Web Application Security

Web application security or web AppSec refers to a wide range of processes, techniques or technologies established to protect web servers, websites, web applications and web services likewise APIs from cyberattacks by Internet-based security threats.  Web AppSec is a methodology that involves protecting websites or online services against cybersecurity threats. Moreover, web application security is an important security measure to protect personal data, customers and organizational assets from data theft, business disruptions, and many other malicious intents of cybercriminals. In web application security, organizations may establish different security measures such as web application firewalls (WAF), input validation techniques, cookies management, session management, exception handling techniques and related mechanisms to prevent attacks applications hosted in the worldwide web (WWW).

Web application security is the idea of building web applications, websites, and web services to function as expected even when they are under cyberattack. It involves a collection of security controls designed into web applications to protect it from potentially malicious actors. And it is central component of any web-based business and the nature of the Internet exposes web applications to different cyberattacks from various locations and cybercriminals of various skill levels. Besides, it also focuses on protecting endpoints of a web browser and APIs from various formjacking, malicious browser extensions, Trojans, malvertisement, and other cybersecurity threats. In addition, web application security is the process of securing web applications, websites, and other Internet-based web services from cyberattacks, security breaches, and security threats that leverage security loopholes, security misconfiguration, and vulnerabilities in these applications and their corresponding source codes.

Some of the common cyberattacks against web applications vulnerabilities include the following:

• Path traversal attacks
• SQL injection attacks
• Code injection attacks
• Buffer overflow attacks
• Credential stuffing attacks
• Cookie poisoning attacks
• Malvertisement attacks
• Data disclosure attacks
• Man-in-the-middle attack
• Broken authentication attacks
• Session hijacking attacks
• Remote command execution attacks
• Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks
• Denial of service (DoS) attacks
• Memory corruption attacks
• Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks
• Data breach attacks
• XML external entities (XXE) attacks
• Insecure Deserialization attacks
• Distributed denial of service (DDoS) Attacks
• Insecure design
• Security logging and monitoring failures
• Identification and authentication failures

Some common web application security ensuring measures include the following:

• Web application firewalls (WAFs)
• Transport layer security (TLS)
• DNS security (DNSSEC)
• Proper input validation
• Session management
• Security awareness training
• Multifactor authentication (MFA) systems
• Penetration testing
• Risk management
• Web vulnerabilities scanners
• Implement web security hardening measures
• Web application security testing
• Patching and updating web components
• Security audits
• Encryption techniques
• Check for common web application vulnerabilities
• Establish proper logging and monitoring practices

Considering the OWASPT Top 10 while developing web applications is the most effective approach towards changing the threat landscape of web applications development and thereby integrating application security features right from the start of a web-based project. As of writing this item, the following are the Top 10 web application security risks that organizations should take into account while developing web applications.

• Broken Access Control
• Cryptographic Failures
• Injection
• Insecure Design
• Security Misconfiguration
• Vulnerable and Outdated Components
• Identification and Authentication Failures
• Software and Data Integrity Failures
• Security Logging and Monitoring Failures
• Server-Side Request Forgery