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Github Copilot vs. Google: Which code is more secure
Published: 2023-06-06
Last Updated: 2023-06-06 16:18:17 UTC
by Johannes Ullrich (Version: 1)
I played with GitHub Copilot and compared it to simple "Googleing" code snippets to see what is more secure. Please see the video below for a quick recording of the experiment.
The task I selected was pretty trivial: A PHP script/page to collect data from an import form and insert it into a SQL database. There were two specific challenges I looked for:
Cross-site Scripting: I wanted the data the user entered to be "prefilled" into the form as it is returned to the user
SQL Injection: The data should be inserted into a SQL database
Both Copilot, as well as the "Google" solution, ignored the XSS issue. As far as SQL injection went, Copilot did use prepared statements, which is nice. The code was not as "clean" as I would have written it, but not that my code is always that great. When specifically asked to, Copilot did escape the data to avoid XSS.
The "Google" solution came from a random PHP tutorial with SQL injection and XSS vulnerabilities. In that sense, Copilot was better.
One important issue I noticed when using Copilot is that the code it comes up with varies in quality. Some of this may also be related to how "busy" Copilot is, as sometimes it responds slowly or not at all.
I also experimented with some other input validation with Copilot, which went okay if the prompt was done correctly.
Read the full entry:
https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Github+Copilot+vs+Google+Which+code+is+more+secure/29918/
After 28 years, SSLv2 is still not gone from the internet... but we're getting there
Published: 2023-06-01
Last Updated: 2023-06-01 08:38:42 UTC
by Jan Kopriva (Version: 1)
Although the SSL/TLS suite of protocols has been instrumental in making secure communication over computer networks into the (relatively) straightforward affair it is today, the beginnings of these protocols were far from ideal.
The first publicly released version of Secure Sockets Layer protocol, the SSL version 2.0, was published all the way back in 1995 and was quickly discovered to contain a number of security flaws. This has led to the development of a more secure version of the protocol named SSLv3, which was officially published only a year later (and which, as it later turned out, had its own set of issues). It has also led to the official deprecation of SSLv2 in 2011.
Although due to its deprecated status, most web browsers out there have been unable to use SSLv2 for over a decade, the support for this protocol still lingers. Few years ago, one might still have found it supported even on web servers, which one would hope would be as secure as possible - for example, on servers providing access to internet banking services.
Nevertheless, while going over data about open ports and protocol support on the internet, which I have gathered over time from Shodan using my TriOp tool, I have recently noticed that although there is still a not insignificant number of web servers which support SSLv2, the overall trend seems to show that such systems are slowly “dying off”.
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