The Much Crucial Web Application Security!
Web Application Security – What Is It?
The concept of web application security is at the heart of most web-based businesses. The omnipresent aspect of the World Wide Web tends to expose the web properties to various attack(s) from different unidentified locations and at varying degrees of scale as well as complexities. Web application security especially refers to the security of websites, web apps as well as web services like APIs.
What Are the Most Common Web Application Security Vulnerabilities?
Attacks on web applications range from target-based database manipulations to larger-scale network disruptions. Let us take a look at some prevalent attack methods or “vectors” that are usually exploited.
- XSS or Cross-site scripting: XSS is a vulnerability, which allows attackers to inject client-side scripts into a webpage(s) to directly access critical information, impersonate users, or trick users into disclosing crucial info.
- SQi i.e. SQL Injection: SQi is a method used by attackers to exploit vulnerabilities in the way any database tends to execute search queries. Attackers may use SQi for gaining unauthorized access to information, modifying it or forming new user permissions, or manipulating or destroying sensitive data.
- DoS (Distributed Denial of Service) & DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) Attacks: Through various vectors, attackers can overload a targeted server or its neighboring infrastructure with varied ways of attacking traffic. When some server no longer processes incoming requests efficiently, then that server starts to slow down and eventually refuses service to all the requests, which are coming from legitimate users.
- Memory Corruption: This usually happens when memory locations are changed accidentally, which can lead to unexpected software behavior. Bad actors will try to detect and exploit memory errors through exploits such as code injection or buffer overflow attacks.
- Buffer Overflow: This is actually an abnormal phenomenon that occurs when software writes data to a specified area of memory called the buffer. This causes adjacent memory locations to overwrite data. This behavior can be exploited for injecting malicious code inside the memory, thus creating vulnerability in the targeted machine potentially.
- CSRF i.e. Cross-Site Request Forgery: This is basically about tricking victims into making a request using their authentication/authorization. By taking advantage of the user’s account privileges, attackers can send requests to impersonate the user. When a user’s account is compromised, attackers steal, destroy, or modify important information. Extremely privileged accounts including those of administrators and/or executives are often targeted in this way.
- Data Breaches: Other than specific attack vectors, data breaches generally refer to the disclosure of sensitive or confidential information and can happen due to malicious actions/mistakes. The scope of data breaches is quite broad and can include some very valuable records up to a host of exposed user accounts.
Best Practices for Mitigating Web Application Security Vulnerabilities
- WAF (To Protect against the application-layer-attacks): WAF is shortened for Web Application Firewall, which helps protect web applications from malicious HTTP traffic. WAF places a filtering barrier between the targeted server and potential attackers. It protects against attacks such as cross-site spoofing, cross-site scripting, and SQL injections.
- DDoS Mitigation: A popular way to disrupt web apps is the use of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. This can be mitigated in many ways like blocking attack traffic by volume and using the network for properly routing legitimate requests with no loss of service.
- DNS Security (DNSSEC Protection): DNS (Domain Name System) is the directory of the Internet and is how an Internet engine such as a web browser finds the correct server. Malicious actors will attempt to hijack this DNS query process through DNS cache-poisoning, path attacks, and other ways to interfere with the DNS lookup lifecycle. If DNS is the directory of the Internet, then DNSSEC is the unspoiled caller ID.
Legacit Web Application Security Services
Critical steps in protecting web applications from exploitation include using up-to-date encryption, requiring proper authentication, continuously remediating discovered vulnerabilities, and cleaning software development well. The reality is that smart attackers can find vulnerabilities even in a fairly robust security environment and a comprehensive security strategy is recommended. Web application security can be enhanced by protecting against DDoS, Application Layer, and DNS attacks. Thus Legacit!