Missing code signing
About A08:2021 — Software & Data Integrity
Integrity failures happen when an app trusts data or code it shouldn't — running unsigned updates, deserializing untrusted JSON into native objects, pulling code from a CDN without subresource integrity. The SolarWinds breach was a software-integrity failure on a national scale.
Impact: Insecure deserialization can mean remote code execution: the attacker sends a crafted payload that, when deserialized, instantiates dangerous classes or triggers method calls. Missing subresource integrity means a CDN compromise becomes your compromise.
How to fix it: Don't deserialize untrusted input into native objects — use plain JSON parsing and validate the shape. Add subresource integrity hashes to third-party scripts. Sign software updates and verify signatures before applying. Prefer signed-commits and pinned versions in dependency management.
Common patterns in this category:
- `JSON.parse` followed by direct property access without schema validation
- Native deserialization (e.g. node-serialize, pickle) on user input
- `<script src="https://cdn...">` without `integrity=` attribute
- Auto-update mechanisms that don't verify package signatures
- CI/CD pipelines that pull from un-pinned tags
Compliance coverage
Findings from this rule map to the following framework controls:
See the full compliance coverage page for how XploitScan maps every rule to SOC 2, ISO 27001, and OWASP Top 10 controls.
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