Web Application Security: From Business Risk to Technical Defense

Web applications are many organizations’ primary point of contact with their customers, but they’re also one of their greatest vulnerabilities. Most web applications contain at least one exploitable vulnerability, and the repercussions of a successful exploit can be devastating for an organization or its customers.

Web application security focuses on identifying, remediating, and defending web applications to reduce an organization’s vulnerability to attack. Web app security stretches throughout the entire web app lifecycle from initial development to deployment in a production environment.

Common Web App Risks and Vulnerabilities

Some of the most common web app vulnerabilities and risks include the following:

• Brute Force Attack: Brute force attacks attempt account takeover on web apps. Usually, automated scripts will work from a dictionary of common or breached passwords, attempting to identify an account with a weak or reused password. Alternatively, an attacker may try all possible passwords for an account, hoping that the user chose a short one.
• Injection Attacks: Injection attacks use malformed and malicious inputs to exploit vulnerable applications that accept user data. For example, SQL injection attacks attempt to get some of the user’s input to be interpreted as part of an SQL query, changing its effects.
• Fuzz Testing/Fuzzing: Fuzzing sends various random, malformed, or malicious inputs to an application, attempting to exploit a vulnerability. For example, an attacker might identify and exploit a buffer overflow vulnerability in an application, allowing them to overwrite important data with their chosen input.
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): In an XSS attack, the attacker injects malicious code into a webpage that is executed by the target’s browser. This can be accomplished in various ways, such as getting the target to click on a malicious link or inserting the code into a vulnerable input field, such as a comments or reviews page.
• DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service): DDoS attacks use many computers infected with botnet malware to flood a web app with spam requests. By doing so, they consume valuable resources and decrease the app’s accessibility to legitimate users.
• Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF): In a CSRF attack, the attacker tricks a user’s browser into sending requests on the attacker’s behalf to other sites that the user is currently authenticated to. For example, a malicious page might send a request to the user’s bank, and, if the user is logged into that account, their browser will automatically include an authentication cookie with the request, enabling it to succeed.
• XML External Entity (XXE): XXE vulnerabilities exploit insecure processing of data stored in XML formats. An attacker can exploit these vulnerabilities to access sensitive files or other information on the vulnerable server.
• Path Traversal: Path traversal vulnerabilities may exist if a user can upload or access files on a server and specify the filename or run terminal commands on a web application. Often, these assume that the user’s access is limited to a particular folder, but path traversal enables them to access and potentially modify other files and folders on the system.

Web App Attacks in the Real World

Web applications are a common target for cybercriminals because they are publicly accessible and permitted to access sensitive data and functionality. One example of a famous web application attack is that performed by the Magecart group.

Magecart inserts malicious scripts into the payment pages of legitimate applications. This could occur by exploiting XSS vulnerabilities, weak web admin passwords, or other security gaps. These scripts are designed to access sensitive information entered into these pages by users, such as credit card details. This collected information is then transmitted to the attacker, who could use it to make fraudulent purchases or sell access to the user’s account on the Dark Web.

Managing Web App Security Risks

Web application vulnerability management is essential to protect the organization, its data, and its customers against cyber threats. Some ways that a company can manage these risks include the following:

• Exposure Management: Web application vulnerabilities are common and can pose a serious threat to an organization and its customers. Exposure management involves identifying potential vulnerabilities in the organization’s digital attack surface through vulnerability scanning. Based on the results of these assessments, identified vulnerabilities can be prioritized based on their potential impacts on the organization.
• Exposure Validation: Many scanning tools will produce false positives, which waste resources and take attention away from real threats. Exposure validation is essential to ensure that resources are allocated in a way that best reduces the organization’s cybersecurity risk.
• Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM): An organization’s web applications may be built using third-party libraries and components or connect to other applications via APIs. In addition to scanning for vulnerabilities within an application’s code, organizations should also examine the security of these third-party dependencies.
• Exploit Prevention: Often, organizations will have more vulnerabilities in their environments than they have the resources to remediate. Solutions such as web application firewalls (WAFs) and web app and API protection (WAAP) tools can identify and block attacks before they reach vulnerable apps.
• DevSecOps: Ideally, vulnerabilities are identified and fixed during the development process before they reach production and pose a threat to the organization and the app’s users. Scanning tools such as static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), and interactive application security testing (IAST) can identify and block vulnerabilities before they are included in source code repositories.

Web App Security Best Practices

Web applications are a common entry point for cyberattacks. Some best practices to enhance web app security and reduce an organization’s vulnerability to attack include the following:

• Perform Regular Monitoring: An organization’s digital attack surface is constantly evolving as software and systems are deployed, updated, and retired. Performing continuous exposure monitoring is essential to provide up-to-date visibility into an organization’s risk exposure.
• Use Risk-Based Prioritization: Prioritizing remediation actions is essential to maximize return on investment; however, priorities shouldn’t be based on a vulnerability’s Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score. A critical vulnerability on a low-risk asset may be much less damaging than a lower-scored one on a more important asset. Prioritization should be based on an understanding of an asset’s role in the organization and the potential impacts that a vulnerability could have on business functions.
• Apply Updates Promptly: Cybercriminals often move rapidly to develop and deploy exploits after a vulnerability has been publicly announced and a patch is made available. Applying updates promptly minimizes the window during which an attacker could exploit a potential vulnerability.
• Implement Defense in Depth: Successful exploits can be costly for an organization and its customers. Implementing defense in depth reduces the risk that a vulnerability will slip through the cracks and that an attacker will be able to exploit it. Combining DevSecOps tools and practices and exposure management to reduce exploitable vulnerabilities with WAF/WAAP to block attacks minimizes the risk of a successful exploit.

How IONIX Can Help

IONIX provides organizations with visibility into their digital attack surfaces through its Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) capabilities. Continuous exposure detection and validation enables the organization to focus on the threats that pose the most risk to the business.

IONIX also offers unparalleled visibility into corporate digital supply chains via its External Attack Surface Management (EASM) platform. By proactively mapping these digital supply chains and identifying vulnerabilities within them, IONIX uncovers vulnerabilities that would be overlooked with traditional, surface-level vulnerability assessment tools. To see what IONIX can find in your environment, request a scan today.