Web Application Vulnerabilities Research Articles

A Browser-based Cross Site Request Forgery Detection Model

CSRF is one of the most serious cyber attacks, and has been recognized as the main threat and one of the ten most serious vulnerabilities in web applications. The CSRF attack is when the attacker uses the implicit authentication mechanism of the HTTP protocol and the cookies cached in the browser to pass the authentication, and then executes the attack on the target website. In this article, we propose a browser-based CSRF detection model, which can detect CSRF attacks by analysing HTTP requests and web page content, thereby identifying the attacker’s CSRF attacks.

Typical vulnerabilities of web applications and methods of protection

Typical vulnerabilities of web applications and methods of protection

Barriers to Adopting Distributed Online Attack Detection Based On Blockchain for Web Application Vulnerabilities

Barriers to Adopting Distributed Online Attack Detection Based On Blockchain for Web Application Vulnerabilities

ANÁLISIS DE LAS HERRAMIENTAS Y TÉCNICAS UTILIZADAS EN PRUEBA DE PENETRACIÓN PARA LA DETECCIÓN DE VULNERABILIDADES EN APLICACIONES WEB

En vista de los riesgos de ataque cibernético que se presenta en los sistemas informático, en especial en las aplicaciones web, que maneja gran cantidad de información y datos de carácter privado como, por ejemplo, publicidad comercial, páginas web turísticas, marketing digital, entro otros, una manera de prevenirlo, es actuar anticipadamente, detectando a tiempo las vulnerabilidades potenciales, que pueden ser aprovechadas por los atacantes o hacker que carecen de consideraciones éticas. Se analizan las diferentes herramientas y técnicas utilizadas en prueba de penetración para la detección de vulnerabilidades en aplicaciones web, con la finalidad de detectar las posibles amenazas, que afecten, en el correcto funcionamiento de los diferentes sistemas informáticos. La metodología aplicada fue la bibliográfica, que permitió recopilar información relevante para realizar la investigación y el método analítico-sintético que se empleó para extraer las características principales y comparar las técnicas y herramientas para la detección de vulnerabilidades en aplicaciones web, además se realizó un análisis comparativo para determinar que herramienta fue la más utilizada en los ataques cibernéticos. Se determinó, que existen muchas herramientas y técnicas que proporcionan la detección de vulnerabilidad en aplicaciones web, entre la más utilizada por los usuarios de la informática, se tiene la Qualys Guard Web Application Scanning WAS. Este análisis permitió determinar, la eficacia de las herramientas y técnicas al ser aplicadas en prueba de vulnerabilidad considerando el análisis presentado por diferentes autores, entre ellos la matriz de trazabilidad, información detallada de los hallazgos de seguridad detectados, que sirvió para establecer los diferentes tipos de ataque cibernéticos, que se producen en las páginas web.
 ALABRAS CLAVE: análisis de vulnerabilidades; prueba de penetración; seguridad informática

Mutation Testing and Its Analysis on Web Applications for Defect Prevention and Performance Improvement

The society's increasing reliance on web applications with the growing online market and digitization of almost every service, there is an increasing demand for better reliability, security, and interoperability of web applications. Testing becomes an integral part of improving this reliability on web applications. Despite the innumerable number of tools, techniques, methods for testing web applications, there is still scope for expansion in the code coverage of web applications. Mutation testing with its expansive potential to expose vulnerabilities of web applications took a backseat owing to its exhaustive testing cycles. Some mutation operators related to security, performance, and other non-functional attributes of web applications are presented in the current work. In the current work, a thorough analysis of various mutations operators proposed by authors towards the non-existent operators thus far is presented. An augment of 47% of operators occurred in the present work. A concise discussion on the scope of work future direction of work is presented.

A formal and automated approach to exploiting multi-stage attacks of web applications

We propose a formal and automated approach that allows one to (i) reason about vulnerabilities of web applications and (ii) combine multiple vulnerabilities for the identification of complex, multi-stage attacks. We have developed WAFEx, an automatic tool that implements our approach and we show its efficiency by applying it to real-world case studies. WAFEx was able to generate, and exploit, previously unknown attacks.

Construction and Research of Comprehensive Management Platform for Network Security of China University Information System

As China moves rapidly toward the country with strong information technology. Colleges and universities, as an important part of the country, are accelerating the realization of a more convenient and fast information-based intelligent campus. The degree of informatization has also become an important stander for measuring the world "Double-First Class" universities. Faced with the increasing information system of colleges and universities, how to achieve unified security management has become an important issue that colleges and universities need to solve urgently. This article based on the information environment of Beijing Jiaotong University and the current operation and maintenance status of information systems. Through the methods and strategies used in daily work, this article combines the information system filing, hierarchical management, system vulnerabilities, web application vulnerabilities, security notice into one single platform. The information system with security risks is notified to the responsible person by SMS or email. This platform has realized a complete process from information system construction, filing, affiliated units, functions, open ports, vulnerability scanning, system operation, system rectification and upgrading. It reducing the switching of security devices from multiple platforms and improving the accuracy of detecting vulnerability.

Analytic Hierarchy Process-based Fuzzy Measurement to Quantify Vulnerabilities of Web Applications

Much research has been conducted to detect vulnerabilities of Web Applications; however, these never proposed a methodology to measure the vulnerabilities either qualitatively or quantitatively. In this paper, a methodology is proposed to investigate the quantification of vulnerabilities in Web Applications. We applied the Goal Question Metrics (GQM) methodology to determine all possible security factors and subfactors of Web Applications in the Department of Transportation (DOT) as our proof of concept. Then we introduced a Multi-layered Fuzzy Logic (MFL) approach based on the security sub-factors’ prioritization in the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Using AHP, we weighted each security sub-factor before the quantification process in the Fuzzy Logic to handle imprecise crisp number calculation.

An automated framework for evaluating open-source web scanner vulnerability severity

The inevitable use of web applications has resulted in increased exposure to security vulnerabilities which are exploited by attackers each passing day. Fixing these vulnerabilities requires a great deal of effort and time, hence developers need to prioritize and channel their resources to the most severe vulnerabilities to curtail further exploitation. The common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) is the de-facto standard for characterizing and measuring the severity of security vulnerabilities. However, the efficiency of the CVSS metric has been challenged in previous studies, leading to varied vulnerability scoring metrics. This paper proposes an automated framework for evaluating open-source Web scanner vulnerability severity using a Web vulnerability detection scanner called zed attach proxy to detect vulnerabilities in a damn vulnerable web application. Additionally, we use the OWASP 2017 top ten selection and prioritization scheme as our benchmark for the severity measure and ranking. The preliminary result shows that the most frequent vulnerabilities in Web applications, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting are of medium severe with a severity score of 8.

An empirical comparison of commercial and open‐source web vulnerability scanners

SummaryWeb vulnerability scanners (WVSs) are tools that can detect security vulnerabilities in web services. Although both commercial and open‐source WVSs exist, their vulnerability detection capability and performance vary. In this article, we report on a comparative study to determine the vulnerability detection capabilities of eight WVSs (both open and commercial) using two vulnerable web applications: WebGoat and Damn vulnerable web application. The eight WVSs studied were: Acunetix; HP WebInspect; IBM AppScan; OWASP ZAP; Skipfish; Arachni; Vega; and Iron WASP. The performance was evaluated using multiple evaluation metrics: precision; recall; Youden index; OWASP web benchmark evaluation; and the web application security scanner evaluation criteria. The experimental results show that, while the commercial scanners are effective in detecting security vulnerabilities, some open‐source scanners (such as ZAP and Skipfish) can also be effective. In summary, this study recommends improving the vulnerability detection capabilities of both the open‐source and commercial scanners to enhance code coverage and the detection rate, and to reduce the number of false‐positives.

Web Application Vulnerability Detection Using Taint Analysis and Black-box Testing

Web applications continue to grow however web attacks are also increasing, this shows an increase in web application vulnerabilities. Several methods have been used to detect vulnerabilities in web applications such as black-box testing, dynamic analysis, and static analysis. In this article, we propose a framework for detecting web application vulnerabilities by combining all three methods. The strengths of one method are used to overcome the weaknesses of another method. This framework is believed to provide better results than if each method was used separately.

Machine Learning for Web Vulnerability Detection: The Case of Cross-Site Request Forgery

We propose a methodology to leverage machine learning (ML) for the detection of web application vulnerabilities. We use it in the design of Mitch, the first ML solution for the black-box detection of cross-site request forgery vulnerabilities. Finally, we show the effectiveness of Mitch on real software.

Analytical View of Web Security and Sophisticated Ways to Improve Web Security

All kind of business web application vulnerability statistics are growing in recent and new forms of hacker’s attacks, such as Watering Hole Attack are appearing. Well secured enterprise web applications are threatened by smaller vulnerable webs misused by hackers in targeted attacks. This paper discuss an effective way of creating better secured web application, applicable also in business sector by support them with semantic web platform security and certificate transparency. The main issue – improperly validated user inputs, the biggest security vulnerability often misused by hackers – could be effectively fixed by open-source HTML Purifier library which is usable in various programming languages. Moreover, we will discuss the latest internet security threats and the security of SSL/TSL practice for business web application with proactive on-line embedded prevention, detection and response system.

Addressing Web Application Security Issues and Vulnerabilities Assessment Pen Testing

The world relies heavily on the Internet, and every organization uses web applications extensively for information sharing, business purposes such as online sales, money transfer, etc., and Exchange services. Nowadays, providing security for web applications is the greatest challenge in the corporate world because web applications will be the main way for their daily business and if the web application is affected, then daily business and reputation will be affected. As many organizations have been using the web application service to share or store sensitive information about their clients and assets. So, Web Applications are inclined to security attacks and new security vulnerabilities have grown in the last two decades in a web application and have become an important target for attackers. So, it is very vital to secure a web application. The vulnerabilities in web applications will incur due to the security misconfigurations, programming mistakes, improper usage of security measures, etc. So, vulnerability assessment and pen testing will help to figure out the different vulnerabilities present in web applications. The websites are also using to deliver the critical services to its customers so it must run every time without any interception, to do this VAPT will play a crucial role. This paper reviews about vulnerability assessment and pretesting steps and types, website vulnerabilities like SQL Injection, Cross-Site scripting, file inclusion, cross-site request forgery, and broken authentication with types and remediations and also discuss how the effect of these vulnerabilities on a web application.

A Novel Method to Detect and Prevent SQLIA Using Ontology to Cloud Web Security

Many modern day web applications deal with huge amount of secured and high impact data. As a result security plays a major role in web application development. The security of any web application focuses on data the application handles. The web application framework should prevent and detect web application vulnerabilities. Data will be stored in a database, so the OWASP categorized vulnerability SQL Injection Attacks (SQLIA) is the most critical vulnerability for a web application. An Ontology based model for preventing and detecting SQLIA using ontology (SQLIO) is proposed which implements Ontology Creation and prediction rule based vulnerabilities model. The proposed methodology provides prevents and detects SQLIA web vulnerability to a greater extent in cloud environment.

Web Security Aware by using Naive Baye’s ML Technique

Web applications support many of our daily activities, but they often have security issues, and their accessibility makes them easy to use. This paper presents an analysis for finding vulnerabilities that directly address weak or absent of input validation. We present the techniques for finding security vulnerabilities in Web applications. We implement our proposed system with a machine learning technique (ML technique) to measure the accuracy and provide an extensive evaluation that finds all vulnerabilities in web applications. SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), HTTP and command inj1ection vulnerabilities are addressed in the proposed system and also Naive Bayes ML technique is used to calculate the accurateness. The experimental result shows the technique is more efficient and accurate.

A Framework for Web Application Vulnerability Detection

Hardly a facet of human life is not influenced by the Internet due to the continuous proliferation in the Internet facilities, usage, speed, user friendly browsing, global access, etc. At flip side, hackers are also attacking this digital world with new tactics and techniques through exploiting the web application vulnerabilities. The analysis of these vulnerabilities is of paramount importance in direction to secure social digital world. It can be carried out in two ways. First, manual analysis which is error prone due to the human nature of forgiveness, dynamic change in technology and fraudulence attack techniques. Second, through the existing web application vulnerability scanners that sometime may suffer from generating false alarm rate. Hence, there is a need to develop a framework that can detect different levels of vulnerabilities, ranging from client side vulnerabilities, communication side vulnerabilities to server side vulnerabilities. This paper has carried out the literature survey in direction of identifying the new attack vectors, vulnerabilities, detection mechanism, research gaps and new working areas in same field. Continuous improvement in framework is easy. Hence, a framework is proposed to overcome the identified research gap.

Evaluation of Open Source Web Application Vulnerability Scanners

Nowadays, web applications are essential part of our lives. Web applications are used by people for information gathering, communication, e-commerce and variety of other activities. Since they contain valuable and sensitive information, the attacks against them have increased in order to find vulnerabilities and steal information. For this reason, it is essential to check web application vulnerabilities to ensure that it is secure. However, checking the vulnerabilities manually is a tedious and time-consuming job. Therefore, there is an exigent need for web application vulnerability scanners. In this study, we evaluate two open source web application vulnerability scanners Paros and OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (OWASP ZAP) by testing them against two vulnerable web applications buggy web application (bWAPP) and Damn Vulnerable Web Application (DVWA).

Analytic Hierarchy Process-based Fuzzy Measurement to Quantify Vulnerabilities of Web Applications

Much research has been conducted to detect vulnerabilities of Web Applications; however, these never proposed a methodology to measure the vulnerabilities either qualitatively or quantitatively. In this paper, a methodology is proposed to investigate the quantification of vulnerabilities in Web Applications. We applied the Goal Question Metrics (GQM) methodology to determine all possible security factors and sub-factors of Web Applications in the Department of Transportation (DOT) as our proof of concept. Then we introduced a Multi-layered Fuzzy Logic (MFL) approach based on the security sub-factors’ prioritization in the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Using AHP, we weighted each security sub-factor before the quantification process in the Fuzzy Logic to handle imprecise crisp number calculation.

Mapping the OWASP Top Ten to Blockchain

The OWASP Top Ten List is a widely-recognized tool for identifying vulnerabilities in web applications. Since blockchain-specific security guidance is currently lacking, mapping existing frameworks, such as OWASP, to the blockchain can help in the identification of potential vulnerabilities in blockchain systems. While the OWASP Top Ten List is designed to describe the vulnerabilities that web application developers face, nine of ten of the OWASP vulnerabilities also apply to blockchain systems. The exception, XML External Entities (XXE), is not applicable due to the lack of use of XML in blockchain.