Changing passwords frequently, locking devices, and keeping software up to date are common security practices. However, the security of an application can often be an overlooked and vulnerable element.
Web applications have a high probability of facing threats triggered by various factors: system crashes due to incorrect coding, misconfigured servers, and application design issues.
Vulnerabilities in an application code or operating system can be exploited by cybercriminals to access databases, servers, and other sensitive data. Taking advantage of the exposure of sensitive data, hackers proceed to launch ransomware attacks or other forms of online fraud.
Considering that the are caused by application vulnerabilities, adopting the best practices and the right tools is essential to mitigate risks and strengthen the security of web applications.
In this guide, we’ll cover what web application security is, how it works, and what tools you can use to secure your web application.
What is web application security?
As part of cybersecurity, web application security focuses on safeguarding websites, web-based applications, and online services from a variety of malicious attacks, ensuring their smooth operation and performance.
Most common types of security vulnerabilities in web applications
Web application vulnerabilities allow criminals to gain unauthorized control of source code, manipulate private information, or disrupt normal application operation.
The international non-profit organization dedicated to web application security has revealed the top 10 web application layer security risks. Let’s look at some of the most common attacks against web applications.
SQL injection
This type of flaw allows an attacker to manipulate an application’s database queries by injecting code. In most attacks, hackers can retrieve data belonging to other users or related to the application itself, such as passwords, credit card data, and cookies.
When a SQL injection attack goes wrong, the attacker may attempt a denial of service attack or compromise the underlying server or other back-end infrastructure.
Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
This is a widely used technique for executing code, usually JavaScript, on the target website or application. A successful cross-site script gives attackers access to the entire application.
An example of an XSS attack is when a hacker exploits an input field vulnerability and uses it to inject malicious code into another website.
Hackers have full control over what happens once their targets click on the infected link. The main reason XSS is considered a high-risk security flaw is that it allows an attacker to view data stored in LocalStorage, SessionStorage, or cookies on the target system. Therefore, no personal data should be stored on these systems.
Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
A CSRF attack employs social engineering techniques to convince a user to modify application data, such as username or password. A CSRF attack requires an application to use session cookies solely to identify the user making a request. These cookies are then used to track or validate user requests.
Depending on the action the user is forced to complete, the attacker can steal money, accounts, or perform other attacks on the web application.
Credential stuffing
Hackers use usernames, emails, and passwords from publicly available data dumps on the dark web to take over user accounts. Illegal data can contain millions of username and password combinations due to years of data breaches on numerous sites. This shows that even old data can be valuable to attackers.
Credential theft is very dangerous, especially in finance. Financial credential stuffing gives hackers clear access to all your bank account and transaction information, allowing them to apply for loans, use your credit cards, or make bank transfers.
Creation of fake accounts
Normally, many companies promote the creation of accounts to follow the behavior of their customers and share the latest offers. This makes quick and easy registration an important element, but security can be overlooked. Therefore, it can be just as easy for criminals to create fake accounts as any other legitimate customer.
Hackers can create a significant number of user accounts that are not linked to a real person or are made using stolen personal information. These fake accounts can be used to cover up credential stuffing practices, take advantage of customer offers, or authenticate stolen credit cards.
Fake account creation attacks are becoming increasingly difficult to detect and prevent as hackers are constantly looking for new ways to spoof or steal identities.
Security deconfiguration
Another high-risk web application vulnerability is security misconfiguration, which allows attackers to easily take control of websites. Malicious attackers can take advantage of a wide range of weaknesses and misconfigurations, including unused pages, unpatched vulnerabilities, unsafe files and directories, and default settings.
Things like web and application servers, databases, or network services can leave you exposed to data breaches. Hackers can manipulate any private information and take control of user and administrator accounts.
authorization failure
Visitors to a website or application can only access certain parts of it if they have the appropriate permissions: this is due to access controls. If, for example, you manage a website that allows different sellers to publish their products, you have to give them access to add new products and manage their sales.
Thus, there are certain limitations for non-vendor customers that hackers can exploit. They can find ways to compromise access control and release unauthorized data as a result of changing user and file access permissions.
Local File Inclusion (LFI)
LFI is a frequently discovered vulnerability in poorly built web applications. Allows an attacker to include or expose files on a server.
If the web application executes the file, it can expose sensitive data or even execute malicious code.
How does web application security work?
In addition to preserving the technology and features used in application development, web application security also establishes a high level of protection for servers and processes. Additionally, it protects web services, such as APIs, against online threats.
The critical aspect of security in web applications is to ensure that the applications work safely and smoothly at all times. To achieve this goal, you can start with an in-depth security test.
Security testing involves discovering and fixing all vulnerabilities before hackers get to them. Therefore, it is highly recommended to test web applications during the SDLC (software development life cycle) stages, and not after the web application has been released.
Here are some effective security measures that can help protect your web application.
Perform a comprehensive security audit
Regular security audits are an excellent way to ensure that security best practices are being followed in your web application and to quickly find any potential flaws in your systems. A security audit can not only help you stay on top of potential vulnerabilities, but also protect your business.
To ensure a complete and objective perspective on your security audit process, it is best to hire a professional. With his extensive experience and knowledge, he will be a valuable asset in identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities that require patch management or other fixes.
After completing a security assessment, the next step is to address all discovered flaws. A good approach is to set priorities based on the level of impact of each type of vulnerability.
Make sure you do consistent vulnerability scans and updates. To make things more efficient, perform your web application security testing by using your vulnerability scanners to look for major injection attacks like SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and DDoS attacks instead of scanning all kinds of vulnerabilities.
Also, don’t forget to make sure that all the servers your web applications are hosted on are up to date with the latest security patches.
Encrypt all data
When someone uses your web application, they can reveal sensitive information. This information must not be accessible to any unauthorized party. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that your web application provides data encryption during transit and at rest. This is where he plays a vital role.
When you use SSL/TLS encryption, you use a more secure version of the HTTP protocol, HTTPS, and protect all communications with your visitors. Without SSL-encrypted connections, both websites and applications have weak encryption that can compromise session management and the overall security system. See the comparison between and how having an SSL can benefit your site.
By implementing security measures like the HTTPS protocol, you are building a better online presence and improving SEO performance.
Monitor security in web applications in real time
To ensure that your web application is protected 24 hours a day, you need more than just a security audit to identify and fix all its vulnerabilities. This is where Web Application Firewalls (WAF) are needed.
Basically, a WAF handles all aspects of real-time monitoring of security aspects of your web application, such as session management. This means that it blocks possible attacks on the application layer in real time, such as DDoS attacks, SQL injection, XSS and attacks…
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