How to Mitigate Web Application Security Vulnerabilities
There are many vulnerabilities in web applications that can be exploited by hackers to breach confidential data. These include SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting, and authentication failure, among others.
tony Stark
Cybercrime has emerged as one of the greatest threats to the digital landscape, with scores of websites or web applications being hacked daily. According to the FBI’s annual Internet Crime Complaint Center report, the cost of cybercrime in the USA in 2021 was pegged at $6.9 billion. However, not every organization developing web applications has shored up its security measures, such as web application security testing. This has led to a host of built-in vulnerabilities becoming a recurring issue in web applications.
Any vulnerability can leave a web application susceptible to security attacks, resulting in a data breach, financial loss, and reputation damage. However, this is an avoidable issue, which can be nipped in the bud if proper security rigors are undertaken by organizations. It is important to know about common security vulnerabilities and how to prevent them. Let us discuss some of them in the below mentioned segment.
Security vulnerabilities in web applications and their prevention
Web vulnerabilities are a recipe for hackers to let loose a flurry of attack vectors to steal data - both personal and business-related. The common web vulnerabilities that invite malicious attacks are as follows:
SQL injection: Since the database within a web application is the repository of all data, hackers try to gain access to it using SQL injection attacks. Thereafter, malicious SQL statements are inserted into the form fields to obtain crucial data and control the database. This way, the attackers can modify or delete the data from the database. For instance, attackers using SQL injection can gather vital customer information from the database, namely, passwords, credit card details, or passwords.
Overcoming such an attack can be done by implementing a host of methods by developers and verifying them by software security testing services.
- Statements should be prepared with parameterized queries to sanitize the input and ensure the same is treated as a string literal instead of a SQL query. This way, the database will be able to differentiate between SQL data and SQL code.
- Another way is to migrate to using Object Relational Mapping Tools (ORMs). However, care must be taken to use specific frameworks given that ORMs allow the use of non-parameterized queries as well. These can be checked rigorously during cybersecurity testing.
- Use SQL controls within the queries to prevent the disclosure of records in the event of an SQL injection attack.
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): This vulnerability can invite malicious code to be injected into a running application and executed on the client-side. XSS attacks are sent to multiple users to steal confidential information. It enables the attacker to gain full control of the user’s browser and get access to the type of applications being run.
XSS attacks can be overcome by implementing the following application security testing methodology:
- Use of modern frameworks such as Angular JS, Ruby on Rails, and React JS to prevent XSS attacks and escape from any untrusted user input.
- Use a whitelist instead of a blacklist, as the former is more effective at mitigating the vulnerabilities. Also, it is very easy to bypass a blacklist filter.
- Implement output encoding wherein untrusted user inputs are converted into a safe form. This ensures the input is shown to the user as data instead of being executed as code. Here, special characters are converted into an equivalent form, which the browser does not find significant enough.
- Implement a Content Security Policy to mitigate XSS vulnerabilities. This can be ascertained when web application security testing is conducted on the web application.
Authentication failure: This type of vulnerability occurs after implementing inadequate user authentication controls. This may put the user accounts at risk of being breached and controlled by hackers. Another vulnerability called credential stuffing involves attacking several valid passwords with passwords derived from another attack until a valid combination is found.
Overcoming such a vulnerability needs the application of the following methods:
- Ensuring the build is rigorously checked for security by external application security testing services before it is deployed for production.
- Do not use default credentials for admins.
- Implement multi-factor or multi-layered authentication to enforce greater security against such attacks.
- Implement a limit for failed login attempts. Also, every failure should be notified to the administrator. These should be verified by penetration testing services.
- Implement adaptive hashing algorithms before storing the passwords in the database.
- Implement checks for weak passwords.
Conclusion
The above may be a few vulnerabilities from a comprehensive list that should be tested by cybersecurity testing services (in-house or external). The methods to mitigate such vulnerabilities by any application security testing company should be implemented with rigor to prevent data breaches.
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tony Stark
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