Advanced ASP.NET Core 8 Security

Most .NET developers do not incorporate security best practices when creating websites. The problem? Even if you use all of the best practices that the ASP.NET team recommends, you are still falling short in several key areas due to issues within the framework itself. And most developers don’t use all of the best practices that are recommended.

If you are interested in truly top-notch security, available sources don’t give you the information you need. Most blogs and other books simply state how to use the configurations within ASP.NET, but do not teach you security as understood by security professionals. Online code samples aren’t much help because they are usually written by developers who aren’t incorporating security practices.

This book solves those issues by teaching you security first, going over software best practices as understood by security professionals, not developers. Then it teaches you how security is implemented in ASP.NET. With that foundation, it dives into specific security-related functionality and discusses how to improve upon the default functionality with working code samples. And you will learn how security professionals build software security programs so you can continue building software security best practices into your own Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SSDLC).

What You’ll Learn

• Know how both attackers and professional defenders approach web security
• Establish a baseline of security for understanding how to design more secure software
• Discern which attacks are easy to prevent, and which are more challenging, in ASP.NET
• Dig into ASP.NET source code to understand how the security services work
• Know how the new logging system in ASP.NET falls short of security needs
• Incorporate security into your software development process

Who This Book Is For

Software developers who have experience creating websites in ASP.NET and want to know how to make their websites secure from hackers and security professionals who work with a development team that uses ASP.NET. To get the most out of this book, you should already have a basic understanding of web programming and ASP.NET, including creating new projects, creating pages, and using JavaScript.

Topics That Are New to This Edition

This edition has been updated with the following changes:

• Best practices and code samples updated to reflect security-related changes in ASP.NET 8
• Improved examples, including a fully-functional website incorporating security suggestions
• Best practices for securely using Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI
• Expansions and clarifications throughout

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Intro to Security

Chapter 2: Software Security Overview

Chapter 3: Web Security

Chapter 4: Thinking Like a Hacker

Chapter 5: Introduction to ASP.NET Core Security

Chapter 6: Cryptography

Chapter 7: Processing User Input

Chapter 8: Data Access and Storage

Chapter 9: Authentication and Authorization

Chapter 10: Advanced Web Security

Chapter 11: Logging and Error Handling

Chapter 12: Setup and Configuration

Chapter 13: Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC)

About the Author

Scott Norberg is a web security specialist with almost 20 years of experience in various technology and programming roles, specializing in web development and web security using Microsoft technologies. He has a wide range of experiences in security, from working with development teams on secure code techniques, to software security assessments, and application security program building. He also has an interest in building plug-and-play software libraries that developers can use to secure their sites with little-to-no extra effort.

Scott holds several certifications, including Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS), and certifications for ASP.NET and SQL Server. He also holds two certifications from ISC2, (Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Cloud Certified Security Professional (CCSP)) and an MBA from Indiana University.

Scott is the Founder and President of Opperis Technologies LLC, a firm dedicated to helping small- to mid-sized businesses write more secure software. His latest project is CodeSheriff.NET, an open-source security scanner for ASP.NET Core, which can be found on GitHub at ScottNorberg-NCG/CodeSheriff.NET.