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Python Cryptographic Secure Scripting Concerns: A Study of Three Vulnerabilities

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Advances in Information and Communication (FICC 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 652))

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Abstract

The maintenance and protection of data has never been more important than in our modern technological landscape. Cryptography remains a key method for lowering risks against the confidentiality and integrity of data. This paper will examine secure scripting topics within cryptography such as insecure hashing methods, insecure block cipher implementation, and pseudo random generation of numbers, through the scope of open-source Python scripts. Our research examines the analysis results of the open-source projects from two popular static analysis tool reports, namely Prospector and Bandit, to identify vulnerable scripting usages and patterns. Our analysis includes a comparison of the tool findings with data collected upon manual review. Our findings show that despite the many capabilities and features of common Python static analysis tools, seldom detection for insecure use of cryptography exists. Prospector was able to detect 0% of the cryptographic three identified vulnerability cases compared to 66% detection in Bandit. In addition, manual review of code remains necessary for security related issues that cannot be detected by static analysis tools as revealed by the presence of false negatives from this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. John’s University, Queens, NY, 11439, USA

    Grace LaMalva & Suzanna Schmeelk

  2. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

    Dristi Dinesh

Authors
  1. Grace LaMalva
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  2. Suzanna Schmeelk
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  3. Dristi Dinesh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Suzanna Schmeelk .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science and Engineering, Saga University, Saga, Japan

    Kohei Arai

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LaMalva, G., Schmeelk, S., Dinesh, D. (2023). Python Cryptographic Secure Scripting Concerns: A Study of Three Vulnerabilities. In: Arai, K. (eds) Advances in Information and Communication. FICC 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 652. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28073-3_42

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