Developing Secure Web Applications

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I. INTRODUCTION
A web application is an application that uses an internet browser as the client. Examples include Gmail, Amazon, Facebook, LinkedInetc etc. Web applications are popular due to the commonality of web browsers allowing for relatively simple distribution and updates. Essentially, a web application can be run on any device with a web browser. However, the universality of the web browser poses a threat to the security of web applications. In 2013, 33% of disclosures were due to web application vulnerabilities [1]. The most common risks to web application security include cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, broken authentication and session management and security misconfiguration [2]. There are many challenges to developing a secure web application, and often security is not a top priority during development. In addition, the ubiquity of the web browser as a client and the relative convenience of web application development can attract less experienced developers. However, there are a best practices that can guard against some of the most common security threats. The following guidelines ...should be followed??

II. AUTHENTICATION
Authentication commonly involves a login screen requesting a username and password to determine if the user is who he or she claims to be. An attack on authentication could involve repeatedly attempting to login by guessing common passwords. A defense against this type of attack is to lock out the user after a given number of failed attempts. Additionally, if an account is locked due to failed logins, a notification should be sent to a system administrator [3]. Passwords and ideally usernames as well, should be sufficiently difficult to guess. The application should enforce ...

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... sent to an error log. It is recommended for error messages to contain an error log ID that can matched the message in the logs [11].

Works Cited

1. https://www.whitehatsec.com/resource/stats.html

1. IBM Corporation. "IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Quarterly
1Q 2014". Somers, NY. 2014. http://www-03.ibm.com/security/xforce/

2. https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Top_10_2013-Table_of_Contents

3. http://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/securecode/security-checklist-web-application-design-1389

4. http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-132/nist-sp800-132.pdf

5. https://www.owasp.org https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Authentication_Cheat_Sheet 6 http://www.sans.org/security-resources/policies/Password_Policy.pdf

7 textbook mark stamp

8 https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Guide_to_Authorization

9 http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/capabilityIntro/capacl.html

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