What does a Source Code Auditor do

Question

Hi guys. I wanted to ask about the tasks about a Source Code Auditor. There are already many automated tools to review the source code. Then why is a Source Code Auditor hired? What is his/her role is reviewing souce code?

Answer 1

A Source Code Auditor reviews source code to discover potential security weaknesses, bugs, and vulnerabilities. Though there are many automated tools for this purpose, in many cases, these tools fail to find hidden vulnerabilities. This is why companies hire Source Code Auditors. Tasks of a Source Code Auditor are:

• Analyze source code line-by-line to find any security weakness
• Review authentication, authorization, session and communication mechanisms
• Conduct penetration testing to find vulnerabilities
• Looks for bugs that provide unauthorized access
• Looks for bugs that would result in leaking of sensitive information
• Submit audit results to development and concerned teams

Answer 2

@Vidyut a Secure Code Auditor is responsible for reviewing source code to discover if there are any potential security weaknesses, bugs, exploits or violations of programming standards. They help in preventing cyber threats by exposing any weaknesses that are found in an organizations computer source code. The ultimate objective is to stop hackers from being able to exploit data or system resources due to inadequately coded software.

The Code Security Auditor ensures that the source code analyzed adheres to any up to date coding standards for the language, operating system or platform. Typical job duties for the role of secure code auditor include a lead role in investigating and analysing programmed source code. They need to report on any detrimental issues that they find, that make the organisations systems more vulnerable to hackers, and must suggest corrective actions.

In order to produce the report they will need to inspect and evaluate the existing IT systems, management procedures, security protocols and controls.