Results & discussions of Web application’s security

Based on the previous research work, available on the topic of web application’s security, the results and the findings can be drawn for the current research work.

The possible reasons for having the security issues to the website applications may include as given: the weak or the broken passwords, hidden field manipulation, insecurity to the use of the cryptography, buffer overflow, cookie sniffing, week session management, misconfiguration to the servers, disclosure of the sensitive data, manipulation of the parameters, inadequate validation of the input ads well as social hacking etc.

The key concepts in this regard are given as follows:

Authentication: it is all about making confirmations related to the identity of a person.

Authorization: This phenomenon is about allowing a person to perform a certain specified task or to receive a service.

SQLi: It is the case when a malicious code or the script is used to insert it into an SQL instance.

Cross-site scripting: it is a critical attack whereby an attacker tends to inject any malicious code into the web page. This malicious scripts/code can access the confidential information or may even rewrite the content of any HTML page etc.

Cross-site request forgery: It the act of allowing a trusted user to exploit a website. It is done by just transmitting unauthorized commands from a trustworthy user.

Malicious file execution: It is related to the execution of the code from a non-trusted user.

XML injection: This security issue is about inserting the XML code in order to alter the XML structure. It ultimately tends to violate the integrity rule.

Xpath injection: The website, if makes use of the user information, in order to create an XML query related to XML data, is the case of Xpath injection.

Cookie cloning: It is all about the manipulation of the user’s data by cloning the browser cookies.

Cookie manipulation: the content of the cookies is if changed or manipulated by the hijacker, then it is the case of cookie manipulation.

Cookie sniffing: From the web applications, the unencrypted cookies are intercepted under this domain. It is basically a session hijacking vulnerability.

Inappropriate validation of the input data: under this head, due to some missing data or the information, the hacker may try to provide the data having the scripts.

Disclosure of the sensitive data: Due to the breach of security, the user’s personal data might be disclosed to the attackers.

Under the head of social vulnerability, the attacker tends to get access to the unauthorized user details.

Source: https://www.keycdn.com/img/blog/ddos-over-time.webp

The security perspective of an application is as significant for the said system as the application itself. Taking into consideration the security perspectives of the web applications, the agile methods, i.e., scrum and extreme programming can better provide assistance for providing high quality applications along with more security concerns. It is all because of the complexity of web applications.

Focusing on  various issues  and challenges related to the security testing of web applications will  yield  substantial  significant  dividends  in  identifying various risks, vulnerabilities,  attacks,  threats,  viruses, etc associated with the security testing of web-based applications [4].

Security tools of Web application’s security

The main aim of using security tools is to test the security of web applications. It better helps to extract the flaws as well as the loopholes of the web applications at the developmental phase. Along with the preliminary testing, the security tools also help to test whether the security code in a web application is properly encoded or not. Following areas are mainly focused on security testing:

·         Authentication

·         Authorization

·         Availability

·         Confidentiality

·         Integrity

·         Non-reputation

Following security tools are the most widely used tools for testing the web applications:

a)      SonarQube of Web application’s security

Introduction: SonarQube is the security tool that better serves the purpose of measuring the quality of the source code of a web application. It possesses the ability to perform the analysis of over 20 programming languages.

Function: It helps to do the following:

·         Cross-site scripting

·         SQL injection

·         HTTP response splitting

·         Memory corruption

Feature: The distinguishing features of SonarQube are as given:

• Detects tricky issues
• DevOps integration
• Set up an analysis of pull requests
• Supports quality tracking of both short-lived and long-lived code branches
• Offers Quality Gate
• History visualization of a project

b)     SQL Map of Web application’s security

Introduction: SQL Map is free to use. It works by automating the phenomenon of detection as well as the utilization of the SQL injection vulnerability.

Function: It helps to do the following:

• Helps in the Automation of the process for finding SQL injection vulnerabilities
• Better helps for testing the security of a website
• Robust detection engine
• Supports a range of databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle.

Feature: The distinguishing features of SQL Map are as given:

·         Union query

·         Time-based blind

·         Error-detection

·         Out-of-band

·         Stacked queries

·         Boolean-based blind

1.      Conclusion and Future work of Web application’s security

In this era of IT, everything is going to be advanced on a continuous basis. So as is the case with the business processes and the ways of doing the business. The more innovative ideas are implemented by businesses, the more there are the chances for their growth. It also helps to get an increased number of customers and the market share. Also, competition with rivals can better be carried out. The businesses today are trying to use web applications in order to support business processes.

In the current paper, it is tried to find out the possible security issues which prevail regarding the website applications. The websites, if they work without any hurdles, tend to provide the businesses with smooth and ease. There are also the possibilities for having the security issues and the threats related to the website applications. These threats and the challenges need to be catered in order to make the web applications to work effectively.

The security tools like SonarQube, SQL Map, Arachni, Grabber, Iron Wasp, Nogotofail, W3af, Wapiti, Wfuzz, and Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP), etc. can better help to test and measure the security of the web applications. It can be either in the context of the underlying code or the flow that the execution of the code is following.

For testing the security of web applications, an effective testing strategy is desirable. The exact and accurate information is to be available for testing the security of the particular website. While performing security testing, a tester should also integrate execution related information and problems while testing. It can be helpful in eradicating various vulnerabilities related to the security testing of web applications.

            For the development cycle of the web application, it is indispensable to test the web application for the security-related issues and the threats. Security testing better helps to identify and expose the possible vulnerabilities which the web applications can face. These security threats are big challenges for web applications. This testing helps in determining the behavior of the web application when it is exposed to the malicious input data especially in the context of the fulfillment of the requirements by the web application.  

             As far as the future work is concerned regarding the security of the web applications then following needs to be considered in this regard:

·         The web applications should be tested for security at the developmental phase.

·         The deep insight needs to be taken related to the security parameters for the web applications.

·         The users of web applications can be provided proper guidance for maintaining the security of web applications.

·         The authentication and the authorization of the users of the web applications need to follow the strict rules in order to maintain the security of web applications.

References of Web application’s security