2021/05/07 by Fitzroy Nembhard, Nembhard, Fitzroy D., Marco Carvalho +1
Computer Science · #Advanced Malware Detection Techniques #Cryptography and Security (cs.CR) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Security and Verification in Computing #Software Engineering Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2105.03502
openalex publication_date 2021/05/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The area of software development and secure coding can benefit significantly from advancements in virtual assistants. Research has shown that many coders neglect security in favor of meeting deadlines. This shortcoming leaves systems vulnerable to attackers. While a plethora of tools are available for programmers to scan their code for vulnerabilities, finding the right tool can be challenging. It is therefore imperative to adopt measures to get programmers to utilize code analysis tools that will help them produce more secure code. This chapter looks at the limitations of existing approaches to secure coding and proposes a methodology that allows programmers to scan and fix vulnerabilities in program code by communicating with virtual assistants on their smart devices. With the ubiquitous move towards virtual assistants, it is important to design systems that are more reliant on voice than on standard point-and-click and keyboard-driven approaches. Consequently, we propose MyCodeAnalyzer, a Google Assistant app and code analysis framework, which was designed to interactively scan program code for vulnerabilities and flaws using voice commands during development. We describe the proposed methodology, implement a prototype, test it on a vulnerable project and present our results.