Web Application Security Hub
A structured collection of resources for mastering web application security concepts, tools, and best practices.
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Understanding the core concepts and common threats in web application security.
What is Web Application Security? The practice of protecting websites, web applications, and web services against different security threats that exploit vulnerabilities in an application's code.
Core Concepts
- Authentication & Authorization: Verifying user identity and controlling access to resources.
- Input Validation: Properly validating and sanitizing all user-supplied input to prevent injection attacks.
- Session Management: Securely handling user sessions to prevent hijacking.
- Secure APIs: Protecting Application Programming Interfaces from abuse and unauthorized access.
- Web Application Architecture: Understanding the components (frontend, backend, database, APIs) and how they interact.
- Threat Modeling & Risk Assessment: Identifying potential threats and vulnerabilities early in the development lifecycle.
- Common Vulnerabilities: Familiarity with frequent flaws like Injection (SQLi, Command), Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), etc. (See OWASP Top 10).
Leveraging the essential standards, tools, and documentation from the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP).
OWASP Top 10 Web Application Security Risks
A standard awareness document representing a broad consensus about the most critical security risks to web applications.
- A01: Broken Access Control
- A02: Cryptographic Failures (formerly Sensitive Data Exposure)
- A03: Injection (includes XSS)
- A04: Insecure Design
- A05: Security Misconfiguration
- A06: Vulnerable and Outdated Components
- A07: Identification and Authentication Failures (formerly Broken Authentication)
- A08: Software and Data Integrity Failures (includes Insecure Deserialization)
- A09: Security Logging and Monitoring Failures
- A10: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
Key OWASP Projects
Cheat Sheet Series
A collection of concise cheat sheets on specific security topics for developers and security practitioners.
OWASP ZAP
One of the world’s most popular free web security tools. An integrated penetration testing tool for finding vulnerabilities.
Dependency-Check
SCA tool that attempts to detect publicly disclosed vulnerabilities contained within a project's dependencies.
Hands-on practice is essential for mastering web application security concepts and tools.
Vulnerable Web Applications (Installable)
- DVWA: PHP/MySQL web application that is damn vulnerable.
- bWAPP: An extremely buggy web app for learning security testing, covering OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities.
- WebGoat: A deliberately insecure application maintained by OWASP designed to teach web application security lessons.
- Juice Shop: Probably the most modern and sophisticated insecure web application, great for training and CTFs.
Online Labs & Platforms
- PortSwigger Web Security Academy: Free, online web security training from the creators of Burp Suite. Excellent quality labs.
- Hack The Box: Offers numerous web challenges of varying difficulty within its platform.
- TryHackMe: Features learning paths and rooms dedicated to web fundamentals and web security vulnerabilities.
- VulnHub: Provides many downloadable vulnerable virtual machines, often with web application components to attack.
Key tools for discovering and mitigating vulnerabilities in web applications through static and dynamic analysis.
Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
Analyzes source code, bytecode, or binary code for security vulnerabilities without executing the application.
SonarQube
Open source platform for continuous inspection of code quality to perform automatic reviews with static analysis of code to detect bugs, code smells, and security vulnerabilities.
Checkmarx
Commercial SAST solution providing comprehensive static code analysis to identify security flaws early in the SDLC.
Semgrep
Lightweight, open-source static analysis tool for finding bugs and enforcing code standards.
Visit SiteDynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
Tests the application during runtime by executing it and examining its responses to identify vulnerabilities.
OWASP ZAP
Popular free, open-source web security scanner and intercepting proxy for finding vulnerabilities during runtime.
Burp Suite
Industry-leading toolkit for web application security testing, including powerful DAST scanning and proxy capabilities (Free & Pro versions).
Influential books covering web application security concepts, testing, and defense.
Web App Sec: Beginner's Guide
Placeholder for a recommended beginner-level book on web application security concepts.
Real-World Bug Hunting
A practical guide to finding web security vulnerabilities as done by bug bounty hunters.
Black Hat Python
Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters. Covers creating tools for various offensive tasks, including web-related ones.
Web App Hacker's Handbook
Classic, comprehensive guide to web app security testing (Note: Getting older but fundamentals remain).
Industry certifications relevant to Web Application Security professionals.
CompTIA Security+
Validates baseline skills necessary to perform core security functions and pursue an IT security career. Covers web concepts broadly.
GIAC GWAPT
Validates ability to better secure organizations through penetration testing and understanding of web application security issues.
Offensive Security OSWE
Advanced web application security certification focusing on white box penetration testing and code review.
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