Can the Security Mindset Make Students Better Testers?

Writing secure code requires a programmer to think both as a defender and an attacker. One can draw a parallel between this model of thinking and techniques used in test-driven development, where students learn by thinking about how to effectively test their code and anticipate possible bugs. In this study, we analyzed the quality of both attack and defense code that students wrote for an assignment given in an introductory security class of 75 (both graduate and senior undergraduate levels) at NYU. We made several observations regarding students' behaviors and the quality of both their defensive and offensive code. We saw that student defensive programs (i.e., assignments) are highly unique and that their attack programs (i.e., test cases) are also relatively unique. In addition, we examined how student behaviors in writing defense programs correlated with their attack program's effectiveness. We found evidence that students who learn to write good defensive programs can write effective attack programs, but the converse is not true. While further exploration of causality is needed, our results indicate that a greater pedagogical emphasis on defensive security may benefit students more than one that emphasizes offense.