What is a security pattern?

Security patterns are nothing but established ways of implementing security features in applications. Lets try and understand why we need security patterns. More than often, developers are confronted with a situation in which only the application features to be implemented are given to them, leaving them with the onerous task of implementing those features. Now there is nothing wrong with that, except that security of the feature take a back seat. Lets take a simple example. Say, you have been asked to develop a user login module. This module accepts a user name and password from the user and authenticates the user against the password stored in database. When the developer begins to code this feature he will naturally focus only on the functionality and the means to the end. He will care little (and it is not in his interest to) about the security best practices to be followed, both in design and coding. Clearly something is missing. Consider the following. What if...
the developer had a pre-existing security design that he could use for implementing a feature? A design that was resilient to the possible attacks on his module and that incorporated globally-accepted best practices.
he was not required to worry about the "hows", "whys" and "whats" of security for that feature?
Security patterns come in and fulfil that need. [Btw, this blog contains several such security patterns and best practices that you can use to develop more secure applications. Have fun.]