEE.
Funding:This work has been partially funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the funding program "Forschung an Fachhochschulen" (contract no. 13FH016IX6).
Keyword:API Documentation; Content Security Policies; Developer Centered Security; Secure Coding Practices; Usable Security
Departments, institutes and facilities:Fachbereich Informatik
Institut für Cyber Security & Privacy (ICSP)
Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC):0 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke / 00 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme / 005 Computerprogrammierung, Programme, Daten
Entry in this database:2021/07/06
Licence (Multiple languages):License LogoIn Copyright (Urheberrechtsschutz)