Secure by Design: CISA Pledge Sprint Plan

The CISA Secure by Design pledge asks software manufacturers to commit to specific, measurable security improvements. The pledge goals are sensible, but translating them into engineering work—with tickets, sprints, and acceptance criteria—is where most teams stall.

This article breaks the Secure by Design commitments into a practical sprint plan for development teams. It covers each pledge area, defines concrete tasks, suggests a prioritised sequence, and identifies the trade-offs. It is written for engineering managers, security leads, and senior developers responsible for shipping security improvements alongside feature work.

The security hub covers broader security resources, and the application security path provides structured learning. For a complementary checklist-based approach, see the OWASP Top 10 developer checklist published earlier.

The pledge areas

The Secure by Design pledge focuses on seven areas. Here is each one translated into engineering work:

1. Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Pledge commitment: increase adoption of MFA across the product.

Engineering tasks:

• Implement MFA support if not already available (TOTP, WebAuthn, or both)
• Make MFA enrollment the default for new accounts (opt-out rather than opt-in)
• Implement MFA enforcement for administrator and privileged accounts
• Add account recovery flows that do not bypass MFA
• Measure MFA adoption rates and report monthly

Acceptance criteria: ≥80% of active users have MFA enabled within 6 months of rollout.

Sprint estimate: 2–4 sprints for initial implementation, 1 sprint for recovery flows.

2. Default passwords

Pledge commitment: reduce the prevalence of default passwords.

Engineering tasks:

• Audit all products and services for default passwords or shared secrets
• Replace default passwords with unique, randomly generated initial credentials
• Force password change on first login where initial credentials are used
• Remove any hardcoded credentials from source code
• Add credential rotation support for service accounts

Acceptance criteria: zero default passwords in any shipped product or service.

Sprint estimate: 1–2 sprints for audit and remediation.

3. Reducing entire classes of vulnerabilities

Pledge commitment: measurably reduce one or more vulnerability classes.

Engineering tasks:

• Choose one vulnerability class to focus on (e.g., SQL injection, XSS, SSRF)
• Implement systematic prevention (parameterised queries, CSP, SSRF allowlists)
• Add static analysis rules that catch the vulnerability pattern in CI
• Track and report vulnerability counts by class over time
• Set a reduction target (e.g., zero new instances per quarter)

Acceptance criteria: measurable reduction in the target vulnerability class, tracked over 12 months.

Sprint estimate: 2–3 sprints for prevention infrastructure, ongoing for monitoring.

4. Security patches

Pledge commitment: increase the speed and adoption of security patches by customers.

Engineering tasks:

• Reduce time between vulnerability discovery and patch release
• Implement automatic update mechanisms where appropriate
• Provide clear, actionable security advisories with every patch
• Measure patch adoption rates and follow up with unpatched customers
• Support the two most recent major versions with security patches

Acceptance criteria: security patches released within 72 hours of confirmed vulnerability; ≥90% customer adoption within 30 days.

Sprint estimate: process change rather than feature development. 1 sprint to establish the workflow.

5. Vulnerability disclosure policy

Pledge commitment: publish a vulnerability disclosure policy.

Engineering tasks:

• Draft a vulnerability disclosure policy based on ISO 29147
• Publish the policy at /.well-known/security.txt and on a dedicated page
• Set up a secure reporting channel (email with PGP, or a platform like HackerOne)
• Define internal triage and response procedures
• Commit to acknowledging reports within 48 hours and providing status updates every 7 days

Acceptance criteria: published policy, operational reporting channel, demonstrated response to test reports.

Sprint estimate: 1 sprint for policy and infrastructure.

6. CVE reporting

Pledge commitment: improve transparency around vulnerabilities through CVE reporting.

Engineering tasks:

• Register as a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) if you publish enough advisories
• Assign CVE IDs to all confirmed vulnerabilities in your products
• Include CWE classifications and CVSS scores in all advisories
• Publish advisories in machine-readable format (CSAF or similar)

Acceptance criteria: every confirmed vulnerability has a CVE ID and a published advisory.

Sprint estimate: 1 sprint for process setup, ongoing for each advisory.

7. Evidence of intrusion

Pledge commitment: improve customers' ability to detect intrusions.

Engineering tasks:

• Ensure comprehensive audit logging is available and enabled by default
• Log authentication events, privilege changes, and data access
• Provide log export in standard formats (JSON, CEF, OCSF)
• Document what to look for in logs during an incident
• Support integration with common SIEM platforms

Acceptance criteria: audit logging enabled by default, exported in at least one standard format, with documentation.

Sprint estimate: 2–3 sprints for logging infrastructure, 1 sprint for documentation.

Prioritised sequence

Not everything can be done at once. Here is a suggested order:

1. Default passwords (quick win, high impact, low effort)
2. Vulnerability disclosure policy (establishes the process for everything else)
3. MFA (high user impact, medium engineering effort)
4. Security patches (process improvement)
5. CVE reporting (builds on disclosure policy)
6. Evidence of intrusion (logging infrastructure)
7. Reducing vulnerability classes (ongoing, measurable improvement)

Trade-offs

• MFA adds user friction. Balance security improvement against adoption and support costs. Recovery flows are the hardest part to get right.
• Eliminating default passwords may break deployment automation. Ensure your provisioning tools support randomised initial credentials.
• Logging everything increases storage costs and privacy exposure. Log what matters, retain for a defined period, and protect log data as sensitive.
• Sprint time for security competes with feature development. Frame these as product quality investments, not security tax.

Further reading on EBooks-Space

• Security topic hub — curated security reading lists
• Application Security learning path — structured security engineering progression
• OWASP Top 10 developer checklist — complementary vulnerability-focused checklist