Session Hijacking – What Is It?

There are many security concerns when it comes to client-side use of any web application just as there are for the business providing the online service. Session hijacking is just such an issue.

It is the malicious act of taking control of user session after successful generation or obtainment of an authentication session ID. Session hijacking typically involves use of captured, forced, or reversely engineered session Ids by the attacker. The goal: to take control of the session in progress from a legitimate user’s web application session.

Types of Session Hijacking

Session hijacking is split into two types, active and passive session hijacking. The main difference between these two types is the degree of hacker’s involvement in the attack. Another essential difference between the two types of session hacking are:

Active Session Attacks

The hacker finds and takes over an active session, i.e. the session is still in progress.

Passive Session Attacks

The hacker hijacks a session but sits back, observes and records incoming traffic.  

There are a number of ways user-side web application session token could be compromised. The most common are:

• Session sniffing
• Predictable session token
• Client-side attacks (Trojans, malicious JavaScript codes, XSS, etc)
• Man-in-browser attacks
• Man-in-middle attacks 

Following are some helpful techniques that can be used to avoid session hacking.

Side-jacking

SSL is used commonly to protect login pages by many websites today however applying a standard, unencrypted HTTP protocol after client’s authentication is also not a good idea. Why? Hacker can read the unencrypted HTTP traffic (passing between server and client) and steal its session cookie very easily. Of course the session hijacker must also have access to the same network as authenticated client’s or know/guess name of session cookie.

You must understand how this works and employ an effective strategy after consulting with Lean Security.

Network Security

Often the first and only line of defence against session hacking is network security. You know that all non-encrypted HTTP communications can easily be hijacked. Employ only trusted and reliable people for gaining access to oncoming and going traffic. This will significantly reduce the threat of session hijacking.  

Another issue online businesses must look into is client’s connection with vulnerable points such as public networks. Anyone can connect and capture communication on unprotected private WLAN access points. Effective steps must be taken to ensure all access and connection points are secure.

 Adopting a rigid and strict stance when it comes to your web application’s security is the only way forward. Session hijacking is an extremely grave cybercrime that adversely affects businesses and their reputations along with misuse of untold amounts of sensitive client data. Take the right steps towards better security by undergoing your web application through a security health check by Lean Security!

Performing A Web Vulnerability Assessment – Are You Making These Mistakes?

There are a lot of things that must be kept in mind when in the process of securing your network. Unfortunately, most network security processes don’t go beyond patch management and installing antivirus software! There’s a lot more that can and should be done when it comes to implementing network security i.e. checking configurations, troublesome and default configured hardware, and dealing with known issues in third-party applications. It is these processes that make up web or network vulnerability assessment.

Making mistakes is human nature however not paying attention to your web application’s security needs when performing web vulnerability assessment can become quite a costly error! We have outlines some of the most common mistakes made by in-house IT professionals and administrators when it comes to web application vulnerability assessments.

Learn from them and make your web application’s security your highest priority, in theory and practice.

Not Attending To Least Important Vulnerabilities

You will of course have some high-level vulnerability within the web application that is given highest priority by network administrators and in-house specialists.  Nothing is wrong in labelling particular vulnerabilities high priority as they can pose a direct and immediate adverse impact to your web application. The real issue lies with not paying attention to the low priority vulnerabilities. This automatically leads to unequal allotment of resources for all web applications and vulnerabilities.  

Network administrators need to search, identify and fix all web security vulnerabilities that can even potentially cause problems. What more does this include?

• Seemingly harmless marketing websites
• Intranet and portals
• Content management systems
• Web interfaces for all network devices

Expect Reported Vulnerabilities to Be Fixed Without Following Up

Following-up is really important especially if it’s for something as important as your web application’s vulnerability assessment report. Keep in mind: assessing or scanning vulnerability within a web application isn’t the same as fixing it! You developers likely won’t even know of the identified issues because management may not deem them important enough. Almost always management of any business has their own set of priorities which is given precedence over addressed or identified security issues.

In such a case, it’s a better idea to partner with developer and follow-up accordingly. This will make sure all identified and crucial vulnerabilities are remediated.  

Assuming a Secure Web Application Is Also Compliant

Contrary to popular belief, a so-called compliant termed web application security assessment doesn’t necessarily make a web application secure and vice versa. Why are compliance and security not the same? Quite simply, compliance in website applications is merely a guideline of how a particular security program meets specific security requirements.

Compliance managers and auditors should sit down together and make sure all known risks are removed by making a website security plan based on requirements set by chosen security program.

Web application is indeed an important aspect for many business’s IT compliance programs. As such, you must hire the best third party managed service provider in your city. Consider signing up for Lean Security’s free trial.     

Do You Know All There is to Know About SQL Injections?

We have all heard about cybercriminals and the havoc they create for online businesses and corporations. In the last few years, we have seen a new generation rising to the digital forefront. Hacktivists… they are the digital activists of this era and have just started making their presence known. With social media and a wide internet infrastructure, IT savvy hacktivists make their passionate opinions known on social and political issues on a global scale. They hack their way into government operated websites with the intent of shutting them down or exploiting content that would aid in their cause.

Arguably, the most dangerous part of hacktivism is the intent. Many do fight for social and political change but there are entities only interested in personal and financial gain.

 What does this mean for the multi-national or even local business (with an online presence) in Australia? Web application security has become an even important component that should never be overlooked. SQL injections are the second thing that mustn’t be ignored when making your website or web application more secure.

SQL Injections - Most Common Type of Hack Attack

There are plenty of reasons why attackers prefer hacking into a web application with the help of SQL injections. This attack allows hacktivists or malicious attackers to inject their own commands into databases. Such databases are usually not configured properly for attack detection which makes it easier for hackers to obtain access to information on the database.

Damages Caused By SQL Injection

Given the right circumstances, an attacker can leverage SQL injection vulnerability by bypassing web application’s authentication and authorization process completely. This makes it easier to retrieve information even for an entire database! Additionally, hackers can also add, modify, and delete from sensitive information and records.   

Online businesses must know about the 3 main categories of SQL injection attacks against databases to devise an effective web application security strategy. They are:

SQL Manipulation

This is a process where SQL statements are modified with the help of operations like UNION. Changing clause of SQL statement is another way to inject this vulnerability through SQL manipulation. Different results are derived from this SQL manipulation method.  

Code Injection

It’s a process of inserting new SQL statements (or database commands) into an already vulnerable SQL statement. There are many different strategies used by hackers to achieve malicious code injection. The most commonly used is to write SQL server EXECUTE command at the end of the vulnerable SQL statement. This type of SQL attack can only take place if multiple SQL statements are supported per database request.

Buffer Overflows

This is caused by using function call injection. Additionally, patches are available for most of open source and commercial databases, which are important for a server’s security. This type of SQL injection attack happens when server is un-patched.

Protecting your web application against such vulnerabilities should be every business’s highest priority. As such, you must know where to look when searching for the best managed service provider for your business’s online application. Lean Security is a good option and here’s why!      

Are All Web Security Vulnerabilities Equally Dangerous For Your Online Business?

Are you responsible for the security of your company’s web applications?

What are the steps usually taken when it comes to removing vulnerabilities from web applications and websites?

Many IT managers rely on a web application security scan to help identify anomalies, this being the first step towards vulnerability removal.

Not having enough time and budget forces many IT managers to choose between vulnerabilities, i.e. try to fix highest priority risks first.

This is where the real problem begins.

SQL Injection is often given precedence over other vulnerabilities especially cross-site scripting. In fact, many in the web application security industry think XSS vulnerability isn’t as dangerous for web applications and websites, and can be identified and fixed last.  

XSS Vulnerability – Why Do You Think It Is Not a Dangerous Vulnerability?

In XSS vulnerability, the victim of an attack isn’t the actual web application, web server, or data stored in a database but the user/visitor. What does this mean? If a forum or WordPress blog post is injected by XSS vulnerability, the hacker will only gain access to the private messages, forum posts, and user’s profile. Such a hack attack won’t give access to sensitive data (credit card numbers, customer details) that can be stolen or enable the hacker to tamper the web application.  

What Can An Attacker Actually Do With XSS Vulnerability?

Malicious scripts are injected by hackers into an otherwise trusted website, in a cross-site site (XSS) attack. This vulnerability can then be exploited by the attacker in the form of a malicious code (usually a browser side script) that is sent to a different user of the same web application.  

Web developers and company’s in-house IT specialists think XSS vulnerability is relatively harmless and can be placed as the lowest priority. In reality, cross-site scripting can do some serious damage:

• l Bypass restriction in websites
• l Malware attack
• l Steal identity and confidential data
• l Denial of service attacks
• l Website defacement
• l Session hijacking

In the end, no vulnerability should be considered low priority. If possible, all should be identified and fixed within a reasonable timeframe so that end-users and customers don’t suffer.

It is also a good idea to undergo monthly web application security scanning and assessment by a reliable managed service provider. Lean Security is always ready for the test! Try our free trial today.   

What Are Your Resolutions For Web Application’s Pen Testing?

New Years has come and gone but the air is still filled with expectations that this year will be the best. If you are an online business owner and have suffered security hacks, liabilities and losses last year – 2017 is the time to redeem yourself in the eyes of customers. Keeping with tradition, did you write down a list of New Year’s resolutions that you intend to follow to the letter? Did those resolutions include web application pentesting? More importantly – isn’t it time to resolve and code review your business’s IT infrastructure and web applications via manual/automatic penetration testing?

Understanding the Real Value of a Penetration Test

Very few businesses with an online presence realize the importance and value of penetration testing, for their web/mobile applications and software security. There are a lot of misconceptions about this, like:

• My IT infrastructure will be safe after pentesting
• All vulnerabilities within application will be found

Penetration testing conducted due to the above mentioned reasons don’t explore the full capacity of the security testing service. There are actually other benefits of pentesting that you can enjoy!

Pentesting Reveals a Set of Vulnerabilities

Not all of them though! In fact, number of found vulnerabilities is connected to certain factors namely:

• Time length of the test
• Skills, experience, credentials, certifications of testers
• Network connectivity
• Active web application firewalls
• System changes during testing
• Application instability

Moreover, high risk vulnerabilities are focused first then medium-low risk ones (if none found). This is why for maximum results; a combination of automatic and manual pentesting should be performed. Some additional benefits of pentesting from a certified and experienced vendor are:

• Shows ‘real risk’ of vulnerabilities
• Offers third party’s expert opinion
• Tests cyber-defence capability of your IT infrastructure
• Helps comply with industry certifications and regulations

Businesses often question the best way to conduct pentesting of software, web applications and the rest of their IT infrastructure. What they forget is penetration testing should accomplish placed business goals and objectives, not merely check for random holes in security.

Here Is How to Conduct a Successful Security Evaluation Test

Choosing a good or right pentesting vendor is only half of the battle. Make sure the security assessment is conducted properly by:

• Establishing security baseline through annual tests
• Spell out your company’s security objectives and requirements
• Choose auditors that have ‘real’ security experience
• Involve business unity managers early on
• Make sure reliance is on experience, not just prepared checklists
• Ensure finished report reflects all organization’s security risks

Now that you know the importance of penetration testing for your web application’s or IT infrastructure’s security evaluation, are you going to scour the market for a pentesting software that doesn’t offer accurate results or are you choosing Lean Security?

Security Compliance And Audits – What You Should Know

When was the last time your company’s IT department conducted a security compliance and audit on infrastructure, web applications and software? Why is this necessary? Explained in simple terms – a security audit is usually carried out to ensure full working capability of your security systems and IT infrastructure.

A compliance audit on the other hand is a comprehensive review detailing adherence to regulatory guidelines of a company. Independent security or IT consultants offer compliance audits to clients, who then fix the gap holes in their security with the help of finished report. These professionals review user access controls, risk management procedures, and security policies over the course of the audit.

There are a few points that you should know about choosing security compliance and audits for your IT infrastructure for better results. Keep the following in mind:  

An Audit Isn’t a Design Session  

Does your security program’s design rely heavily on initial audit gap report? If yes, the programs might not be sustainable. In the end your auditor will try and target a specific requirement first which means compliance and security audits don’t deal with sustainability, holistic approaches, and existing business requirements integration.

Don’t Conduct Audit If Not 100% Ready

An audit is strictly conducted in accordance with independent review of your existent security program. There is no need to go through if you feel your organization doesn’t meet all aspects of the security audit. In fact, discrepancies and vulnerabilities within the IT framework should be fixed first! Remember, security and compliance audit results shouldn’t be measured but this evaluation does help fix issues.    

Always Aim Higher Than What Compliance Requirements Prefer

Going above and beyond when it comes to IT security can be a good thing. Requirements are placed at a minimum standard, by which businesses with an online presence can operate and work to exceed in. When making the budget for security and compliance audit, don’t just focus on meeting the standard requirement but try to provide everything that is needed by your organization to effectively mitigate risk.

Identify vulnerabilities and fix your web application’s security by effective assessment of IT infrastructure with the help of advance web security testing. Security and compliance will follow automatically afterwards. Lean on Lean Security for your entire web and mobile application’s security needs.   

How To Choose The Right Penetration Testing Vendor

When it comes to IT infrastructure’s and web application’s security, there are two ways businesses and companies with an online presence can establish thorough security. The good and bad way, i.e. you can either wait for your organization’s web application and IT infrastructure to get hacked or work with a professional penetration testing service before disaster strikes. The latter is the better option.

Penetration Testing Will Safeguard Your IT Infrastructure against Vulnerabilities

Contrary to belief, penetration testing is utilized to scan and find existing vulnerabilities within the framework of a web application. This vulnerability is then addressed and duly removed. Evaluation and penetration scanning is carried out by pentesting companies or individuals. The exact same techniques as ones used by hackers and cyber criminals are used by these professionals, to safely exploit vulnerabilities and highlight issues within infrastructure’s security. With pentest vendors operating in Australia (Lean Security is of them) how will you know you have partnered with the right one?

Look For Technical Capabilities

Extensive training and experience are two important factors all the best pentesters have in common. Your chosen penetration testing vendor must have the following certifications that promise both training and experience. There are:

• CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security Professional
• CEH – Certified Ethical Hacker
• GWAPT – GIAC Web Application Penetration Tester
• OSCE – Offensive Security Certified Expert
• OSCP – Offensive Security Certified Professional

Additional credentials to look out for are pentest’s background in network, systems management or developing applications before moving into this field.

Pricing Of Penetration Testing

You must get at least three quotes or recommendations for pentest vendors or companies, with complete information about services. This will help determine if the asked price package is worth the service. In any case, knowing what you are paying for will help.

Not all pentest companies are equal, either with services or certification. Don’t forget, you will get what you pay for which means choosing a low priced service will offer nothing but under qualified or inexperienced pentesting professionals.

Ask a Potential Pentesting Vendor These Questions

Choosing the right pentesting vendor has been made easy with the following summation of important questions to ask:

• How many pentesters do you employ? What are their qualifications?
• What assistance can you provide in scoping the tests?
• Do you offer phishing testing and social engineering?
• How is the pentest carried out and to what time scale?
• What steps are taken to minimize possible effects on the business?
• Will there be any reports and security recommendations provided after the test?
• Can you provide references or testimonials for other existing customers?

With help from the above, finding the right pentesting vendor for your online business or web application will become easier. Just know what you want done i.e. security assessment and evaluation only or something concrete. Look at what Lean Security has to offer when it comes to Penetration testing services.

Ask Us – Difference Between Penetration Testing, Security Audit And Vulnerability Assessment

Companies and businesses with online presences are more vulnerable than ever, to exploitation and hacking. Today’s rapid explosion of internet-based commerce guarantees it. Besides various aspects of a corporate network that are vulnerable to attack, web application servers and their managed transitions are especially open to criminal hackers. Web application security has become even more important than ever however traditional testing of security controls (firewalls) are no longer sufficient or efficient in protecting organizations and companies doing business on the internet.

Yes – it goes without saying that businesses today need something extra when it comes to managing their web application security. Now the mantra for effective web application for companies has changed. Now the e-commerce sector believes simply ‘avoid being hacked’ isn’t enough especially when failure to properly manage security is linked to serious liabilities such as: 

• Cross-site request forgery
• Un-validated redirects and forwards
• Sensitive data exposure
• Security misconfiguration
• SQL injection
• Cross-site scripting
• Session management and broken authentication

 What type of security assessment you should look into for you IT infrastructure. There are commonly three types, i.e. penetration test, vulnerability assessment, and security audit.

What Is A Security Audit?

It simply refers to evaluating an application or system’s risk level, against certain set standards or baselines. Standards are actually mandatory or compulsory compliance rules while even minimal effort is an acceptable level of security for baselines. What do they do? Both standards and baselines help achieve a certain level of consistency when it comes to security implementation. These set of rules can also be specific to industries, technologies and processes.

Important Note:

Security audits in any cases give businesses a false sense of security as most rules for both standards and baselines are unable to keep up with rapid changes in cyber security, vulnerabilities and threats.

What Is A Vulnerability Assessment?

Also know as vulnerability analysis, it’s a process through which security holes or vulnerabilities are defined, identified and classified in a computer, network, or IT infrastructure. Most people don’t know this but assessment is stopped once vulnerability is found. This means a full-fledged attack against the vulnerability doesn’t follow, to verify if it is a legitimate threat or a false positive.

What Is Penetration Testing?

Pen tests are conducted to simply evaluate an IT infrastructure’s security. This is done by safely or ‘ethically’ exploiting vulnerabilities within a web application, operating system, improper configurations, or even due to risky end-user behavior.

 Important Note:

A popular misconception about pen testing services is that web application security is enhanced since these services are more expensive than others. It is important to remember penetration testing doesn’t make IT networks and applications more secure since existing security is evaluated only.

 Whether you choose pen testing, security audit, or website evaluation and assessment from Lean Security, know this that we will offer the very best in managed security services and advanced web security testing. Try it out today! 

Mobile Security Assessment: Three Points Of Focus

How secure is your business’s mobile application? This question is important for peace of mind of your customers—and to an extent—your IT department as well.

We live in the mobile age of technology, i.e. every service that we can ever hope for can be easily accessed with our mobile devices.

In fact, customers (and employees) today have come to expect the very best in mobile services and applications.

With increasing popularity of BYOD devices and use of mobile services to conduct just about anything, companies should be trying to find out how much secure their mobile applications and related systems really are?

Increasing Need for Mobile Security Assessments

You have a lot to learn about mobile security and why it’s important (including the use of web application penetration testing). Here are some questions you should be asking:

·         What are the potential vulnerabilities in my mobile application that attackers could exploit?

·         Is there any way to project mobile applications from malicious activity?

·         What should be done to protect users from hackers and cyber criminals?

Mobile security assessment is the answer. They are often triggered by the developer’s need to meet compliance requirements. However, you should undergo mobile security assessment of your application in order to identify and remove all security risks.   

Mobile Security Assessment – What Should You Focus On?

Following are three highly important points for mobile application security that you must look into when running the assessment.

1.     The Code

Mobile malware works by exploiting bugs or vulnerabilities that are already found in the code. Since app deployment to specific devices cannot be controlled by mobile app developers, steps must be taken during app development.

Security testing and assessment should be carried regularly of all stages of software development. Ensure everyone in your team (involved in web application development) is given basic security and penetration testing training.

2.     The Data

There has been an increased use of BYOD for work purposes, in recent years. This has increased chances of non-deliberate exposure of company data by employees themselves!

Common sources of data leakage that is exploited by cyber criminals are:

o   Data logging

o   Cookies

o   Caching through HTTP

o   HTML5 local

o   Buffering through copy/paste data

Data encryption is the obvious solution to secure important information.

3.     The Device

A mobile application is only as secure as the smartphone the app is stored on. What this means is: a mobile device poses an increased risk when it comes to malware.

The obvious solution to this security problem is to make the mobile application stored in the mobile, secure and risk-aware. This can be done by implementing risk-based authentication on mobile applications that would prevent access on certain devices. In addition, transactions conducted by the user can be silently flagged (for review and follow-up on any suspicious activity) before the command is executed.

Mobile Security Assessment – What Is The Bottom Line?

All focus levels, i.e. the code, the data, and the device must be met for your mobile applications to be considered secure. Regular and dynamic risk assessment is an important part for the process. What is it? Learn more about dynamic risk assessment and penetration testing from Lean Security. You can even opt for our free website health security check!      

Penetration Testing: Should You Go For Automatic Or Manual Penetration Testing?

Australia has seen some of the worst examples of cybercrime to hit web and mobile applications; not just the average user in the country, but big businesses (and even government agencies)! August 9, 2016 was one such an event, when a series of malicious attacks targeted the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The deliberate attempt was carried out to sabotage the national survey.

With cyber attacks becoming the norm more than ever, it’s important to review the cyber health of your web and mobile application.

How can this be done? Regular penetration testing will help identify vulnerabilities within the system that can be exploited by cyber criminals and hackers. 

Penetration Testing – What Is It?

This kind of testing will dig deep into your system, find vulnerabilities and try to exploit them. The intent of penetration testing isn’t to hack into a system, but try to determine whether it can be done, and more importantly, and how. The testing is often stopped once the objective is received.

Lean Security offers two types of penetration testing—automated and manual. Which one is better? Let’s find out.

What Is Automated Testing?

Automatic penetration testing provides broad testing during the security assessment of a computer system. This significantly reduces the time and effort otherwise required to find and report issues.

What Happens During Testing?

In addition to highly able and qualified penetration testers, Lean Security also offers a plethora of automatic security testing tools. They help find vulnerabilities (in the shortest time possible and a variety of target systems) in an internal network when performing onsite security assessment.

How Does Manual Testing Differ?

Sadly, all software vulnerabilities can’t be assessed for vulnerabilities using the help of a simple scanning tool. Automated penetration tests are great when it comes to testing of common, well-known vulnerabilities. However, they lack in one important detail: the inability to scan for domain specific vulnerabilities! This is where manual penetration testing comes in the picture.

This type of penetration testing is led by experiences (of the penetration tester) and intelligence. Skilled testers will find the exact same vulnerabilities in disparate systems, shown by automatic testing.

However, manual penetration testing is also able to pick up vulnerabilities that aren’t identified by automatic web application scanning. This uncanny ability to pick up false positives is what makes manual pen testing an invaluable service. 

Automatic vs. Manual Pen Testing – Which Do You Need?

Realistically speaking, you will need a little bit of both in order to keep your web application security sound and healthy.

In fact, businesses cannot afford to just employ one type of penetration service! The solution that makes the most sense is: use automatic web security scanning for major vulnerability testing, then complete the penetration test by running a manual check (for logical vulnerabilities). This will ensure:

o   Increased accuracy of security audits

o   Detection of more vulnerabilities

o   Decreased costs

o   Save time

Penetration testing for your web application is important. Identify and safeguard your web application against malicious activity by signing up for one of the best advanced web application security penetration testing services by Lean Security.