Thinking of building a secure web application software for your business?
That’s Great! You’re at the right place.
It is the high time you must know about the most common vulnerabilities that can harm your web application software security.
In this blog, we’ve considered the top most common web application software security issues and some tips to prevent them.
As a leading web application development firm, Softvira aims to educate designers, developers, managers, architects, and organizations about the most common web application security issues, enabling them to recognize and address them according to their pervasiveness, method of exploitation, and potential impact.
Security risks in web applications are becoming one of the most pressing problems. Any web application-whether it’s an internet bank processing millions of transactions or a shop front for small businesses – can become a victim of spiteful attacks.
As a result, attackers gain access to personal data, and the company has to face serious financial and reputational problems. They should be addressed as soon as they are discovered, and efforts should be made to find them because exploit attempts are irresistible.
Here are the most common web application vulnerabilities you should protect yourself against.
Broken Authentication:
Broken authentication allows attackers to have access to users’ accounts without entering a password. This usually happens when session keys and tokens used to identify users are intercepted.
It can include improperly salted and hashed passwords, leaks of users’ account data, a brute force attack, or typical password stuffing.
How to prevent:
- Using multi-factor authentication helps to verify the right user.
- Create strong passwords with periodic password updates.
- Access control has to be executed on the server side instead of the customer’s side.
Security Misconfiguration:
Lack of maintenance or lack of attention to the web application configuration results in an array of vulnerabilities.
It can include unused pages, unpatched flaws, unprotected directories or files, outdated software, or running software in debug mode.
How to prevent:
- Make sure to change the default configuration.
- Frequently maintain and update all web application components.
- Limit access to administrator interfaces.
Injection Attacks:
A web app vulnerable to injection attacks accepts untrusted data from an input field without any proper sanitation. These can include user names, passwords, and other areas that interact with the target.
Some common injection attacks such as SQL, Cross-site scripting, Email header injection, etc, leads to illegal access to databases and exploitation of users’ confidentiality.
How to prevent:
- Add filters and sanitize all your input.
- Keep untrusted inputs away from queries and commands.
- Use a safe Application Programming Interface(API) to avoid interpreters.
Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOF):
When database keys or files get exposed to the users, insecure direct object reference issues exist. Exposed internal objects allow attackers to use enumeration attacks to have access to sensitive databases or other users’ data.
How to prevent:
- Avoid exposing object references in URLs.
- Prevent access to sensitive files and data through server-side input validation.
- Input access control checks.
Cross-site Scripting Attack(XSS):
This issue allows attackers to execute a cross-site scripting session attack to intercept users’ session identifiers and carry out multiple actions in the app on their behalf.
Attackers using Javascript for XSS attacks can also access a user’s webcam, location, and other confidential data.
How to prevent:
- Filter and sanitize your input.
- Encode all user-supplied data.
Cross-site Request Forgery(CSRF):
Web applications without proper dual authentication or cross-site tokens can be vulnerable to CSRF.
It forces a logged-on user’s browser to send a false HTTP request, which includes the user’s session cookie and any other automatically included sensitive information, to the endangered application.
How to prevent:
- Use POST requests only and eradicate GET requests.
- Implement mechanisms like Unique Request Tokens, CAPTCHA, and Re-authentication.
Insecure Deserialization:
Insecure deserialization enables attackers to manipulate anything that interacts with web applications – serialized objects and URLs to pass the harmful data into the application code.
This allows them to inflict denial-of-service(DOS) attacks, remote code execution, and SQL injection attacks.
How to prevent:
- Never accept serialized objects from untrusted sources.
XML external Entities:
It occurs when an attacker injects an XML, containing the reference to an unapproved external entity and is processed by a weekly-configured XML parser.
It is used by attackers to obtain additional technical information that is used to conduct Denial-of-service and other types of attacks.
How to prevent:
- Manage Web Application Firewall with custom-defined rules
- Disable DTDs.
Broken Access Control:
Due to misconfigured, broken, or missing server-side authorization, vulnerabilities occur that leave your back-end open to attacks.
Broken access control(BAS) occurs to web applications that are accessible instead of being protected, leaving them vulnerable to a serious GDPR breach.
How to prevent:
- All server-side authorization needs to be active and configured to prevent unwanted access.
Let’s secure your web application!
If attackers exploit vulnerabilities in a company’s web application, it would cost you a lot of damage and deteriorate your reputation. A good trend is that companies should take their web security seriously now.
Softvira is a trustworthy software development company with a team of experts. While developing, the main focus is on the security and quality of the product. If you’re looking for an authentic partner to assist you with such projects, then don’t hesitate to contact us.
