What Is Web Application Security Testing? |
Posted: March 5, 2023 |
Web application security testing is a process that involves performing tests to evaluate the overall security level and posture of a web application. It uses both manual and automated testing methods. It can be performed on any type of website or application that is hosted on the internet. This includes e-commerce, CRM, social media platforms and even banking systems. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)Cross-site scripting (XSS) is one of the most common vulnerabilities found in web applications. It occurs when an attacker injects malicious code into web-pages belonging to legitimate web-sites. This enables them to access any cookies, session tokens, or other sensitive information that a browser retains for that site. XSS attacks can lead to account takeover, malware infection, and full compromise of the victim’s system. XSS can occur in any area of a web application where user input is processed and displayed, or where the output is generated without proper encoding or validation. These areas may include authentication, UI, or back-end code. The most effective way to prevent XSS attacks is to filter input on arrival and to encode data on output. This can be done in combination with HTML escape, JavaScript escape, CSS encoding, or URL encoding. As a general rule, always ensure that you escape all user input before sending it out as active content. This is especially important for user-controllable data, such as a user's name, password, or other sensitive data. Another important step in preventing XSS is to make sure that user-controllable data is only accessed by valid users or internal users. For example, if you are running a social media website, make sure that only legitimate users can post comments or photos. When an XSS vulnerability is discovered, it is essential to fix the problem promptly. This may involve deploying security updates or patches, or it can require the implementation of new controls or procedures. XSS vulnerabilities can also be detected through manual testing. For instance, you can manually submit unique input into each entry point in your application and then test each of the HTTP responses to see if suitably crafted input is allowed to execute arbitrary JavaScript. XSS is still a leading cause of web security breaches, accounting for more than two-thirds of all vulnerabilities documented by Symantec in 2007. It is critical to perform thorough analysis and mitigate XSS risks. To do so, organizations should provide appropriate training to their developers, QA staff, DevOps, and sysadmins. SQL InjectionWhen performing web application security testing, SQL Injection is one of the most important vulnerabilities to test against. It is a common attack and can have serious consequences for your company's reputation and financial assets. The most common type of SQL Injection is Error-Based SQL Injection, which involves feeding unexpected commands or invalid input to a server that causes the server to respond with error messages that can reveal the structure of the database. This information can be used to craft malicious requests that allow an attacker to modify data or execute other queries on the target database. Another type of SQL Injection is Union-based SQL Injection, which uses the UNION operator to combine multiple select statements into a single HTTP response that can then be exploited by an attacker. This is a particularly powerful method because it can give an attacker access to data that is not typically accessible through other methods. Despite the damage potential of these attacks, they are relatively easy to identify and detect. It is important to know the most common types of SQL injection vulnerabilities in order to determine whether your application is vulnerable and how best to protect it. While it can be difficult to test for SQL Injection vulnerabilities manually, there are many tools available that can help with this task. Some of them are able to perform automated scans of your website or system and can detect any problems quickly. For example, Burp Suite's web vulnerability scanner can be extremely useful when detecting SQL Injection issues. It can run an SQL injection scan on all the fields of your website or system and return any suspicious results if there is an attack present. Additionally, some of these tools can also detect and block attacks that use the same syntax but have been altered by the attacker. This can prevent a large number of errors from occurring and save your team time and money in the long run. When it comes to web application security testing, you should always be looking for a wide range of vulnerabilities. If you only focus on a few of them, it can result in missed attacks that are costly and damaging to your business. For that reason, it is critical to ensure that you are constantly updating your tests and that you are not relying on outdated tools that cannot perform the most accurate tests. Password CrackingA password is a set of characters used to authenticate a user to a service. Typically, these passwords are stored in a database and protected with a key derivation function (KDF). Password cracking is a common way that hackers try to gain access to accounts. It can be done by using a variety of techniques, such as cryptanalysis and brute force attacks. In general, the best way to protect your web application against password cracking is to use strong passwords that are not easy to guess. These can be long, combining letters and numbers and using special characters. Ideally, passwords should be at least 12 characters long and contain a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. Using these methods will help to increase the number of possible combinations, which in turn will make password cracking less likely. Some web applications may also include a password strength indicator, which tells users when they have created a strong password. These indicators are generally good to use as a guide, but it is always better to use different and unique passwords for every account. Another common way that passwords are compromised is through social engineering attacks. These are phishing attempts and involve the use of malware to steal sensitive information. These attacks are usually more successful if the attacker has knowledge of the organization's password policy. These tactics can be combined with a dictionary attack or brute force attack to narrow the realm of potential passwords, increasing the likelihood of success. Some password cracking tools also use hybrid attack methodologies, which search for a dictionary word with the addition of a number or special character. The length of a password is an important factor in how it will be cracked. Choosing a longer password will increase the complexity of the cracking process. Keeping passwords up-to-date is also a crucial aspect of security. This is especially true for passwords that are re-used. This is because if a hacker gets hold of one password, they can then easily crack other password-protected accounts the user has. The password should be as unique as possible, but not too long or complex. It should be a combination of letters, numbers and special characters that can be remembered by the user but not easily guessed by someone else. It should also be encrypted. Input ValidationInput validation is the process of testing data received by an application for compliance against a standard defined within the application. This can be as simple as typing a parameter, or as complex as using regular expressions or business logic to validate input. Input Validation is critical to web application security, as it helps prevent attacks like SQL injection and cross-site scripting by ensuring that only properly formatted data can be inputted. It can also be used to sanitize information that users enter, helping ensure sign-ups and sales are not lost because of incorrect input. Depending on the type of data that you want to store, your input validation might need to check for both syntactical and semantic validity. This can include making sure that names, dates, and other structured fields are correctly formatted, and checking that values are within a range that makes sense for the specific business context. For example, a person's last name should be alphabetic, and the value of a date should be within a certain range that is compatible with the time zone of the user. In addition, it may be necessary to verify that numbers are of the right size, or that they do not contain any non-alphanumeric characters. This can be done by using whitelist or blacklist validation, which are typically based on regular expressions and filters. Input validation can also be done by sanitizing input by either removing bad characters or remapping them to an alternative but safe alternative. A good practice for input validation is to only allow input that is authorized by the system and the user. This means that if a user is entering data such as social security numbers, zip codes, email addresses, etc., they should be allowed to do so. Similarly, when a user is attempting to enter something other than the intended data, such as the script> character, it is important to use context-aware output encoding so that any potential malicious code is not executed. This helps to prevent XSS and other forms of injection attacks, while making it easier for users to navigate your website.
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