Cybersecurity · Secure Coding
Write a secure-coding checklist from real bugs
Study ten public security fixes in open-source projects and turn them into a review checklist.
- DifficultyIntermediate
- Estimated time1–2 weeks
- Budget₹0
- ClassCollege
- TeamSolo or up to 2
- You needComputer only
Prerequisites: None beyond your class work
Original · by TechnifyedCase StudyResearch ProjectFree to doComputer onlyResearch oriented
Overview
Study ten public security fixes in open-source projects and turn them into a review checklist.
Skills you will use
Materials and tools
- Computer
- Public vulnerability advisories and the patches that fixed them
Tools and software
Step-by-step roadmap
Start
You will finish with: a ten-case table, a checklist and the issues found in your own code.
- 1
Prerequisites
Nothing special to know first. Then collect the 2 items in the materials list.
- 2
Learn
Read up on secure coding: case study, code review, secure coding. Your textbook chapter and one short video are enough.
- 3
Plan
Write the research question, who or what you will study, how many, and the exact questions or measures.
- 4
Build
- Pick ten fixed vulnerabilities in projects whose language you know.
- Read each patch and write what the mistake was in one line.
- Group them by cause.
- Write a checklist item that would have caught each.
- Apply the checklist to one of your own projects.
- 5
Test
Check a sample of your data by hand, and ask whether another explanation fits your findings equally well.
- 6
Document
Keep the raw responses or data safe, anonymise names, and build the tables and charts. Report structure
- 7
Present
State the question, the method in one line, the two or three main findings and their limits. Presentation structure
- 8
Publish
Share a short paper or poster; offer a summary to the people who took part.
Expected outcome
A ten-case table, a checklist and the issues found in your own code.
Other versions of this project
Advanced version
Automate two checklist items with a linter rule.
Research mode
Text marked "You write this" is a prompt for your own work; everything else is specific to this project.
- Research question
- You write thisOne question you can answer with data, narrow enough to finish in the time you have.
- Hypothesis
- You write thisWhat you expect to find, and why.
- Variables
- You write thisWhat you change or compare, what you measure, and what you hold constant.
- Methodology
- You write thisDescribe the method in enough detail that someone else could repeat it: sample, tools, procedure.
- Data collection
- You write thisSay what you will record, how many times, and how you will keep the records safe.
- Analysis
- You write thisChoose the table, chart or test that answers the question; report averages with their spread.
- Limitations
- You write thisList what could have affected the result: small sample, instrument limits, things you could not control.
Literature review
Find five to eight sources (your textbook, review articles, reports) and note what each says about your question. Group them by idea, not one after another, and end with what is still not known.
References
List every source you used in one style throughout (author, year, title, where it was published, link and the date you opened it).
Working as a team
Solo or up to 2. Suggested roles:
Report and presentation
Report structure
- Title
- Abstract
- Introduction and research question
- Review of what is already known
- Method: sample, tools, procedure
- Findings (tables and charts)
- Discussion
- Limitations
- Conclusion and suggestions
- References
- Annexure: questionnaire or data
Presentation structure
- Research question
- Why it matters
- Method and sample
- Finding 1
- Finding 2
- Finding 3
- What it means
- Limitations
- Conclusion
Viva questions
Prepare your own answers to these before you present.
- What is the aim of your project, in one sentence?
- What is the principle behind it?
- Why did you choose these materials or tools?
- What result did you get, and was it what you expected?
- What went wrong and how did you fix it?
- How could this be improved or used in real life?
Resources
Getting Started with Git and GitHubIBM · Free course course
GitHub administration for GitHub Advanced SecurityMicrosoft · Free course courseGitHub Copilot Across Environments: IDE, Chat, GitHub.com, Command Line Techniques, and the GitHub Copilot AppMicrosoft · Free course courseGitHub Docs: get starteddocs.github.comOWASP Top Tenowasp.orgSource and attribution
Original
Written by Technifyed. Free to use for your own school or college project; write the report in your own words. Added 1 Oct 2026.
Similar projects
More Cybersecurity projects
Cybersecurity · Authentication
Build a two-factor authentication demo
Add time-based one-time codes to a login page and explain how they are generated.
Cybersecurity · Digital Forensics
Recover deleted files from a test drive
Delete files on a spare USB drive, image it and see what can be recovered and why.
Cybersecurity + Systems and Cloud
Analyse your own home network traffic
Capture traffic on your own computer and identify which protocols and services it talks to.
Cybersecurity + Pure Mathematics
Implement classic ciphers and break them
Write Caesar and substitution ciphers, then crack them with frequency analysis.
Same tools
Software Development · Developer Tools
Contribute a fix to an open-source project
Find a beginner-friendly issue, fix it and get your pull request merged.
Systems and Cloud · DevOps
Deploy a website with continuous integration
Set up a pipeline that tests and deploys your site automatically on every push.
Software Development · Frontend
Make a personal portfolio website
Design and publish a fast, mobile-friendly site that shows who you are and what you have built.
Two-subject alternatives
Public Policy and Governance + Cybersecurity
Debate how social media should be regulated
Research one proposal for regulating online platforms and present the strongest case for and against.
Programming + Cybersecurity
Make a file encryption tool
Encrypt and decrypt files with a password using a well-tested library.
Artificial Intelligence + Cybersecurity
Build a face-blurring privacy tool
Detect faces in photos and blur them automatically before sharing.
Pure Mathematics + Cybersecurity
Break a secret with number theory: how RSA works
Encrypt and decrypt a message with small primes by hand, then in code, and see why large primes matter.
Same difficulty and budget
Robotics, IoT and Hardware + Mechanical Engineering
Design a mechanical part in CAD and simulate its stress
Model a bracket, apply a load in simulation and redesign it to be lighter and still strong.
Software Development · Mobile Apps
Build a habit tracker with streaks
Create an Android app to tick off daily habits and see streaks and a calendar heat map.
Data + Operations, HR and Supply Chain
Build a sales dashboard
Turn a public retail dataset into a one-page dashboard that answers a manager's questions.
Artificial Intelligence · Deep Learning
Classify handwritten digits with a neural network
Train a small neural network on the MNIST digits and study where it goes wrong.