1. Unit 8: Security for Web Applications
 Security is fundamentally about protecting assets (data,
hardware, reputation, etc.). Therefore you should
 Identify potential threats
 Detect and fix vulnerabilities
 Know how to react to an attack
 A threat is any potential occurrence, malicious or otherwise, that could
harm an asset.
 A vulnerability is a weakness that makes a threat possible, due to poor
design, configuration mistakes, and/or inappropriate and insecure coding
techniques.
 An attack is an action that exploits a vulnerability or enacts a threat.
Examples:
 sending malicious input to an application
 flooding a network in an attempt to deny service.
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2. Foundations of Security
 Authentication (who are you?): the process of uniquely identifying
the clients of your applications and services.
 Authorization (what can you do?): the process that governs the
resources and operations that the authenticated client is permitted
to access.
 Non-repudiation: guarantees that a user cannot deny performing
an operation or initiating a transaction.
 Confidentiality: the process of making sure that data remains
private and confidential, and that it cannot be viewed by
unauthorized people.
 Integrity: the guarantee that data is protected from accidental or
deliberate (malicious) modification.
 Availability: systems remain available for legitimate users.
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3. Main Threat Categories:
 poofing: Attempting to gain access to a system by using a false
identity, eg. using stolen user credentials or a false IP address.
 ampering: Unauthorized modification of data, for example as it
flows over a network between two computers.
 epudiation: The ability of users (legitimate or otherwise) to deny
that they performed specific actions or transactions. Without
adequate auditing, repudiation attacks are difficult to prove
 nformation disclosure: Unwanted exposure of private data.
 enial of service: The process of making a system or application
unavailable.
 levation of privilege: Occurs when a user with limited privileges
assumes the identity of a privileged user to gain privileged access
to an application.
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4. STRIDE Countermeasures
Spoofing user identity Use strong authentication.
Do not store secrets (eg., passwords) in plaintext.
Do not pass credentials in plaintext over the wire.
Protect authentication cookies with SSL.
Tampering with data Use data hashing and signing.
Use digital signatures.
Use tamper-resistant protocols
Use protocols that provide message integrity.
Repudiation Create secure audit trails.
Use digital signatures.
Information disclosure Use strong authorization.
Use strong encryption.
Use protocols that provide message confidentiality.
Do not store secrets in plaintext.
Denial of service Use resource and bandwidth throttling techniques.
Validate and filter input.
Elevation of privilege The principle of least privilege: use least privileged
accounts to run processes and access resources.
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5. Core Web Application Security Principles
Compartmentalize Create different security boundaries, zones, with their own
policies
Use least privilege Run processes using accounts with minimal privileges and
access rights
Apply defense in depth Use multiple gatekeepers to keep attackers at bay, do not
rely on a single layer of security
Do not trust user input Assume all input is malicious until proven otherwise
Check at the gate Authenticate and authorize callers early — at the first gate
Fail securely If an application fails, do not leave sensitive data
accessible. Return friendly errors to end users that do not
expose internal system details.
Secure the weakest Identify it, strengthen it, fix it
link
Create secure defaults Make default users/actions/authorizations set up with least
privilege
Reduce your attack Disable or remove unused services, protocols, and
surface functionality.
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6. Web Application Security: The Three-Tiered Approach
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7. Integrating Security in the WebApp Process
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8. The RACI Chart
(Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Kept Informed)
System Security
Tasks Architect Developer Tester
Administrator Professional
Security Policies R A
Threat Modeling A I I R
Security Design Principles A I I C
Security Architecture A C R
Architecture and Design
R A
Review
Code Development A R
Technology Specific Threats A R
Code Review R I A
Security Testing C I A C
Network Security C R A
Host Security C A I R
Application Security C I A R
Deployment Review C R I I A
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9. Network Threats and Countermeasures
Threat Description Countermeasure
Information Port scanning and footprinting to Configure routers to restrict their
Gathering detect device types and vulnerable responses to footprinting requests.
operating systems and application Disable unused protocols and
versions. unnecessary ports.
Sniffing Monitoring traffic on the network for Use encrypted protocols (SSL,
data such as plaintext passwords or IPSec)
configuration information
Spoofing Hiding one’s true identity on the Filter packets
network by using fake source
addresses
Session Deceiving a server or a client into Use encrypted session negotiation
Hijacking accepting the upstream host as the and communication channels.
actual legitimate host
Denial of Denying legitimate users access to a Increase the size of the TCP
Service server or services, e.g by sending connection queue, decrease the
more requests to a server than it can connection establishment period,
handle (SYN flood attack) and employ dynamic backlog
mechanisms.
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10. Host Threats and Countermeasures
Threat Description Countermeasure
Viruses, Trojan horses, Updated service packs and
and worms software patches
Footprinting port scans, ping sweeps, and Disable unnecessary
NetBIOS enumeration to protocols and ports
glean valuable system-level
information
Password Cracking Use strong passwords, limit
the number of retry attempts,
do not use default account
names
Denial of Service Deviate traffic to other hosts
Arbitrary Code Execution Executing malicious code on Lock down system
your server by using buffer commands and utilities
overflow attacks.
Unauthorized Access Unauthorized access to Lock down files and folders
restricted information or with restricted permissions.
operations
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11. Application Threats
Category Threats
Input validation Buffer overflow; cross-site scripting; SQL injection; canonicalization
Authentication Network eavesdropping; brute force attacks; dictionary attacks; cookie
replay; credential theft
Authorization Elevation of privilege; disclosure of confidential data; data tampering;
luring attacks
Configuration Unauthorized access to administration interfaces; unauthorized access
management to configuration stores; retrieval of clear text configuration data; lack of
individual accountability; over-privileged process and service accounts
Sensitive data Access sensitive data in storage; network eavesdropping; data
tampering
Session management Session hijacking; session replay; man in the middle
Cryptography Poor key generation or key management; weak or custom encryption
Parameter manipulation Query string manipulation; form field manipulation; cookie manipulation;
HTTP header manipulation
Exception management Information disclosure; denial of service
Auditing and logging User denies performing an operation; attacker exploits an application
without trace; attacker covers his or her tracks
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12. Application Countermeasures
Category Countermesures
Input Validation Do not trust input; consider centralized input validation. Do not rely on
client-side validation. Be careful with canonicalization issues. Constrain.
reject, and sanitize input. Validate for type, length, format, and range.
Authentication Partition site by anonymous, identified, and authenticated area. Use
strong passwords. Support password expiration periods and account
disablement. Do not store credentials (use one-way hashes with salt).
Encrypt communication channels to protect authentication tokens. Pass
Forms authentication cookies only over HTTPS connections.
Authorization Use least privileged accounts. Consider authorization granularity. Enforce
separation of privileges. Restrict user access to system-level resources.
Configuration Use least privileged process and service accounts. Do not store
Management credentials in plaintext. Use strong authentication and authorization on
administration interfaces. Do not use the LSA. Secure the
communication channel for remote administration. Avoid storing sensitive
data in the Web space.
Sensitive Data Avoid storing secrets. Encrypt sensitive data over the wire. Secure the
communication channel. Provide strong access controls on sensitive data
stores. Do not store sensitive data in persistent cookies. Do not pass
sensitive data using the HTTP-GET protocol.
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13. Application Countermeasures (cont.)
Category Countermeasures
Session Management Limit the session lifetime. Secure the channel. Encrypt the contents of
authentication cookies. Protect session state from unauthorized access.
Cryptography Do not develop your own. Use tried and tested platform features. Keep
unencrypted data close to the algorithm. Use the right algorithm and key
size. Avoid key management (use DPAPI). Cycle your keys periodically.
Store keys in a restricted location.
Parameter Manipulation Encrypt sensitive cookie state. Do not trust fields that the client can
manipulate (query strings, form fields, cookies, or HTTP headers).
Validate all values sent from the client.
Exception Management Use structured exception handling. Do not reveal sensitive application
implementation details. Do not log private data such as passwords.
Consider a centralized exception management framework.
Auditing and Logging Identify malicious behavior. Know what good traffic looks like. Audit and
log activity through all of the application tiers. Secure access to log files.
Back up and regularly analyze log files.
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14. Web Application Security: Summary
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15. Cryptography
“
 The coding of messages so as to render them unintelligible to
other than authorized recipients. Many techniques are known
for the conversion of the original message, known as
plaintext, into its encrypted form, known as ciphertext, cipher,
or code
” Dictionary of Computing. Oxford University Press, 2004
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16. Roles for Cryptography
 Authentication: Digital signatures can be used to identify a
participant in a web transaction or the author of an email message
 Authorization: Cryptographic techniques can be used to distribute
a list of authorized users that is all but impossible to falsify.
 Confidentiality: Encryption is used to scramble information sent
over networks and stored on servers so that eavesdroppers cannot
access the data's content
 Integrity: Methods that are used to verify that a message has not
been modified while in transit. Often, this is done with digitally
signed message digest codes.
 Nonrepudiation: Cryptographic receipts are created so that an
author of a message cannot realistically deny sending a message
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17. Symmetric Key Cryptography
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18. Public Key (aka Asymmetric) Cryptography
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19. Authentication with Public Key Cryptography
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20. Digital envelope
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21. Cryptography-based Internet Protocols
 Virtual Private Networks (VPN)
 Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC)
 Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)
 Layer Two Forwarding (L2F)
 Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)
 E-mail Encryption
 Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME)
 Pretty Good Privacy
 WWW i e-commerce
 SSL/TSL
 Secure Electronic Transaction (SET)
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22. SSL/TSL
 SSL – Secure Socket Layer
 TLS – Transport Layer Security
 Both provide a secure transport connection between clients
and servers:
 Authentication of the server, using digital signatures
 Authentication of the client, using digital signatures
 Data confidentiality through the use of encryption
 Data integrity through the use of message authentication codes
 History:
 SSL was developed by Netscape
 SSL version 3.0 has been widely used on the Internet
 SSL evolved into TLS (RFC 2246)
 TLS can be viewed as SSL v3.1
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23. SSL architecture
SSL SSL Change SSL
applications
Handshake Cipher Spec Alert
(e.g., HTTP)
Protocol Protocol Protocol
SSL Record Protocol
TCP
IP
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24. SSL Components
 SSL Record Protocol
 fragmentation
 compression
 message authentication and integrity protection
 encryption
 SSL Handshake Protocol
 negotiation of security algorithms and parameters
 key exchange
 server authentication and optionally client authentication
 SSL Alert Protocol
 error messages (fatal alerts and warnings)
 SSL Change Cipher Spec Protocol
 a single message that indicates the end of the SSL handshake
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25. SSL sessions and connections
 An SSL session is an association between a client and a server
 SSL sessions are stateful: the session state includes security
algorithms and parameters
 A SSL session may include multiple secure connections
between the same client and server
 SSL sessions are used to avoid expensive negotiation of new
security parameters for each connection
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26. SSL Record Protocol: Processing
application data
fragmentation
SSLPlaintext
type version length
compression
SSLCompressed
type version length
msg authentication and
encryption (with padding if necessary)
SSLCiphertext
type version length MAC padding
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27. SSL Handshake Protocol
client server
client_hello Phase 1: Negotiation of the session ID, key exchange
server_hello algorithm, MAC algorithm, encryption algorithm, and
exchange of initial random numbers
certificate
Phase 2: Server may send its certificate and key
server_key_exchange
exchange message, and it may request the client
certificate_request to send a certificate. Server signals end of hello
phase.
server_hello_done
certificate
Phase 3: Client sends certificate if requested and may
client_key_exchange send an explicit certificate verification message.
certificate_verify Client always sends its key exchange message.
change_cipher_spec
finished
Phase 4: Change cipher spec and finish handshake
change_cipher_spec
finished
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28. References
 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/www-security-faq.html
 Web Security, Privacy & Commerce, 2nd Edition, by Simson
Garfinkle with Gene Spafford, O'Reilly, 2001.
 Improving Web Application Security: Threats and
Countermeasures, by Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Press,
2003
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