Software Security
URL: https://knowledge.ivjn.us/en/concepts/software-security.html

Software security is concerned with building security into software by established rules during development and with handling exploitable vulnerabilities during maintenance.

Because of misuse and increasing malicious activity against computer systems, developers must address security in addition to correctness and reliability. Secure software development follows a set of established or recommended rules and practices. Secure software maintenance avoids introducing security problems during maintenance and handles identified vulnerabilities during the life cycle. Vulnerabilities are introduced not only during development but also by third-party components such as libraries, commercial off-the-shelf software, or an operating system. The Guide holds that designing security into software is preferable to patching it in after development, so every life-cycle stage has to be considered.[^s1]


The Guide's top-level topics for this knowledge area are:

- Software Security Fundamentals
- Security Management and Organization
- Software Security Engineering and Processes
- Security Engineering for Software Systems
- Software Security Tools
- Domain-Specific Software Security

Updated: 2026-11-02

Relations:
- Broader concepts: Software Engineering https://knowledge.ivjn.us/en/concepts/software-engineering.html

Mentioned in:
- Software Engineering https://knowledge.ivjn.us/en/concepts/software-engineering.html

Sources:
- Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK Guide) v4.0a https://ieeecs-media.computer.org/media/education/swebok/swebok-v4.pdf Chapter 13