Preparation Guide for Exam 70-340

Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET

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	Exam News
	Audience profile
	Credit toward certification
	Preparation tools and resources
	Skills measured

Exam News

Exam 70-340 became available June 28, 2004.

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Audience profile

Candidates for this exam work on an application development team in a software development environment that uses Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003. Candidates have at least three years of experience developing n-tier applications and at least one year of experience using Visual Studio .NET 2003, including ASP.NET and ADO.NET. Candidates have experience developing both Web-based and Microsoft Windows-based applications from start to finish.

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Credit toward certification

When you pass the Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET exam, you achieve Microsoft Certified Professional status.

You also earn credit toward the following certifications:

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Preparation tools and resources

To help you prepare for this exam, Microsoft Learning recommends that you have hands-on experience with the product and that you use the following training resources. These training resources do not necessarily cover all of the topics listed in the "Skills measured" section.

Classroom training

Microsoft Press self-paced training products

Microsoft certified practice tests

Microsoft online resources

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Skills measured

This certification exam measures your ability to implement code by using methods to minimize security risks and take advantage of the security functionality built into the .NET Framework. Before taking the exam, you should be proficient in the job skills listed in the following matrix. The matrix shows which Official Microsoft Learning Products may help you reach competency in the skills being tested in the exam.

KEY:

= The course provides a general introductory overview of this task. You will need to supplement the course with additional work     = The course includes some material to prepare you for this task. You will need to supplement the course with additional work     = The course includes material to prepare you for this task

Skills measured by Exam 70-340	Course 2300	Course 2350	Course 2806	Course 2840
Developing Applications by Using Security Best Practices
Develop code under a least privilege account within the development environment. • Configure the Microsoft .NET development environment and operating system. • Select the appropriate privileges.
Develop code that runs under a least privilege account at run time. • Develop code to run under a least privilege account that does not have administrator privileges. • Use least privilege for access to resources such as the file system, registry entries, and databases.
Analyze security implications of calling unknown code. Third-party components include .NET components, legacy COM components, ActiveX controls, Win32 DLLs, and Web services. • Write code to verify that the identity of a COM component matches the identity expected. • Validate that data to and from third-party components conforms to the expected size, format, and type. • Test for integrity of data after transmission. • Evaluate unmanaged code.
Write code that addresses failures in a manner that does not compromise security. • Write code that defaults to a permission set that is more secure than the permission set that existed before the errors or issues occurred. • Create error messages that do not compromise security.
Develop code that includes security measures in each tier of the solution, also known as defense in depth.
Implement application functionality to apply defaults that minimize security threats.
Write code to prevent canonicalization problems. • Create canonical references for resources. • Validate that a reference is canonical.
Validate external input at every boundary level to prevent security problems. • Write code to test strings by using regular expressions. • Write code to test the size of data. • Write code to prevent SQL injection and cross-site scripting.
Developing .NET Applications That Include Security Enhancements
Implement security by using application domains.
Implement authentication. • Implement a custom authentication mechanism in a Windows Forms application. • Implement an appropriate Web application or Web service authentication mechanism to accommodate specific application security requirements. • Implement functionality by consuming authenticated user information such as the IPrincipal, Membership, and Identity components of the .NET base class library.
Write authorization code. • Programmatically control access to functionality and data by using user information such as user identity, group membership, and other custom user information. • Control access to Web applications by using URL authorization. • Programmatically control access to functionality and data by using identities or criteria that are independent of user identity.
Sign data by using certificates.
Implement data protection. • Use .NET cryptographic techniques. • Encrypt and decrypt data by using symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic functions. • Compute hashes by using cryptographic functions. • Write code to create cryptographically random numbers for cryptographic functions. • Protect data in files and folders by creating, modifying, and deleting discretionary access control list (DACL) or security access control list (SACL) entries. • Encrypt and decrypt data by using the Data Protection API (DPAPI).
Implement security for an application or shared library by using .NET code access security. • Demand a code access permission such as FileIOPermission. • Group code access permissions into a permission set. • Override code access security checks. • Protect a resource in a library. • Specify the permission requests of an application. • Customize code access security.
Access remote functionality in a manner that minimizes security risks. • Use Web Services Enhancements (WSE) for Microsoft .NET, such as WS-Security and WS-Interoperability. • Configure .NET Remote for security.
Configuring Application Security by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework and Operating System Tools
Work with .NET security policies. Tools include the .NET Framework Configuration tool and the Code Access Security Policy tool.
Analyze the code access permissions of an assembly by using the Permissions View tool.
Configure security by using IIS and ASP.NET. • Understand the security implications of impersonation. • Configure ASP.NET impersonation. • Configure Web folder permissions. • Set appropriate permissions on Web application files. • Configure a Web page or Web service to use SSL/TLS.
Stabilizing and Releasing Applications in a Manner That Minimizes Security Risks
Perform unit testing on applications and components to identify security vulnerabilities.
Release applications in a manner that minimizes security risks. • Evaluate when to sign an assembly. • Implement delayed signing. • Create a strong named assembly. • Configure security settings by using the .NET Framework Configuration tool and the Code Access Security Policy tool at deployment.

Note: This preparation guide is subject to change at any time without prior notice and at the sole discretion of Microsoft. Microsoft exams might include adaptive testing technology and simulation items. Microsoft does not identify the format in which exams are presented. Please use this preparation guide to prepare for the exam, regardless of its format.

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