Application Security vs. Product Security: Key Differences, Pros, and Cons

Application security vs product security: which one is right for you?

Securing applications is more challenging than ever. Even a simple web app has multiple layers, dependencies, and potential vulnerabilities. How do you ensure your application is protected without adding unnecessary complexity?

Two main approaches—application security (AppSec) and product security—help mitigate risks, but they serve different purposes. Understanding their distinctions can help you determine the best fit for your security strategy.

Application Security vs Product Security: Key Differences

Aspect	Application Security	Product Security
Scope	Focuses on individual applications	Covers the entire product ecosystem
Objective	Identifies and mitigates vulnerabilities in code	Ensures security across hardware, software, and supply chains
Tools Used	SAST, DAST, IAST	Secure SDLC, threat modeling, supply chain security
Implementation	Integrated into SDLC and CI/CD pipelines	Requires cross-functional collaboration
Threats Addressed	Injection attacks, authentication flaws, runtime exploits	Third-party dependencies, insider threats, data security
Security Approach	Reactive – fixes vulnerabilities after detection	Proactive – designs security into the entire product lifecycle
Regulatory Impact	Helps comply with application-level security standards	Ensures end-to-end compliance with security frameworks (ISO 27001, NIST, etc.)

What is Application Security?

Application security is a framework for identifying, mitigating, and preventing security vulnerabilities in applications. It takes a development-centric approach, evaluating code, APIs, and dependencies to identify and resolve possible vulnerabilities.

Application security posture management, or ASPM, is a specific category within AppSec. It encompasses various stages of the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC), including runtime protection, secure coding practices, and security testing. The goal of application security is to guard against threats that target applications directly, including:

• Broken access control
• Injections (ORM, SQL, OS command, etc.)
• Vulnerable and outdated components
• Cryptographic failures
• Exploiting insecure API
• Identification and authentication failures

These vulnerabilities are at the top of an attacker’s to-do list. One coding error or outdated dependency can enable an application-level attack.

Pros and Cons of Application Security

Pros

• Granular focus: Application security provides precise protection by targeting vulnerabilities within individual applications. This focus ensures that security teams and developers can work throughout the SDLC to build a secure application.
• Integration with DevSecOps: Application vulnerabilities emerge during the development process, so DevSecOps and AppSec collaborate to prevent technical issues from being implemented in live production environments.
• Improved code quality: Enforcing secure coding practices results in cleaner, more maintainable code that’s less prone to vulnerabilities. This will likely improve the application’s overall reliability and performance.
• Regulatory compliance: Most industries require organizations to comply with strict security standards, like OWASP, PCI DSS, and GDPR. Application security helps businesses meet these compliance requirements, provide necessary documentation, and avoid reputational damage.
• Early detection of vulnerabilities: Embedding security testing into the SDLC allows vulnerabilities to be detected before they reach production. Possible issues can be addressed early on in the development process rather than once they’ve been deployed.

Cons

• Limited scope: While the granular focus is beneficial, it can also be a drawback if you’re looking for a more holistic approach. AppSec platforms do not cover broader concerns that can also affect applications, such as supply chain risks, infrastructure security, or social engineering.
• Performance overhead: In some cases, using Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP) or extensive encryption can introduce application latency, possibly affecting speed and the user experience. Fortunately, this drawback can be mitigated during development by optimizing resources.
• A proactive approach needs incident response follow-ups: AppSec platforms laser focus on proactively preventing vulnerabilities by integrating security into the development process, which is effective. However, if an incident occurs, the lessons learned from that incident response won’t be automatically applied to AppSec.

Common Types of Application Security

Application security is implemented through various techniques and tools, each designed to mitigate specific threats, such as:

• Static Application Security Testing (SAST) involves analyzing source code, bytecode, or binary code to detect security vulnerabilities throughout development. SAST helps developers identify and fix flaws before they become exploitable.
• Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) simulates real-world attacks to test applications in their running state. It can help identify vulnerabilities such as injection flaws and authentication weaknesses.
• Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) combines the above methods to analyze applications during runtime and code execution. This type of platform allows you to cover the entire process within one platform, resulting in fewer false positives.

What is Product Security?

Product security is a broader discipline focusing on securing the entire ecosystem, including applications, supply chains, infrastructure, and customer usage. 

Unlike application security, which focuses only on the software level, product security takes a holistic approach to protecting products throughout development and operation. Product security tools emphasize threat modeling, continuous monitoring, and security design.

Pros and Cons of Product Security

Pros

• Comprehensive approach: Product security takes an overarching approach to security applications, infrastructure, cloud environments, and supply chain security. Some may appreciate that app security strives to cover all possible attack vectors targeting an app, depending on their security posture.
• Embedding security throughout: Applications rely on several layers of technology to operate, so a product approach aims to protect them at each layer. Otherwise, applications may be vulnerable to attacks targeting these layers if they’re left unprotected by other platforms.
• Broader risk management: Product security can evaluate the security risk across multiple components, including third-party integrations and software dependencies. Organizations can mount a cohesive risk management strategy thanks to product security having many integrations.
• Enhanced incident response: Product security provides organizations with faster detection and response capabilities to reduce the impact of security incidents. Most of the information you may need in a crisis in a central location is valuable; however, this is not the purpose of product security. 

Cons

• Complex integration: Implementing product security requires collaboration across multiple teams—development, operations, and security—and the platforms they use. This level of integration can be too complex for some organizations to make the benefits worthwhile.
• Longer development cycles: While integrating security into every phase of product development may have many pros, it will also lead to longer development cycles. Don’t expect teams to maintain the same timelines after implementing a product security platform.
• Resource-intensive: Product security requires a significant investment in tools, personnel, and purpose-built platforms. Maintaining a high level of security across the entire product ecosystem may be prohibitively costly for some organizations.

Which One Should You Choose? 

Both application and product security are valuable and necessary, but choosing where to focus your security investment depends on your priorities. 

If you need targeted protection for applications, focus on developing a strong AppSec program. On the other hand, if end-to-end security across your entire product stack is your objective, take a closer look at product security tools.

How Apiiro Can Help

Many organizations already have security measures in place for infrastructure and supply chains, making application security a critical missing piece. Apiiro’s AppSec platform integrates directly into your development process, ensuring that security is enforced before vulnerabilities reach production.

Ready to see how Apiiro can enhance your security posture?. Book a demo today to learn more.