In partnership with
New at hackr.io
This week we are simplifying threat modeling for busy dev teams, with a playbook you can run in under 30 minutes during sprint planning.
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The Scoop
A 4-Step Threat Modeling Flow You Can Use Today
Scope the feature
Agree on the user story, data handled, entry points, trust boundaries, and third-party calls. Keep the scope tight to finish in one meeting.
Sketch a quick data flow
Draw boxes for components, arrows for data, and mark auth decisions. Note where data crosses a trust boundary or leaves your control.
Find likely threats
Walk the diagram with a simple lens like STRIDE. Think spoofing, tampering, repudiation, information disclosure, denial of service, and elevation of privilege. Capture abuse cases that match your app.
Prioritize and assign
Rate likelihood and impact, then assign fixes. Prefer simple wins first, like parameterized queries, strict auth on admin paths, rate limits, input validation, secure headers, and safer defaults.
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Advanced Skills
What Else Should You Include?
Abuse stories in your backlog
For every key user story, add an abuse story that describes how an attacker could misuse it, plus the mitigation you will build.
Security acceptance criteria
Add concrete checks to the story definition of done, like auth on every route, input validation, logging on risky actions, rate limits on public endpoints, and encryption in transit and at rest.
A simple review cadence
Run a 15-minute threat check on any story that touches auth, payments, PII, or third-party webhooks. Revisit the model after major refactors.
Lightweight artifacts
Keep one page per feature. Include the DFD sketch, the top threats, chosen mitigations, and open questions. Link to tickets.
Champion model
Nominate one engineer per squad as a security champion. They facilitate the session, keep the checklist fresh, and sync with your security lead each sprint.
Automation that helps
Add SAST, dependency checks, container scans, and basic secret scanning to CI. Use alerts that point to owners, with playbooks for triage.
That’s it for today.
Thanks for being part of the community at Hackr.io. Keep learning, keep sharing your projects, and keep building secure software.
The Hackr.io Team