Web Attacks And Countermeasures
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) are web application attacks that make applications unavailable to legitimate users. Typically, DDoS attacks involve flooding the server/ network/ system with requests to deplete its resources. It is often used as a smokescreen for other attacks/ malicious activities.
Web Attacks and Countermeasures
In SQL Injection attacks, attackers inject malicious code/ un-sanitized inputs into the server that uses SQL. This enables attackers to override security controls and part with sensitive information and other insights that it otherwise would not reveal.
In this type of web application attack, the attackers inject malicious scripts/ code by exploiting vulnerabilities in the application to intercept/ compromise communications between the browser and server. XSS attacks enable them to steal session cookies and confidential information, eavesdrop, spread malware, and so on.
Botnets are collections of infected/ compromised connected devices that are remotely controlled by attackers. Attackers leverage botnets for DDoS attacks, spreading malware, perpetuating ad fraud, data theft, and so on.
MiM attacks are where attackers place themselves in between the user and the application during a conversation. They do so to orchestrate impersonation or eavesdropping by gaining access to confidential information. MiM attacks could lead to data theft, unapproved fund transfer, identity theft, account takeover, and so on.
This is one of the critical web application best practices to prevent attacks. Placed at the network edge, Web Application Firewall (WAF) is the first line of defense that monitors traffic and filters requests that are sent to the application so only legitimate users gain access to the application and its assets.
A custom-built WAF is tuned to the needs and context of the business to minimize specific risks facing the application. Backed by intelligent automation, self-capabilities, the expertise of certified security professionals, global threat intelligence, and a cutting-edge scanner, WAFs from Indusface virtually patch vulnerabilities before attackers gain access to them (until developers can fix them). This helps prevent a wide range of web application attacks.
While the WAF can help prevent known vulnerabilities from being exploited, organizations need more to fortify their security. Application security best practices suggest that the WAF and application scanner must be part of a multi-layered and holistic security solution that includes pen-testing, security audits, security analytics, strong security strategies, and so on. This way, organizations can prevent zero-day attacks, exploitation of business logic flaws, and so on.
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), cyberattacks are the second most concerning business risk globally over the next 10 years. Web application attacks cost USD 3.86 million on an average as per the 2020 estimates. The costs are so prohibitively high that small and medium businesses may not be equipped to weather such an attack.
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a new networking paradigm that grants a controller and its applications an omnipotent power to have holistic network visibility and flexible network programmability, thus enabling new innovations in network protocols and applications. One of the core advantages of SDN is its logically centralized control plane to provide the entire network visibility, on which many SDN applications rely. For the first time in the literature, we propose new attack vectors unique to SDN that seriously challenges this foundation. Our new attacks are somewhat similar in spirit to spoofing attacks in legacy networks (e.g., ARP poisoning attack), however with significant differences in exploiting unique vulnerabilities how current SDN operates differently from legacy networks. The successful attacks can effectively poison the network topology information, a fundamental building block for core SDN components and topology-aware SDN applications. With the poisoned network visibility, the upper layer OpenFlow Controller services/apps may be totally misled, leading to serious hijacking, denial of service or man-in-the-middle attacks. According to our study, all current major SDN Controllers we find in the market (e.g., Floodlight, OpenDaylight, Beacon, POX) are affected, i.e., they are subject to the Network Topology Poisoning Attacks. We then investigate the mitigation methods against the Network Topology Poisoning Attacks and present OFTOPOSEC, a new security extension to SDN Controllers, which provides automatic and real-time detection of Network Topology Poisoning Attacks. Our evaluation on a prototype implementation of OFTOPOSEC in Floodlight Controller shows that the defense solution can effectively secure network topology while introducing only a minor impact on normal operation of OpenFlow Controllers.
A cyber attack is a deliberate exploitation of your systems and/or network. Cyber attacks use malicious code to compromise your computer, logic or data and steal, leak or hold your data hostage. Cyber attack prevention is essential for every business and organisation.
Putting your network behind a firewall is one of the most effective ways to defend yourself from any cyber attack. A firewall system will block any brute force attacks made on your network and/or systems before it can do any damage, something we can help you with.
Believe it or not, one of the attacks that you can receive on your systems can be physical, having control over who can access your network is really really important. Somebody can simply walk into your office or enterprise and plug in a USB key containing infected files into one of your computers allowing them access to your entire network or infect it.
In the past year, ransomware variants features have expanded to include data exfiltration, participation in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, and anti-detection components. One variant deletes files regardless of whether or not a payment was made. Another variant includes the capability to lock cloud-based backups when systems continuously back up in real-time (a.k.a. during persistent synchronization). Other variants target smartphones and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
Windows uses technologies including trusted platform module (TPM), secure boot, and measured boot to help protect BitLocker encryption keys against attacks. BitLocker is part of a strategic approach to securing data against offline attacks through encryption technology. Data on a lost or stolen computer is vulnerable. For example, there could be unauthorized access, either by running a software attack tool against the computer or by transferring the computer's hard disk to a different computer.
Pre-boot authentication is designed to prevent the encryption keys from being loaded to system memory without the trusted user supplying another authentication factor such as a PIN or startup key. This feature helps mitigate DMA and memory remanence attacks.
TPM with PIN. In addition to the protection that the TPM provides, BitLocker requires that the user enters a PIN. Data on the encrypted volume can't be accessed without entering the PIN. TPMs also have anti-hammering protection that is designed to prevent brute force attacks that attempt to determine the PIN.
Pre-boot authentication with a PIN can mitigate an attack vector for devices that use a bootable eDrive because an exposed eDrive bus can allow an attacker to capture the BitLocker encryption key during startup. Pre-boot authentication with a PIN can also mitigate DMA port attacks during the window of time between when BitLocker unlocks the drive and Windows boots to the point that Windows can set any port-related policies that have been configured.
A BIOS password is recommended for defense-in-depth in case a BIOS exposes settings that may weaken the BitLocker security promise. Intel Boot Guard and AMD Hardware Verified Boot support stronger implementations of Secure Boot that provide additional resilience against malware and physical attacks. Intel Boot Guard and AMD Hardware Verified Boot are part of platform boot verification standards for a highly secure Windows device.
Enable secure boot and mandatorily prompt a password to change BIOS settings. For customers requiring protection against these advanced attacks, configure a TPM+PIN protector, disable Standby power management, and shut down or hibernate the device before it leaves the control of an authorized user.
Cybercrime has increased every year as people try to benefit from vulnerable business systems. Often, attackers are looking for ransom: 53 percent of cyber attacks resulted in damages of $500,000 or more.
Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks, also known as eavesdropping attacks, occur when attackers insert themselves into a two-party transaction. Once the attackers interrupt the traffic, they can filter and steal data.
Social network usage has increased exponentially in recent years. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Instagram, not only facilitate sharing of personal data but also connect people professionally. However, development of these platforms with more enhanced features like HTML5, CSS, XHTML and Java Script expose these sites to various vulnerabilities that may be the root cause of various threats. Therefore, social networking sites have become an attack surface for various cyber-attacks such as XSS attack and SQL Injection. Numerous defensive techniques have been proposed, yet with technology up-gradation current scenarios demand for more efficient and robust solutions.
Unfortunately, there's a slight hitch if you use Chrome. From version 92 onward (July 20th, 2021), cross-origin iframes are prevented from calling alert(). As these are used to construct some of the more advanced XSS attacks, you'll sometimes need to use an alternative PoC payload. In this scenario, we recommend the print() function. If you're interested in learning more about this change and why we like print(), check out our blog post on the subject. 041b061a72