SmartBear launched Reflect Mobile featuring HaloAI, expanding its no-code, GenAI-powered test automation platform to include native mobile apps.
The previous blog in this WhiteHat Security series recommended executing the app as one or more stateless processes by using small programs that communicate over the network. From a security standpoint it’s key to always assume that all process inputs are controlled by hackers, and create one or more processes that are dedicated exclusively to security services.
Start with Security and the Twelve-Factor App - Step 1
Start with Security and the Twelve-Factor App - Step 2
Start with Security and the Twelve-Factor App - Step 3
Start with Security and the Twelve-Factor App - Step 4
Start with Security and the Twelve-Factor App - Step 5
Start with Security and the Twelve-Factor App - Step 6
Step 7 of the Twelve-Factor App focuses on exporting services via port binding, and what to apply from a security point of view. Here is some actionable security-focused advice which developers and ops engineers can follow during the SaaS build and operations stages.
Defining Port Binding in the Twelve-Factor App
In this seventh step, the Twelve-Factor methodology encourages the integration of the network handling traffic code inside your running application. To explain, web apps are sometimes executed inside a web server container. For example, PHP apps might run as a module inside Apache HTTPD, or Java apps might run inside Tomcat.
The twelve-factor app is completely self-contained and does not rely on runtime injection of a webserver into the execution environment to create a web-facing service. The web app exports HTTP as a service by binding to a port, and listening to requests coming in on that port.
The challenge is that these modules must still be configured, which can lead to security risks if an app is bound to privileged ports or protected with poor passwords.
Applying Security to Step 6
To elevate security risks, bind your app to an unprivileged port and make use of port forwarding facilities. Unprivileged ports are any port number greater than 1024. Binding to a port above 1024 will not require system or root level privileges, thus allowing your app to run with least privilege. Port forwarding can then be used to transfer production traffic from a well-known privileged port, such as port 443, to a non-privileged port being used by your app. This can be achieved at the operating system level, often using firewall configurations. For example, the IP Tables firewall is commonly used to achieve port forwarding on Linux operating systems.
In the next blog we’ll chat through Step 8, which recommends scaling out via the process model, and two simple processes that can be incorporated to enhance security.
Industry News
ArmorCode announced the launch of AI Code Insights.
Codiac announced the release of Codiac 2.5, a major update to its unified automation platform for container orchestration and Kubernetes management.
Harness Internal Developer Portal (IDP) is releasing major upgrades and new features built to address challenges developers face daily, ultimately giving them more time back for innovation.
Azul announced an enhancement to Azul Intelligence Cloud, a breakthrough capability in Azul Vulnerability Detection that brings precision to detection of Java application security vulnerabilities.
ZEST Security announced its strategic integration with Upwind, giving DevOps and Security teams real-time, runtime powered cloud visibility combined with intelligent, Agentic AI-driven remediation.
Google announced an upgraded preview of Gemini 2.5 Pro, its most intelligent model yet.
iTmethods and Coder have partnered to bring enterprises a new way to deploy secure, high-performance and AI-ready Cloud Development Environments (CDEs).
Gearset announced the expansion of its new Observability functionality to include Flow and Apex error monitoring.
Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. announced that U.S. News & World Report has named the company among its 2025-2026 list of Best Companies to Work For.
Postman announced new capabilities that make it dramatically easier to design, test, deploy, and monitor AI agents and the APIs they rely on.
Opsera announced the expansion of its partnership with Databricks.
Postman announced Agent Mode, an AI-native assistant that delivers real productivity gains across the entire API lifecycle.
Progress Software announced the Q2 2025 release of Progress® Telerik® and Progress® Kendo UI®, the .NET and JavaScript UI libraries for modern application development.
Voltage Park announced the launch of its managed Kubernetes service.