Web Application Security
Web application security involves protecting web services, applications, and websites from malicious threats that exploit web application code vulnerabilities. A successful web application attack can result in data leaks, information theft, revoked licenses, damaged reputations, and legal proceedings.
Cybercriminals often exploit vulnerabilities in web applications due to the following reasons:
- Source code complexity—increases the probability of vulnerabilities exploitable by malicious code manipulation.
- High-value rewards—web applications handle sensitive private data that cybercriminals can leverage for launching additional attacks or putting it up for sale.
- Ease of execution—cybercriminals can easily launch automated covert attacks against numerous targets—tens or even hundreds of thousands.
Web application vulnerabilities allow cybercriminals to launch additional attacks, such as:
- SQL injection—attackers deploy malicious SQL code to manipulate the backend of databases. A successful SQL injection attack can result in unauthorized data listing, unauthorized administrative privileges and access, and deletion of tables.
- Cross-site scripting (XSS)—attackers use XSS to access user accounts, inject Trojans, and change the content of web pages to deface a website or deceive users. This type of attack targets application users.
- Remote file inclusion (RFI)—attackers remotely inject files into a web application server. A successful RFI attack can deploy code execution and malicious script in applications, compromise a web server, and steal data.
- Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)—attackers use CSRF to transfer funds, change passwords, or steal data. It involves exploiting open user sessions and causing the browser to perform unauthorized actions on this site.
Shifting Security Left for Web Applications
Web applications have several attack surfaces, and to protect them holistically, you must secure all these surfaces. It is critical to shift security left, to ensure that web applications are secure during all stages of their development and deployment, and security is not applied as an afterthought.
There are three aspects to shifting security left in a web application:
- Securing web application vulnerabilities—a web application can have security flaws in its code, misconfigurations, or vulnerable components, all of which can be exploited by attackers.
- Validating security remediation—even after you have scanned your application for vulnerabilities and remediated them, you need to validate that the application is secure in a realistic test that simulates an attack.
- Securing the web server—a web server is by nature a vulnerable component because it is connected to the Internet. Attackers have many ways of compromising server endpoints or user accounts that have control over them. Even if the web application itself is secure, the web server could be compromised.
DAST, PTaaS, and Endpoint Protection
Three security tools can help you secure all the attack surfaces we listed above:
- Dynamic application security testing (DAST) tools can scan for vulnerabilities in running applications and guide remediation.
- Pen Testing as a Service (PTaaS) tools can enable automated and manual testing of web applications to ensure there are no hidden or missed vulnerabilities.
- Endpoint protection tools can secure the web server to ensure attackers cannot compromise it with malware, and any suspicious activity on the server is detected and blocked.
Let’s discuss each of these tools in more detail.
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
DAST tools can help you perform live testing on applications during runtime. You can use DAST to look for exploitable vulnerabilities in your applications during development and in production. You can integrate most modern DAST tools into your CI/CD pipeline and run it automatically with every build.
DAST tools check your applications against known vulnerabilities and malicious inputs dictionaries. Here are potentially malicious inputs a DAST can help identify in applications:
- SQL queries—help detect SQL injection vulnerabilities.
- Long input strings—threat actors can use these strings to exploit buffer overflow vulnerabilities.
- Negative and large positive numbers—help identify integer overflow and underflow vulnerabilities.
DAST tools identify vulnerabilities and can also attempt to exploit detected vulnerabilities to determine their impact and severity. For example, a DAST tool can look for security weaknesses by using fuzzing and crawling techniques to execute unexpected paths in the application workflow.
Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS)
PTaaS is a cloud service that offers resources for conducting point-in-time and continuous penetration tests. This service aims to help organizations build a successful vulnerability management program that identifies, prioritizes, and remediates security threats in a quick and efficient manner.
Traditional pentesting
Pentesting involves sourcing white hat testers to proactively identify exploitable attack vectors. During the pentest, testers attempt to breach an application, server, or network to help organizations spot and remediate security issues that they may otherwise miss. Traditionally, pentesting results were delivered when the test concluded, offering remediations recommendations.
Pen Testing as a Service
PTaaS vendors leverage the flexibility of the cloud to deliver reports and recommendations during all phases of the test. Vendors typically provide automated pen tests tools through a Software as a Service (SaaS) model to enable organizations to view real-time data. It usually includes dashboards that display relevant information before, during, and after the pentest. PTaaS vendors also provide a knowledge base and resources for parsing vulnerabilities.
Endpoint Protection
Endpoint protection involves securing sensitive endpoints, such as servers, laptops, and workstations, from malicious exploitation. Endpoint tools aim to protect against zero-day threats and sophisticated, evasive threats, including advanced persistent threats (APT). This technology helps fill in the gaps left by traditional antivirus software capable of detecting only known threats.
Here are several challenges endpoint protection platforms help address:
- A growing number of endpoints—corporate networks need to handle connectivity with an increasing number of various endpoints, including personally-owned devices and healthcare IoT.
- Remote work and BYOD policies—new types of endpoints and work paradigms, like remote work and BYOD policies, make perimeter security insufficient to secure networks.
- A complex threat landscape—cybercriminals constantly create new ways to access systems, steal data, and trick employees into divulging sensitive information.
Endpoint protection solutions help monitor corporate networks for endpoint threats, providing the visibility needed to protect today’s complex and distributed networks.
Conclusion
In this article, I introduced web application security and showed how three solutions can help address the primary attack surfaces of a web application:
- DAST—discovering and remediating vulnerabilities
- PTaaS—verifying the security posture
- Endpoint protection—securing the web server
I hope this will be useful as you evaluate and improve the security posture of your critical web applications.
