ColdFusion is a rapid application development (RAD) platform and a programming language used with that platform. With most programming languages security is your number one priority, and ColdFusion Security is no different.

Expert ColdFusion Programmers will focus on ColdFusion Security in every aspect of their design and implementation. It is utterly important that ColdFusion Security be planned for in advance during the design stages of a project, and that attention to detail be carried through the implementation phase. It does no good to plan to design a piece of software with security in mind, and then have that be the feature that gets cut due to a lack of time or budget. Make room in your schedule and budget for security implementation and testing.

That being said, one of the things that Expert ColdFusion Developers will remember to do is secure the ColdFusion installation itself. In this way ColdFusion Security can be maintained with significantly less expenditure of limited resources. There is not much of a point in checking that the third lock on the medicine cabinet is secure when you have left the front door wide open.

Expert ColdFusion Programmers will always remind you to create a separate partition or even a separate drive for your ColdFusion installation. This will help prevent attacks on your ColdFusion installation in a situation where an attacker will gain access to other system resources. A good example of this would be an attacker taking advantage of a common security flaw, such as a buffer overflow, and gaining access to your root system drive. If your ColdFusion installation is not on the root system drive the attacker won’t be able to get into it.

Another solid point Expert ColdFusion Hosting Providers will make is to ensure your operating system and web server software are always up to date and have the latest patches installed. This will help reduce the number of simple attacks that will get through to your systems.

Finally, you will want to make sure that your usernames and passwords are both secure, and hard to guess. Try to avoid the common pitfall of having your usernames always be, for example, first initial then last name. Most companies do this and it is extremely easy to guess.

So again remember to keep ColdFusion Security a priority, and as any Expert ColdFusion Programmers would tell you, keep your ColdFusion installation secure.

More ColdFusion Security Topics

-ColdFusion SQL Injection
-ColdFusion Cross-Site Scripting

SQL injection, like ColdFusion Cross-Site Scripting, is a type of digital attack where a potential intruder will look for weaknesses in application and database systems that can be exploited to gain access to user information such as usernames and passwords. ColdFusion SQL injection is an SQL injection attack aimed at ColdFusion installations.

There are several types of ColdFusion SQL injection attacks. The most common form of attack is referred to as a classic SQL injection attack. This kind of attack is performed when a web interface does not properly filter out special characters such as semicolons. In this attack, the intruder will go to a web form field such as the log in field, and type in their username followed by a special character and an SQL command. Since many web forms are run on the database with administrator permissions this will allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code to gain access to the database.

Experienced ColdFusion programmers will know how to prevent these ColdFusion SQL injection attacks. Simple changes such as only granting the web server SQL user the permissions it needs are a start, but the defenses against this kind of attack need to be as varied as the methods of performing a ColdFusion SQL injection attack.
Because of this and other concerns, it is recommended that only expert ColdFusion programmers be allowed to develop secure web applications that are going to be facing the public.

Expert ColdFusion programmers will be familiar with parameterized statements, escaping special characters, and other defensive measures to prevent these sorts of attacks, while inexperienced developers will not take these precautionary steps and this could result in a public relations nightmare as thousands or millions of customer database entries are compromised.

The importance of proper SQL hardening cannot be overstated. There have been several cases in recent memory of multinational mega-corporations not hiring experienced SQL programmers and having customer credit card numbers and social security numbers stolen. Not only did these customers have to be alerted to the intrusion, causing a massive loss of confidence in the company. These incidents frequently cost companies millions of dollars.

So in summary it is of the utmost importance not only for the integrity of your data but also legally, as companies do frequently face legal penalties for not maintaining proper database security, to ensure that when you are developing any application that you only have expert ColdFusion programmers to do the work.