I'll start by introducing myself. I'm working as an Application Security Consultant in ABC technologies for the past 3 years. With 3 years of experience in Application Security, I've done many security assessments of web applications and mobile applications, and that making me specialized in web and mobile security. I've handled many projects for various clients of different sectors like e-commerce, health care, finance, telecom etc. Currently I am working remotely with an e-commerce client handling their web and mobile applications and working on the closure of the reported vulnerabilities.
⭐ What are the top 10 OWASP vulnerabilities?,What are the risks associated with each vulnerability?, How can these vulnerabilities be mitigated?, What tools and techniques can be used to identify and prevent these vulnerabilities?
Answer: here are the top 10 OWASP vulnerabilities, the risks associated with each vulnerability, how they can be mitigated, and the tools and techniques that can be used to identify and prevent them:
- Risks: This vulnerability allows attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data or resources.
- Mitigation: Implement proper access control mechanisms, such as role-based access control (RBAC).
- Tools and techniques: Use static analysis tools to scan for access control vulnerabilities.
- Path Traversal, CSRF, IDOR, Forced Browsing.
- Risks: This vulnerability allows attackers to steal sensitive data, such as passwords or credit card numbers, by decrypting it.
- Mitigation: Use strong cryptographic algorithms and properly implement cryptographic libraries.
- Tools and techniques: Use dynamic analysis tools to scan for cryptographic vulnerabilities.
- Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information, Weak Encoding for Password
- Risks: This vulnerability allows attackers to inject malicious code into an application, which can then be executed by other users.
- Mitigation: Sanitize all user input before it is processed by the application.
- Tools and techniques: Use static analysis tools to scan for injection vulnerabilities.
- Risks: This vulnerability allows attackers to exploit design flaws in an application, such as using hard-coded passwords or not properly validating user input.
- Mitigation: Design applications with security in mind.
- Tools and techniques: Use static analysis tools to scan for insecure design vulnerabilities.
- Risks: This vulnerability allows attackers to exploit misconfigurations in an application's security settings, such as leaving default passwords in place or not properly securing sensitive data.
- Mitigation: Implement and enforce security best practices.
- Tools and techniques: Use dynamic analysis tools to scan for security misconfiguration vulnerabilities.
- Risks: This vulnerability allows attackers to exploit vulnerabilities in third-party components that are used by an application.
- Mitigation: Keep all components up to date with the latest security patches.
- Tools and techniques: Use static analysis tools to scan for vulnerable components.
- Risks: This vulnerability allows attackers to gain unauthorized access to an application by bypassing or abusing the authentication process.
- Mitigation: Implement strong authentication mechanisms, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA).
- Tools and techniques: Use dynamic analysis tools to scan for identification and authentication vulnerabilities.
- Risks: This vulnerability allows attackers to modify or delete sensitive data, such as financial records or medical records.
- Mitigation: Implement data integrity checks to ensure that data is not modified or deleted without authorization.
- Tools and techniques: Use static analysis tools to scan for software and data integrity vulnerabilities.
- Risks: This vulnerability allows attackers to evade detection by disabling or tampering with security logs.
- Mitigation: Implement effective security logging and monitoring practices.
- Tools and techniques: Use security information and event management (SIEM) tools to collect and analyze security logs.
- Risks: This vulnerability allows attackers to force an application to make unauthorized requests to other servers.
- Mitigation: Implement proper input validation to prevent attackers from injecting malicious requests.
- Tools and techniques: Use static analysis tools to scan for SSRF vulnerabilities.
Sir, for starting an assessment, if it is asked to do a grey box testing. we first take a positive walkthrough of an application as per developer point of view. This gives us an idea of architecture design or data flow of an application. We look for the user roles if any and ask for at least 3 credentials. For each user roles. According to the application, we create test cases according to the functionality of an application. Various test cases can be made for an application.
- Authenticated
- Unauthenticated
- Privilege related
- Server related
- Session related
- Business flaw related
- Payment related
Then we start with the threat modelling of an application, Explain whole threat modelling.
Find the attack scenario regarding the topics below and create test cases with 1 example along with Remediation.
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- Authenticated related
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- Unauthenticated related
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- Privilege related
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- Server related
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- Session related
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- Business related
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- Payment related
1. Authenticated Related
- Deep URL
- CSRF
- SQL Injection
- XSS
- Clickjacking
- Captcha Related cases
- Cookie Management
2. Unauthenticated Related
- HTTPS/HTTP
- Login Bypass
- Password Autocomplete Enabled
- Server Page Error
- Application Host
- HTTP methods
- XSS
- CSRF
- Clickjacking
- User Enumeration
- Brute Force
- User ID not case sensitive
- Password Related Cases
- Email Flooding
- File Upload
- Response Splitting
- Sensitive Info URL
- Weak Password Policy
- Improper Error Handling
- IDOR
- Directory Listing
If any question is asked on threat modelling, make sure to mention STRIDE
STRIDE is an acronym for the threat modeling system. It helps in categorizing all cyberattacks into the below techniques:
- Spoofing = Authentication
- Tampering = Integrity
- Repudiation = Non-Repudiation
- Information disclosure = Confidentiality
- Denial of service (DoS) = Availability
- Elevation of privilege = Authorization
For threat modelling practice a tool like Microsoft threat modelling tool can be used.
- Protect secret data.
- Don’t store secrets
- Hashes
- MACs
- Digital signatures
- Tamper resistant protocols
- Timestamps
- Audit trails
- Privacy-enhanced protocols
- Encryption
- Protect secrets.
- Don’t store secrets
- Appropriate authorization
- Filtering
- Throttling
- Quality of service
The simplest and most basic form of identifying a web server is to look at the Server field in the HTTP response header. Servers:
- Apache Web Server: Version 2.4.46
- IIS Web Server: Version 10.0.17763.1
- Nginx Web Server: Version 1.19
- LiteSpeed Web Server: Version 5.4.12
- Apache Tomcat: Version 10.0.7
- Node. Js: Version 14.7.1
- Lighttpd: Version 1.4.59
- Jigsaw Server
- Sun Java System Web Server
Insecure Deserialization is a vulnerability which occurs when untrusted data is used to abuse the logic of an application, execute malicious code upon it being deserialized.
A bank website uses object serialization to store a cookie containing user details, password, role, hash etc.
a:4:{i:0;i:132;i:1;s:7:"Mallory";i:2;s:4:"user"; i:3;s:32:"b6a8b3bea87fe0e05022f8f3c88bc960";}
An attacker changes the serialized object to give themselves admin privileges:
a:4:{i:0;i:1;i:1;s:5:"Alice";i:2;s:5:"admin"; i:3;s:32:"b6a8b3bea87fe0e05022f8f3c88bc960";}
Some applications use the XML format to transmit data between the browser and the server. Applications that do this virtually always use a standard library or platform API to process the XML data on the server.
- XML and HTML: XML focus on transfer of data while HTML focus on presentation of data.
- XML is an extensible markup language used to store and transport data between browser and server.
- XML parsers are used to process the data, if not properly configured could lead to arbitrary code execution.
- Some applications allow users to upload files which are then processed server-side. Some common file formats use XML or contain XML subcomponents.
- Examples of XML-based formats are office document formats like DOCX and image formats like SVG.
- Even if the application expects to receive a format like PNG or JPEG, the image processing library that is being used might support SVG images. Since the SVG format uses XML, an attacker can submit a malicious SVG image and so reach hidden attack surface for XXE vulnerabilities.
I was working on an ecommerce application where I had to bypass WAF. I had observed that whichever input I was trying had integrity checks but it was bypassing certain queries, so I thought it has WAF installed. I started using payloads through SQLmap to bypass WAF we have a payload called tamper. I wrote different scripts with Tamper payload and finally noticed that SQL injection was present in the cookie. I used SQL map on cookie and retrieved the database. I found user details with their address and numbers.
sqlmap -u "Target.com" --identify-waf --random-agent -v 3 --tamper="between,randomcase,space2comment" --dbs
Blind SQL (Structured Query Language) injection is a type of SQL Injection attack that asks the database true or false questions and determines the answer based on the applications response.
Server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerabilities let an attacker send crafted requests from the back-end server of a vulnerable web application. Criminals usually use SSRF attacks to target internal systems that are behind firewalls and are not accessible from the external network.
I was working on an ecommerce application. I checked for product in stock and observed the URL passing. The URL was to retrieve the stock status and return this to the user. I modified the request to specify a URL local to the server itself. I added localhost/admin which fetched the contents of the /admin URL and returned it back.
The thick clients are heavy applications which normally involve the installation of application on the client side (user computer). These applications take up memory and run completely on the computer’s resources. This means that the security of the application is dependent on the local computer.
/usr/share/tomcat{X}\inetpub\wwwroot/var/www/html/usr/local/nginx/conf
• Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') • Improper Input Validation • Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') • Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) • Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') • Improper Authentication • Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type • Deserialization of Untrusted Data • Improper Privilege Management • Improper Certificate Validation
Local File Inclusion (LFI) and File Traversal (also known as Path Traversal) are both vulnerabilities that can be exploited in web applications to gain unauthorized access to files on a server. However, they differ in their nature and the way they exploit the application's file handling mechanisms.
Local File Inclusion occurs when an attacker is able to include (i.e., load or execute) files from the local file system of the server hosting the web application.
The vulnerability typically arises when the application allows user-supplied input to be directly included or referenced in a file path without proper sanitization or validation.
By manipulating the input, an attacker can traverse the file system and include sensitive files that are accessible by the application.
The attacker can view the content of files, such as configuration files, log files, or even execute arbitrary code if the application allows the inclusion of executable files.
File Traversal, also known as Directory Traversal or Path Traversal, refers to an attack technique where an attacker can access files located outside of the intended directory.
The vulnerability arises when the application does not properly validate and sanitize user-supplied input used to construct file paths.
By manipulating the input, an attacker can traverse directories and access files located in other directories or even on different parts of the file system.
The attacker can potentially view sensitive files, modify files, or execute arbitrary commands depending on the application's permissions and the files accessible.
Directory Listing is not a vulnerability itself, but rather a feature or misconfiguration of a web server that allows the server to display the contents of a directory when there is no default file specified.
When directory listing is enabled and proper access controls are not in place, it can expose the directory's contents, including sensitive files or directories that were not intended to be publicly accessible.
If an attacker identifies a directory with directory listing enabled, they can easily navigate through the files and gain insights into the application's structure and potentially find vulnerabilities or sensitive information.
In summary, Local File Inclusion (LFI) and File Traversal (Path Traversal) are both file-based vulnerabilities that allow unauthorized access to files.
Make sure to answer all the mitigation questions with regards to OWASP:
- Input Validation and Whitelisting:
- Implement strong input validation and sanitization to prevent malicious input.
- Use whitelisting to only allow known-safe characters, patterns, or file names in input.
- Secure File Access Mechanisms:
- Avoid using user-controlled input directly in file inclusion operations.
- Instead, use secure file access mechanisms provided by the programming language or framework.
- Restricted File System Access:
- Implement proper file system access controls and permissions.
- Restrict access to sensitive files and directories by setting appropriate permissions.
- Apply the principle of least privilege, ensuring that the application has only the necessary access rights.
- Path Hardening:
- Use absolute file paths instead of relative paths whenever possible.
- Avoid using user-supplied input as part of file paths.
- Perform input validation and sanitization on any user-controlled input used in file paths.
- Secure Configuration:
- Review and secure the configuration of the web server and application framework.
- Disable directory listing to prevent exposure of sensitive file and directory information.
- File Extension Validation:
- Validate and restrict file extensions to prevent malicious files from being included.
- Implement a whitelist of allowed file extensions that can be included by the application.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF):
- Utilize a Web Application Firewall that includes LFI protection features.
- Configure the WAF to detect and block potential LFI attacks.
- Secure Development Practices:
- Follow secure coding practices, such as input validation, output encoding, and proper error handling.
- Conduct secure code reviews and security testing to identify and address LFI vulnerabilities.
- Input Validation and Whitelisting:
- Implement strong input validation and sanitization to prevent malicious input.
- Use whitelisting to only allow known-safe characters, patterns, or file names in input.
- Validate user-supplied input against a predefined set of allowed values or use regular expressions to ensure input adheres to expected patterns.
- Secure File Access Mechanisms:
- Avoid using user-controlled input directly in file access operations.
- Utilize secure file access mechanisms provided by the programming language or framework.
- Use platform-specific methods or APIs that handle file operations securely, such as canonicalization functions.
- Path Normalization and Hardening:
- Normalize and sanitize file paths to remove any redundant or unnecessary elements (e.g., "./", "../").
- Convert relative paths to absolute paths before accessing files.
- Apply strict rules and filters to prevent traversal sequences (e.g., "../", "%2e%2e/") from being used to bypass directory restrictions.
- Secure File System Access Controls:
- Implement proper file system access controls and permissions.
- Restrict access to sensitive files and directories by setting appropriate permissions.
- Apply the principle of least privilege, ensuring that the application has only the necessary access rights.
- Application-Specific Whitelists:
- Maintain application-specific whitelists of allowed files, directories, or paths.
- Validate and compare user-supplied input against the whitelist to prevent unauthorized file access.
- Encrypted and Obfuscated File Names:
- Use encryption or obfuscation techniques to obscure file names and prevent predictable file access patterns.
- Store sensitive files with non-predictable, randomly generated names that are difficult for an attacker to guess.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF):
- Deploy a Web Application Firewall that includes File Traversal protection features.
- Configure the WAF to detect and block potential File Traversal attacks.
- Secure Development Practices:
- Follow secure coding practices, such as input validation, output encoding, and proper error handling.
- Conduct secure code reviews and security testing to identify and address File Traversal vulnerabilities.
- Disable Directory Listing:
- Ensure that directory listing is disabled on the web server configuration.
- Check the server settings and configuration files to make sure that directory listing is turned off by default.
- This prevents the server from displaying the contents of a directory when there is no default file specified.
- Implement Default Documents:
- Configure the web server to use default documents (e.g., index.html, index.php) for each directory.
- Set up appropriate default files that are displayed when a user accesses a directory without specifying a file name.
- This helps to prevent the server from revealing the directory contents to users.
- Secure File and Directory Permissions:
- Set appropriate file and directory permissions to restrict access to sensitive files and directories.
- Ensure that files and directories have the minimum necessary permissions based on their intended use and access requirements.
- Apply the principle of least privilege, allowing only the necessary permissions for files and directories.
- Secure Configuration:
- Review and secure the configuration of the web server, ensuring that directory listing is disabled.
- Regularly check the web server configuration files to ensure that they have not been modified or inadvertently enabled directory listing.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF):
- Utilize a Web Application Firewall that includes directory listing protection features.
- Configure the WAF to detect and block attempts to access directories without appropriate default documents or when directory listing is enabled.
- Secure Development Practices:
- Follow secure coding practices, such as properly validating and sanitizing user input.
- Avoid including user-supplied input directly in file paths or URLs without proper validation and encoding.
Remote File Inclusion (RFI) is a vulnerability where an attacker can manipulate a web application to include and execute remote files hosted on external servers. This can lead to the execution of malicious code, unauthorized access to sensitive data, or even full control over the affected system. RFI occurs when the application does not properly validate or sanitize user-supplied input used to include files.
On the other hand, Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) is a vulnerability where an attacker tricks the server into making unintended requests to other internal or external resources. By manipulating the server's requests, an attacker may gain unauthorized access to internal systems, retrieve sensitive data, or exploit vulnerabilities in other services. SSRF typically occurs when an application allows the attacker to specify the target URL or the protocol for making requests.
RFI allows an attacker to include and execute remote files on the server, while SSRF allows an attacker to manipulate the server's requests and potentially access internal or external resources. Both vulnerabilities can lead to serious security risks if not properly addressed.
Android obfuscation is the process of making Android apps more difficult to reverse engineer. This is done by renaming classes, methods, and variables, and by obfuscating the code logic.
- Identifier renaming: This is the most basic form of obfuscation. It involves renaming classes, methods, and variables with meaningless names. This makes it more difficult for reverse engineers to understand the code logic.
- String encryption: This technique involves encrypting strings that contain sensitive information, such as API keys or passwords. This makes it more difficult for reverse engineers to extract this information from the app.
- Control flow obfuscation: This technique involves obfuscating the control flow of the code. This makes it more difficult for reverse engineers to understand how the code works.
- Code packing: This technique involves packing the app's code into a format that is difficult to decompile. This makes it more difficult for reverse engineers to access the app's source code.
Android obfuscation can be a valuable security tool. It can make it more difficult for attackers to reverse engineer your app and steal sensitive information. However, it is important to note that obfuscation is not a silver bullet. It can only make it more difficult for attackers to reverse engineer your app, but it cannot make it impossible.
- Increased security: Obfuscated apps are more difficult to reverse engineer, which can make it more difficult for attackers to steal sensitive information.
- Reduced size: Obfuscation can reduce the size of your app by removing unused code and resources. This can make your app load faster and use less memory.
- Improved performance: Obfuscation can improve the performance of your app by removing unused code and resources. This can make your app run faster and more efficiently.
- Can make debugging more difficult: Obfuscated apps can make debugging more difficult. This is because the code is more difficult to understand.
- Can impact app performance: Obfuscation can impact the performance of your app. This is because the code is more complex and takes longer to execute.
- Can be defeated: Obfuscation can be defeated by skilled reverse engineers. However, it can make it more difficult for them to do so. Overall, Android obfuscation is a valuable security tool that can help to protect your app from reverse engineering. However, it is important to weigh the benefits and drawbacks before deciding whether or not to use it.
Answer: https://redfoxsec.com/blog/exploiting-android-webview-vulnerabilities/
The WebView class, which is an extension of the View class in Android, can be used to show a web page as part of your activity layout. It doesn’t have navigation buttons or an address bar, which are two important parts of a web browser. By default, WebView’s only job is to show a web page.
Android applications use WebViews to load content and HTML pages inside the application. Due to this functionality, the WebView implementation must be secure to prevent potential risk to the application.
Besides, WebView poses a serious security risk to both the device and the application. While conducting an Android assessment, mobile penetration testers should look at the following techniques and their current conditions to find any potential dangers.
setAllowContent Access
setAllowFileAccess
setAllowFileAccessFromFileURLs
setAllowUniversalAccessFromFileURLs
SetJavaScriptEnabled
The following are the WebView settings that are most commonly exploited by attackers:
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setAllowContentAccess: This setting controls whether the WebView can access content from the internet. If this setting is enabled, an attacker can trick the WebView into loading a malicious file from a remote server. -
setAllowFileAccess: This setting controls whether the WebView can access files on the device. If this setting is enabled, an attacker can trick the WebView into downloading a malicious file to the device. -
setAllowFileAccessFromFileURLs: This setting controls whether the WebView can access files that are hosted on the same domain as the WebView itself. If this setting is enabled, an attacker can trick the WebView into loading a malicious file from a local file. -
setAllowUniversalAccessFromFileURLs: This setting controls whether the WebView can access files from any domain. If this setting is enabled, an attacker can trick the WebView into loading a malicious file from any website. -
SetJavaScriptEnabled: This setting controls whether the WebView can execute JavaScript code. If this setting is enabled, an attacker can inject malicious JavaScript code into the WebView, which can then be executed by the victim's browser.
Yes, I do, Secure coding is a set of principles and practices that software developers can follow to write code that is resistant to security vulnerabilities. There are many different secure coding practices, like:
- Input validation is the process of ensuring that user input is valid and does not contain malicious code.
- Output encoding is the process of converting data into a format that is safe to display or transmit.
- Authentication and password management are the processes of verifying the identity of a user and managing their passwords.
- Session management is the process of tracking the state of a user's session and ensuring that they are only able to access resources that they are authorized to access.
- Access control is the process of restricting access to resources based on the user's permissions.
- Cryptographic practices are the principles and practices of using cryptography to protect data.
- Error handling and logging are the processes of handling errors and logging events that can be used to troubleshoot security incidents.
- Data protection is the process of protecting data from unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or destruction.
- Communication security is the process of securing communication channels to prevent unauthorized interception or modification of data.
- System configuration is the process of configuring systems to be secure.
- Database security is the process of securing databases from unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or destruction.
- File management is the process of managing files to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or destruction.
- Memory management is the process of managing memory to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or destruction.
Secure coding is an important part of software development, and following these principles can help to prevent security vulnerabilities.
Weak hash and encryption algorithms:
- Symmetric-key encryption: DES, RC4, Triple DES, Blowfish, 80/112-bit 2TDEA (two key triple DES)
- Asymmetric-key encryption: 1024-bit RSA or DSA, 160-bit ECDSA (elliptic curves)
- Hashing: MD5, SHA1, SHA-2 , SHA-3
Minimum Key length requirements:
- Key exchange: Diffie–Hellman key exchange with minimum 2048 bits Message Integrity: HMAC-SHA2
- Message Hash: SHA2 256 bits
- Asymmetric encryption: RSA 2048 bits
- Symmetric-key algorithm: AES 128 bits
- Password Hashing: PBKDF2, Scrypt, Bcrypt
- ECDH, ECDSA: 256 bits
A payment gateway is an online service that allows businesses and individuals to accept payments from customers through their websites or mobile applications.
It acts as a secure bridge between the customer’s payment method (such as a credit card or digital wallet) and the merchant’s bank account, facilitating the authorisation and processing of transactions.
- Hosted Payment Gateways
- Self-Hosted Payment Gateways
- API Payment Gateways
- Mobile Payment Gateways
- Local bank integration
A payment gateway works by securely transmitting payment information between a customer, a merchant, and the respective financial institutions involved. Here’s a clear breakdown of how it typically works:
Steps:
- Customer places order and submits it on the website.
- Website directs customer to payment gateway where they enter bank/card details. Payment gateway then redirects to bank’s authorization page.
- Payment gateway verifies customer’s account balance.
- Payment gateway informs merchant based on bank’s response. If declined, merchant notifies customer of card/bank issue. If approved, merchant requests transaction from bank.
- Bank settles payment with payment gateway, which then settles with merchant.
Once this process is completed, the customer gets a confirmation message of the order being placed.
A Payment gateway ensures the security of the information you put in by encrypting the data. Now that you have a pretty good idea of what is payment gateway and how it works, let us look at a list of things that a PG does to keep your data safe:
- Firstly, the payment gateway transaction flow occurs via an HTTPS web address, ensuring security.
- A hash function is used to validate the transaction request, utilizing a secret word known only to the merchant and payment gateway.
- The IP of the requesting server is verified to detect any potential malicious activity, securing the payment page result.
- Virtual Payer Authentication (VPA) is supported by acquirers, issuers, and payment gateways to enhance security. VPA, part of the 3-D secure protocol, adds an extra layer of authentication for online buyers and sellers.
Threat modeling is a process of identifying and mitigating potential security threats to an asset or system. It can be done manually or using a tool.
- Choose a tool. There are many different threat modeling tools available, such as the
Microsoft Threat Modeling Tool, theOWASP Threat Dragon, and theThreatModeler. Each tool has its own strengths and weaknesses, so it is important to choose one that is right for your needs. - Define your assets. The first step in threat modeling is to identify the assets that you need to protect. This could include data, systems, applications, or even people.
- Create a threat model. Once you have identified your assets, you can start creating a threat model. This model will document the threats that could be posed to your assets, as well as the potential impact of those threats.
- Identify mitigations. For each threat, you need to identify mitigations that can be put in place to reduce the risk. Mitigations can include technical controls, such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems, as well as administrative controls, such as user training and password policies.
- Validate your threat model. Once you have created your threat model, you need to validate it to make sure that it is accurate and complete. This can be done by reviewing the model with security experts or by conducting penetration testing.
- Use a template. Many threat modeling tools come with templates that can help you get started.
- Involve stakeholders. It is important to involve stakeholders in the threat modeling process, such as developers, security engineers, and business owners.
- Keep it up to date. Threat models should be kept up to date as your system or application changes.
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If application has implemented proper anti CSRF token which changes in every request, how will you perform CSRF?
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What is SSL? How is the data in transit encrypted? Are there any keys involved? What can you do in case of MITM? Can you decrypt?
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A prepared statement is a type of SQL statement that is pre-compiled by the database. This means that the database can parse the statement once, and then reuse the compiled statement for subsequent executions. This can improve performance, especially for queries that are executed frequently.
Prepared statements are also useful for security. This is because they prevent attackers from injecting malicious code into the query. For example, if a query is written as follows:
SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = 'admin' AND password = 'password';
An attacker could inject malicious code into the query by changing the value of the password parameter to something like this:
SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = 'admin' AND password = 'password'; OR 1=1; --';
This would cause the query to return all of the rows in the users table, even if the password did not match.
However, if the query is written as a prepared statement, the attacker would not be able to inject malicious code. For example, the following query is a prepared statement:
SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password;
In this query, the username and password parameters are placeholders that are replaced with actual values when the query is executed. This prevents the attacker from injecting malicious code into the query.
To create a prepared statement, you would use the PREPARE statement. For example, the following statement would create a prepared statement called sp_select_user:
PREPARE sp_select_user FROM 'SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password';
Once the prepared statement is created, you can execute it by using the EXECUTE statement. For example, the following statement would execute the sp_select_user prepared statement with the username admin and the password password:
EXECUTE sp_select_user 'admin', 'password';
This would return all of the rows in the users table where the username is admin and the password is password
A stored procedure is a group of SQL statements that are grouped together and stored in a database. Stored procedures can be used to perform a variety of tasks, such as:
Inserting, updating, or deleting data from a database Calculating complex values Validating data Enforcing security
Stored procedures offer a number of advantages over executing SQL statements directly. For example, stored procedures can:
Improve performance by reducing the number of round trips between the application and the database Increase security by centralizing access control Make code more reusable and easier to maintain
Here is an example of a stored procedure that inserts a new row into a table:
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_insert_row@username VARCHAR(255),@password VARCHAR(255)ASBEGININSERT INTO users (username, password)VALUES (@username, @password);END;
This stored procedure has two parameters: username and password. These parameters are used to specify the values for the username and password columns in the users table.
To execute this stored procedure, you would use the following command:
EXEC sp_insert_row 'admin', 'password';
This command would insert a new row into the users table with the username admin and the password password.
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If the application is behind the reverse proxy, then how you perform no rate limit attack if token is not expiring.
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Answer: SAML SSO works by transferring the user’s identity from one place (the identity provider) to another (the service provider). This is done through an exchange of digitally signed XML documents.
Consider the following scenario: A user is logged into a system that acts as an identity provider. The user wants to log in to a remote application, such as a support or accounting application (the service provider). The following happens:
- The user accesses the remote application using a link on an intranet, a bookmark, or similar and the application loads.
- The application identifies the user’s origin (by application subdomain, user IP address, or similar) and redirects the user back to the identity provider, asking for authentication. This is the authentication request.
- The user either has an existing active browser session with the identity provider or establishes one by logging into the identity provider.
- The identity provider builds the authentication response in the form of an XML-document containing the user’s username or email address, signs it using an X.509 certificate, and posts this information to the service provider.
- The service provider, which already knows the identity provider and has a certificate fingerprint, retrieves the authentication response and validates it using the certificate fingerprint.
- The identity of the user is established and the user is provided with app access.
Answer: First we need to understand what type of testing is required.It can be a Black Box or Grey Box.
For Grey Box we first take walkthrough from client to understand the application and discuss in scope item.
During the walktheough from the client,we asked regarding user roles.
If there is multiple users,the request for two credentials of each user roles.
Once we receive all data , we do a walkthrough from our side to check everything is working fine.
After checking the application we identify the positive test cases that can be perform.
Test Cases Include
1.Authenticated related
2.Unauthenticated related
3.Privilage Related
4.Business Related
5.Session Related
6.Application Infrastructure
7.Input Validation
Answer:Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user or device. There are many different authentication techniques available, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.
Some of the most common authentication techniques include:
Passwords: Passwords are the most common form of authentication. They are relatively easy to use and remember, but they can also be easily guessed or cracked.
Single-factor authentication (SFA): SFA is a type of authentication that requires only one factor to be verified. This factor is typically a password.
Two-factor authentication (2FA): 2FA is a type of authentication that requires two factors to be verified. The two factors are typically a password and a one-time code.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA): MFA is a type of authentication that requires more than two factors to be verified. The factors can be anything from passwords and one-time codes to biometrics and hardware tokens.
Biometric authentication: Biometric authentication uses physical characteristics, such as fingerprints, facial recognition, or voiceprints, to verify a user's identity.
Knowledge-based authentication: Knowledge-based authentication requires the user to answer questions that only they would know, such as their mother's maiden name or their childhood pet's name.
Challenge-response authentication: Challenge-response authentication requires the user to provide a response to a challenge, such as a mathematical problem or a CAPTCHA.
The best authentication technique for a particular application will depend on the specific security requirements. For example, a bank might require 2FA for all users, while a social media website might only require SFA for most users.
It is important to note that no authentication technique is foolproof. However, by using a combination of different authentication techniques, you can significantly increase the security of your applications.
Here are some additional tips for choosing the right authentication technique:
Consider the sensitivity of the data that you are protecting.
Consider the user experience. Authentication should not be too difficult or time-consuming for users.
Consider the cost of implementing and maintaining the authentication technique.
Answer:CSRF is also known as session riding attack is a web security vulnerability that tricks a web browser into executing an unwanted action. When a website sends a data request to another website on behalf of a user along with the user session cookie attacker launch a CSRF Attack.
CSRF Mitigation Techniques
1. Using CSRF tokens
2. Double-Submitting Cookies
3. Same-Site Cookies
4. Enabling User Interaction
5. Custom Headers for Requests
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Answer:OAuth (Open Authorization) is an open standard for authorization that enables users to grant third-party applications access to their resources without sharing their passwords. OAuth is a widely-used protocol that is supported by many popular websites and applications, such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter.
Here is how OAuth works:
The user visits a website or application that wants to access their resources.
The website or application redirects the user to the OAuth authorization server.
The authorization server prompts the user to grant access to the resources.
The user grants or denies access.
The authorization server returns a token to the website or application.
The website or application uses the token to access the user's resources.
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Answer: Race condition attacks (also called Time of Check to Time of Use, or TOCTTOU attacks) take advantage of the need that computing systems must execute some tasks in a specific sequence. In any such sequence, there is a small period of time when the system has carried out the first task but not started on the second.
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Answer:Server-side template injection (SSTI) is a type of security vulnerability that can occur in web applications that use template engines. Template engines are used to generate dynamic web pages by combining static templates with user-supplied data. If user-supplied data is not properly sanitized, an attacker can inject malicious code into the template engine, which can then be executed on the server.
SSTI attacks can be used to achieve a variety of malicious goals, including:
Remote code execution (RCE): The attacker can inject code that will be executed on the server. This code could be used to steal data, install malware, or perform other malicious activities.
Information disclosure: The attacker can inject code that will extract sensitive information from the server, such as passwords or database credentials.
Defacement: The attacker can inject code that will modify the appearance of the web page. This could be used to display malicious content, such as phishing links or malware downloads.
SSTI attacks can be prevented by properly sanitizing user-supplied data before it is passed to the template engine. This can be done by using a variety of techniques, such as input validation, output encoding, and escaping.
Here are some additional tips for preventing SSTI attacks: 1.Use a secure template engine: There are a number of secure template engines available, such as Jinja2, Twig, and FreeMarker. These engines have built-in features that help to prevent SSTI attacks. 2.Use a web application firewall (WAF): A WAF can help to protect your application from a variety of attacks, including SSTI. 3.Stay up-to-date with security patches: Software vendors often release security patches to address vulnerabilities. It is important to install these patches as soon as they are available.
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Answer: DREAD methodology is used to rate, compare and prioritize the severity of risk presented by each threat that is classified using STRIDE.
DREAD Risk = (Damage + Reproduciblity + Exploitability + Affected Users + Discoverability) / 5. Calculation always produces a number between 10. Higher the number means more serious the risk is.
Following is a customized mathematical approach to implement DREAD methodology:-
If a threat exploit occurs, how much damage will be caused?
0 = Nothing
5 = Information disclosure that could be used in combination with other vulnerabilities
8 = Individual/employer non sensitive user data is compromised.
9 = Administrative non sensitive data is compromised.
10 = Complete system or data destruction.
10 = Application unavailability.
How easy is it to reproduce the threat exploit?
0 = Very hard or impossible, even for administrators of the application.
5 = Complex steps are required for authorized user.
7.5 = Easy steps for Authenticated user
10 = Just a web browser and the address bar is sufficient, without authentication.
What is needed to exploit this threat?
2.5 = Advanced programming and networking knowledge, with custom or advanced attack tools.
5 = Exploit exits in public, using available attack tools.
9 = A Web Application Proxy tool
10 = Just a web browser
How many users will be affected?
0 = None
2.5 individual/employer that is already compromised.
6 = some users of individual or employer privileges, but not all.
8 = Administrative users
10 = All users
· How easy is it to discover this threat?
0 = Very hard requires source code or administrative access.
5 = Can figure it out by monitoring and manipulating HTTP requests
8 = Details of faults like this are already in the public domain and can be easily discovered using a search engine.
10 = the information is visible in the web browser address bar or in a form.
DREAD methodology can be customized to cater the needs of your application, during consultancy engagements it should be approved from the client before starting the security assessment so that after you perform the analysis the results produced by DREAD couldn’t be challenged.
You logged into the application, you just changed your name using JWT token and logged out. JWT token expiry is 15 mins, what attack will you perform?
Answer: If I logged into an application, changed my name using a JWT token, and then logged out, I could perform a JWT token expiry attack. This attack would involve stealing the JWT token before it expires, and then using it to access the application as the victim. The JWT token would contain the victim's name, as well as other information, such as their expiration time. If I could steal the token before it expired, I could use it to access the application as the victim for up to 15 minutes. This would allow me to do things like change the victim's name, view their private data, or even make unauthorized payments on their behalf. To prevent this attack, the application should implement a mechanism to revoke JWT tokens after they have expired. This could be done by storing the tokens in a database and then deleting them after they have expired. Alternatively, the application could use a blacklist to keep track of expired tokens. Here are some additional steps that could be taken to prevent JWT token expiry attacks: • Use short expiration times for JWT tokens. This will make it more difficult for attackers to steal tokens before they expire. • Use a strong cryptographic algorithm to sign JWT tokens. This will make it more difficult for attackers to forge tokens. • Validate the JWT token before it is accepted. This will help to ensure that the token is not tampered with. • Use a WAF to filter malicious traffic. This will help to prevent attackers from injecting malicious code into the application. By following these steps, applications can help to protect themselves from JWT token expiry attacks.