Secure code review is a structured inspection of source code to find vulnerabilities, logic flaws, unsafe defaults, and design mistakes before software is released. It goes beyond checking whether code compiles or passes tests: reviewers look for missing authorization checks, weak input validation, unsafe deserialization, hardcoded secrets, race conditions, and other patterns that can be abused.
It matters because many attacks start with a bug that was visible in the code long before deployment. In practice, secure reviews help defenders catch issues in hand-written code and AI-generated drafts alike, especially when development is fast and context is thin. Effective review combines human judgment, secure coding standards, and tools such as static analysis, but it still requires a person to understand how the code behaves in the real system and whether an attacker could turn a small flaw into data exposure, privilege escalation, or remote code execution.