Security Debt in Practice: Nuanced Insights from Practitioners

TL;DR

This study explores how software practitioners perceive, manage, and communicate security debt in real-world settings through interviews, revealing varied practices and emphasizing the need for better security integration in the SDLC.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into practitioners' perceptions and strategies regarding security debt, highlighting gaps and opportunities for improving security practices.

Findings

Practitioners have varied awareness of security debt and associated risks.

Security is often deprioritized in favor of delivery speed.

Mitigation strategies are inconsistently applied across teams.

Abstract

With the increasing reliance on software and automation nowadays, tight deadlines, limited resources, and prioritization of functionality over security can lead to insecure coding practices. When not handled properly, these constraints cause unaddressed security vulnerabilities to accumulate over time, forming Security Debts (SDs). Despite their critical importance, there is limited empirical evidence on how software practitioners perceive, manage, and communicate SDs in real-world settings. In this paper, we present a qualitative empirical study based on semi-structured interviews with 22 software practitioners across various roles, organizations, and countries. We address four research questions: i) we assess software practitioners' knowledge of SDs and awareness of associated security risks, ii) we investigate their behavior towards SDs, iii) we explore common tools and strategies used to mitigate SDs, and iv) we analyze how security risks are communicated within teams and to decision makers. We observe variations in how practitioners perceive and manage SDs, with some prioritizing delivery speed over security, while others consistently maintain security as a priority. Our findings emphasize the need for stronger integration of security practices across the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), more consistent use of mitigation strategies, better balancing of deadlines, resources, and security-related tasks, with attention to the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) triad.