What Are Vulnerability Assessment Tools? Vulnerability assessment tools are specialized software designed to identify, classify, and prioritize vulnerabilities in computer systems, applications, and network infrastructures. They provide a detailed analysis of the potential points of exploit on a system to help identify the necessary actions to mitigate the risk. By providing insights into the vulnerabilities
DNS tunneling is a DNS attack technique that involves encoding the information of other protocols or programs in DNS queries and responses. DNS tunneling generally features data payloads which can latch onto a target DNS server, allowing the attacker to manage applications and the remote server.
What are LLMs? LLMs, or Large Language Models, are advanced artificial intelligence models designed to process and generate human-like text. These models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, have been trained on a vast amount of internet text to learn patterns, grammar, and factual information. LLMs utilize deep learning techniques, specifically transformers, to understand context and generate
The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) has recently released their first draft version (Version 0.5) detailing the top 10 critical vulnerabilities commonly observed in large language model (LLM) applications. A LLM or large language model is a trained deep-learning model that understands and generates text in a human-like fashion. Practical applications of LLMs include
In today’s interconnected digital landscape, where sensitive information and valuable data are constantly at risk, ensuring robust security measures in applications has become more critical than ever. Among the key pillars of application security, secure authentication and authorization play a paramount role in safeguarding user accounts, protecting sensitive data, and preventing unauthorized access.
What Is Web Application Security Testing? Web application security testing involves evaluating an application’s design, functionality, and codebase to ensure its resilience against malicious attacks. This testing helps organizations protect sensitive data, maintain user trust, and comply with industry regulations. It can help test for and prevent attack vectors like cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection,
What Is Vulnerability Testing? Vulnerability testing is a process of evaluating and identifying security weaknesses in a computer system, network, or software application. It involves systematically scanning, probing, and analyzing systems and applications to uncover potential vulnerabilities, such as coding errors, configuration flaws, or outdated software components. The main goal of vulnerability testing is to
What Are Web Application Attacks? Web application attacks are malicious activities that target web applications by exploiting vulnerabilities in their design or implementation. These attacks can result in unauthorized access, data theft, or other harmful consequences. Common types of web application attacks include SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), cross-site request forgery (CSRF), and file inclusion
Deserialization vulnerability, often referred to as insecure deserialization, is a widespread and dangerous form of data theft & security breaches.
Server-side request forgery (SSRF) attacks allow an attacker to trick server-side applications into allowing access to the server or modifying files. SSRF can be successful if the target application reads data from a URL without sanitizing it.
A vulnerability is a security weakness that cybercriminals can exploit to obtain unauthorized access to computer systems or networks. A cybercriminal exploiting a vulnerability can perform various malicious actions, such as installing malicious software (malware), running malicious code, and stealing sensitive data.
Since the security landscape is highly dynamic, with many threats and attacks introduced daily, vulnerability management must become a constant process. Vulnerability management tools automate this process to ensure all of these different components of the modern IT environment are continuously configured to minimize potential threats.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) is a catalog that aims to standardize the identification of known cyber threats. It provides a reference list to help security teams bolster their threat intelligence and vulnerability management efforts.
The purpose of any post mortem is to look into the past in order to find ways to prevent similar issues from happening again, and also to improve upon our responses to issues found in the future. It is not to blame others, point fingers, or punish. A proper post mortem states facts, including what went well and what did not, and issues ideas for improvements going forward.
What Is SSRF Attack? Web applications often trigger requests between HTTP servers. These requests are typically used to fetch remote resources such as software updates, retrieve metadata from remote URLs, or communicate with other web applications. If not implemented correctly, these server-to-server requests can be vulnerable to server-side request forgery (SSRF). SSRF is an attack
The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) foundation provides security insights and recommendations for software security. The OWASP Top Ten Web Application Security Risks list is used by many in the industry to prioritize security vulnerabilities. In addition to this list, OWASP also identifies security vulnerabilities and risks in mobile applications.
APIs are a critical element in modern software development and are central to the digital economy. This also makes APIs a prime target for attackers, because they expose application logic and sensitive data such as personal information (PII).
A code injection attack exploits a computer bug caused by processing invalid data. The attacker introduces (or injects) code into the vulnerable computer program and changes the execution. Successful code injections can introduce severe risks. For example, it can enable viruses or worms to propagate. It can result in data corruption or loss, denial of access, or complete host takeover.
Security misconfiguration occurs when security settings are not adequately defined in the configuration process or maintained and deployed with default settings. This might impact any layer of the application stack, cloud or network. Misconfigured clouds are a central cause of data breaches, costing organizations millions of dollars.
A command injection involves the exploitation of a vulnerable application for the purpose of executing arbitrary commands on its host operating system. These exploits usually target the privileges of a vulnerable application.
SQL injection tests insert data into your application to verify that you can run user-controlled SQL queries on your database. A test successfully finds a SQL injection vulnerability when a certain user input, which could be used for a malicious input, is accepted by the application without proper validation.
SQL injection is a technique threat actors use to attack applications with a database connection. It occurs when actors send a crafted SQL query to add, extract, delete, or modify data from the database. Union SQL injection enables threat actors to extract sensitive information from a database. It lets threat actors extend the results returned by an original query.
Error-based SQL injection is an In-band injection technique that enables threat actors to exploit error output from the database to manipulate its data. It manipulates the database into generating an error that informs the actor of the database’s structure.
Business logic vulnerabilities are design and implementation flaws in software applications. They have a legitimate business function, but can also be exploited by malicious attackers to create unexpected behavior. These flaws often result from an application’s inability to identify and safely handle unexpected user actions.
What Is CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery)? Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) is a cyber attack technique in which hackers impersonate a legitimate, trusted user. CSRF attacks can be used to change firewall settings, post malicious data to forums, or conduct fraudulent financial transactions. What makes CSRF attacks especially concerning is that users whose account is impersonated
XXE (XML External Entity Injection) is a common web-based security vulnerability that enables an attacker to interfere with the processing of XML data within a web application.
SQL Injection attacks (or SQLi) alter SQL queries, injecting malicious code by exploiting application vulnerabilities.
Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) attacks allow an attacker to make requests to any domains through a vulnerable server. Attackers achieve this by making the server connect back to itself, to an internal service or resource, or to its own cloud provider.
Cross site scripting (XSS) is a cyberattack method that involves running malicious code as part of a vulnerable web application. Unlike other attack vectors like SQL injections, XSS does not target the application directly—it primarily targets the user.
Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF/XSRF), also known as Sea Surf or Session Riding is a web security vulnerability that tricks a web browser into executing an unwanted action. Accordingly, the attacker abuses the trust that a web application has for the victim’s browser. It allows an attacker to partly bypass the same-origin policy, which is meant to prevent different websites from interfering with each other.
Cross-site scripting (XSS) is an injection attack where a malicious actor injects code into a trusted website. Attackers use web apps to send malicious scripts to different end-users, usually from the browser side. Vulnerabilities that enable XSS attacks are common. They occur wherever web applications use unvalidated or unencoded user-supplied inputs.
XXE (XML External Entity Injection) is a web-based security vulnerability that enables an attacker to interfere with the processing of XML data within a web application.
Code Injection is a common vulnerability that occurs when an attacker is able to inject malicious snippets of code into the victim’s web application.
In a directory traversal attack, a malicious user utilizes directory traversal attempts to gain access to files on the server they shouldn’t have access to. To perform a directory traversal attack, an attacker attempts to manipulate and submit different information to the target, via a URL address line or another input method.
Code injection refers to attacks that involve injecting malicious code into an application. The application then interprets or executes the code, affecting the performance and function of the application. Code injection attacks typically exploit existing data vulnerabilities, such as insecure handling of data from untrusted sources.
XSS is an attack technique that injects malicious code into vulnerable web applications. Unlike other attacks, this technique does not target the web server itself, but the user’s browser.
A cross-site scripting (XSS) attack injects malicious code into vulnerable web applications. XSS does not target the application directly. Instead, XSS targets the users of a web application.
Local File Inclusion is an attack technique in which attackers trick a web application into either running or exposing files on a web server. LFI attacks can expose sensitive information, and in severe cases, they can lead to cross-site scripting (XSS) and remote code execution. LFI is listed as one of the OWASP Top 10 web application vulnerabilities.
There are several types of cross site scripting (XSS) attacks to be concerned about, however the most dangerous XSS attack type is Persistent XSS, also known as stored XSS.
Java developers have a rich ecosystem available to them, including robust application frameworks and proven Object-Relational Mapping (ORM). Unfortunately, frameworks and ORMs aren’t enough to make a language secure from SQL injection. For example, 70% of security threats to Ruby apps are still SQL Injections, despite counting with Rails as a stable development framework. In this blog post we are going to cover SQL injection in Java programming language and how to stay protected.
With Cross Site Scripting, attackers execute malicious JavaScript within a victim’s browser to steal session cookies and impersonate a user, as well as using XSS to deface websites, spread malware, phish for user credentials, support social engineering techniques, and more.
DNS Flood is a DNS attack in which cybercriminals use the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol to carry out a version of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) flood. Cybercriminals deploy valid but spoofed DNS request packets at an extremely high packet rate and create an extremely large group of source IP addresses.
DNS amplification is a type of DNS attack that performs Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) on a target server. It involves cybercriminals exploiting publicly available, open DNS servers to overwhelm a target with DNS response traffic.
Security misconfiguration vulnerabilities take place when an application component is vulnerable to attack as a result of insecure configuration option or misconfiguration.
Code Injection, also known as Remote Code Execution (RCE), is a vulnerability in web applications that occurs when an attacker discovers an input validation flaw where they are able to inject malicious code which is then interpreted/executed by the application.
MongoDB is perhaps the most popular database, owing to its scalability, unlike some other NoSQL databases. However this comes at a price given MongoDB’s susceptibility to SQL injection attacks.
A directory traversal attack (or file path traversal attack) allows attackers to read random files on the server that is running a web application. These files may include the application’s source code and data, credentials for backend systems, or sensitive OS files.
SQL Injection represents a web security vulnerability which allows attackers to view data that they should not be able to, by allowing the attacker to interfere with the queries that an application makes to its database by injecting malicious SQL injection payloads.
SQL injection in WordPress is ranked as the second most critical vulnerability, posing a severe risk for website owners. Your WordPress website should be secure from SQL injection if the WordPress core files are up-to-date, but there is something that changes that narrative – third-party plugins and themes.
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks are a form of injection attack, where malicious scripts are injected into trusted web applications.
Directory traversal, or path traversal, is an HTTP exploit. It exploits a security misconfiguration on a web server, to access data stored outside the server’s root directory. A successful directory traversal attempt enables attackers to view restricted files and sometimes also execute commands on the targeted server.
The term HTTP request smuggling (HRS) refers to techniques that interfere with the way in which a website processes sequences of HTTP requests.
An Open Redirect Vulnerability entails an attacker manipulating the user and redirecting them from one site to another site – which may be malicious. The cybersecurity community doesn’t put enough emphasis on Open Redirect Vulnerabilities because it is considered a simple flaw commonly connected to phishing scams and social engineering.
Local File Inclusion attacks are used by attackers to trick a web application into running or exposing files on a web server. If the attack is successful, it will expose sensitive information, and in severe cases, can lead to XSS and remote code execution.
XML External Entity Injection (XXE) is one of the most common vulnerabilities. At its core, it’s a web security vulnerability where attackers target and compromise an application’s processing of XML data.
File Inclusion vulnerabilities often affect web applications that rely on a scripting run time, and occur when a web application allows users to submit input into files or upload files to the server. They are often found in poorly-written applications.
Learn what is the purpose of SOAP APIs, how they function, the main difference between REST and SOAP APIs, and what you can do to prevent the 7 most common SOAP API vulnerabilities.
Both CSRF and XSS are client side attacks. What else do they have in common and what is the difference between them? Learn the answer to those and more questions by reading this article.
Many companies use LDAP services. LDAP serves as a repository for user authentication, and also enables a single sign-on (SSO) environment. LDAP is most commonly used for privilege management, resource management, and access control.
The Document Object Model is a programming interface that gives developers the ability to access the document (web page) and manipulate it by executing operations, therefore this interface defines the structure of documents by connecting the scripting language to the actual webpage.
Blind SQL injections (blind SQLi) occur when a web application is exposed to SQL injection, but its HTTP responses don’t contain the results of the SQL query or any details of database errors. This unlike a regular SQL injection, in which the database error or output of the malicious SQL query is shown in the web application and visible to the attacker.
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks execute unauthorized actions on web applications, via an authenticated end-user’s connection. Threat actors typically use social engineering schemes to trick users into executing these attacks.
Prototype Pollution is a vulnerability that allows attackers to exploit the rules of the JavaScript programming language, by injecting properties into existing JavaScript language construct prototypes, such as Objects to compromise applications in various ways.
While security professionals pay significant attention to technical vulnerabilities such as SQL Injection, CSRF and Cross-Site Scripting, modern applications are just as susceptible to business logic flaws. Business logic flaws defy easy categorization and the skill of discovering them can be more art than science.
Cross-site scripting (XSS) is an old but always relevant and dangerous type of attack that plagues almost all web applications, be it older or modern ones. It relies on developers using javascript to enhance the experience of end-users of their application, but when the javascript isn’t properly handled it leads to many possible issues, and one of them is XSS.
In the first part of the LDAP Injections blog, we talked about the basics. The definition of LDAP Services, how they get exploited, and what environments are the most vulnerable to LDAP Injection attacks. In this post we will go over the most common LDAP Injections and show examples so you can learn how hackers use these techniques to exploit vulnerable environments.
