Among the tests you perform on web applications, security testing is perhaps the most important, yet it's often the most neglected. The recipes in the Web Security Testing Cookbook demonstrate how developers and testers can check for the most common web security issues, while conducting unit tests, regression tests, or exploratory tests. Unlike ad hoc security assessments, these recipes are repeatable, concise, and systematic-perfect for integrating into your regular test suite.



Recipes cover the basics from observing messages between clients and servers to multi-phase tests that script the login and execution of web application features. By the end of the book, you'll be able to build tests pinpointed at Ajax functions, as well as large multi-step tests for the usual suspects: cross-site scripting and injection attacks. This book helps you:

* Obtain, install, and configure useful-and free-security testing tools

* Understand how your application communicates with users, so you can better simulate attacks in your tests

* Choose from many different methods that simulate common attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and manipulating hidden form fields

* Make your tests repeatable by using the scripts and examples in the recipes as starting points for automated tests



Don't live in dread of the midnight phone call telling you that your site has been hacked. With Web Security Testing Cookbook and the free tools used in the book's examples, you can incorporate security coverage into your test suite, and sleep in peace.

Foreword;

Preface;

Who This Book Is For;

Leveraging Free Tools;

About the Cover;

Organization;

Conventions Used in This Book;

Using Code Examples;

Safari® Books Online;

Comments and Questions;

Acknowledgments;

Chapter 1: Introduction;

1.1 What Is Security Testing?;

1.2 What Are Web Applications?;

1.3 Web Application Fundamentals;

1.4 Web App Security Testing;

1.5 It's About the How;

Chapter 2: Installing Some Free Tools;

2.1 Installing Firefox;

2.2 Installing Firefox Extensions;

2.3 Installing Firebug;

2.4 Installing OWASP's WebScarab;

2.5 Installing Perl and Packages on Windows;

2.6 Installing Perl and Using CPAN on Linux, Unix, or OS X;

2.7 Installing CAL9000;

2.8 Installing the ViewState Decoder;

2.9 Installing cURL;

2.10 Installing Pornzilla;

2.11 Installing Cygwin;

2.12 Installing Nikto 2;

2.13 Installing Burp Suite;

2.14 Installing Apache HTTP Server;

Chapter 3: Basic Observation;

3.1 Viewing a Page's HTML Source;

3.2 Viewing the Source, Advanced;

3.3 Observing Live Request Headers with Firebug;

3.4 Observing Live Post Data with WebScarab;

3.5 Seeing Hidden Form Fields;

3.6 Observing Live Response Headers with TamperData;

3.7 Highlighting JavaScript and Comments;

3.8 Detecting JavaScript Events;

3.9 Modifying Specific Element Attributes;

3.10 Track Element Attributes Dynamically;

3.11 Conclusion;

Chapter 4: Web-Oriented Data Encoding;

4.1 Recognizing Binary Data Representations;

4.2 Working with Base 64;

4.3 Converting Base-36 Numbers in a Web Page;

4.4 Working with Base 36 in Perl;

4.5 Working with URL-Encoded Data;

4.6 Working with HTML Entity Data;

4.7 Calculating Hashes;

4.8 Recognizing Time Formats;

4.9 Encoding Time Values Programmatically;

4.10 Decoding ASP.NET's ViewState;

4.11 Decoding Multiple Encodings;

Chapter 5: Tampering with Input;

5.1 Intercepting and Modifying POST Requests;

5.2 Bypassing Input Limits;

5.3 Tampering with the URL;

5.4 Automating URL Tampering;

5.5 Testing URL-Length Handling;

5.6 Editing Cookies;

5.7 Falsifying Browser Header Information;

5.8 Uploading Files with Malicious Names;

5.9 Uploading Large Files;

5.10 Uploading Malicious XML Entity Files;

5.11 Uploading Malicious XML Structure;

5.12 Uploading Malicious ZIP Files;

5.13 Uploading Sample Virus Files;

5.14 Bypassing User-Interface Restrictions;

Chapter 6: Automated Bulk Scanning;

6.1 Spidering a Website with WebScarab;

6.2 Turning Spider Results into an Inventory;

6.3 Reducing the URLs to Test;

6.4 Using a Spreadsheet to Pare Down the List;

6.5 Mirroring a Website with LWP;

6.6 Mirroring a Website with wget;

6.7 Mirroring a Specific Inventory with wget;

6.8 Scanning a Website with Nikto;

6.9 Interpretting Nikto's Results;

6.10 Scan an HTTPS Site with Nikto;

6.11 Using Nikto with Authentication;

6.12 Start Nikto at a Specific Starting Point;

6.13 Using a Specific Session Cookie with Nikto;

6.14 Testing Web Services with WSFuzzer;

6.15 Interpreting WSFuzzer's Results;

Chapter 7: Automating Specific Tasks with cURL;

7.1 Fetching a Page with cURL;

7.2 Fetching Many Variations on a URL;

7.3 Following Redirects Automatically;

7.4 Checking for Cross-Site Scripting with cURL;

7.5 Checking for Directory Traversal with cURL;

7.6 Impersonating a Specific Kind of Web Browser or Device;

7.7 Interactively Impersonating Another Device;

7.8 Imitating a Search Engine with cURL;

7.9 Faking Workflow by Forging Referer Headers;

7.10 Fetching Only the HTTP Headers;

7.11 POSTing with cURL;

7.12 Maintaining Session State;

7.13 Manipulating Cookies;

7.14 Uploading a File with cURL;

7.15 Building a Multistage Test Case;

7.16 Conclusion;

Chapter 8: Automating with LibWWWPerl;

8.1 Writing a Basic Perl Script to Fetch a Page;

8.2 Programmatically Changing Parameters;

8.3 Simulating Form Input with POST;

8.4 Capturing and Storing Cookies;

8.5 Checking Session Expiration;

8.6 Testing Session Fixation;

8.7 Sending Malicious Cookie Values;

8.8 Uploading Malicious File Contents;

8.9 Uploading Files with Malicious Names;

8.10 Uploading Viruses to Applications;

8.11 Parsing for a Received Value with Perl;

8.12 Editing a Page Programmatically;

8.13 Using Threading for Performance;

Chapter 9: Seeking Design Flaws;

9.1 Bypassing Required Navigation;

9.2 Attempting Privileged Operations;

9.3 Abusing Password Recovery;

9.4 Abusing Predictable Identifiers;

9.5 Predicting Credentials;

9.6 Finding Random Numbers in Your Application;

9.7 Testing Random Numbers;

9.8 Abusing Repeatability;

9.9 Abusing High-Load Actions;

9.10 Abusing Restrictive Functionality;

9.11 Abusing Race Conditions;

Chapter 10: Attacking AJAX;

10.1 Observing Live AJAX Requests;

10.2 Identifying JavaScript in Applications;

10.3 Tracing AJAX Activity Back to Its Source;

10.4 Intercepting and Modifying AJAX Requests;

10.5 Intercepting and Modifying Server Responses;

10.6 Subverting AJAX with Injected Data;

10.7 Subverting AJAX with Injected XML;

10.8 Subverting AJAX with Injected JSON;

10.9 Disrupting Client State;

10.10 Checking for Cross-Domain Access;

10.11 Reading Private Data via JSON Hijacking;

Chapter 11: Manipulating Sessions;

11.1 Finding Session Identifiers in Cookies;

11.2 Finding Session Identifiers in Requests;

11.3 Finding Authorization Headers;

11.4 Analyzing Session ID Expiration;

11.5 Analyzing Session Identifiers with Burp;

11.6 Analyzing Session Randomness with WebScarab;

11.7 Changing Sessions to Evade Restrictions;

11.8 Impersonating Another User;

11.9 Fixing Sessions;

11.10 Testing for Cross-Site Request Forgery;

Chapter 12: Multifaceted Tests;

12.1 Stealing Cookies Using XSS;

12.2 Creating Overlays Using XSS;

12.3 Making HTTP Requests Using XSS;

12.4 Attempting DOM-Based XSS Interactively;

12.5 Bypassing Field Length Restrictions (XSS);

12.6 Attempting Cross-Site Tracing Interactively;

12.7 Modifying Host Headers;

12.8 Brute-Force Guessing Usernames and Passwords;

12.9 Attempting PHP Include File Injection Interactively;

12.10 Creating Decompression Bombs;

12.11 Attempting Command Injection Interactively;

12.12 Attempting Command Injection Systematically;

12.13 Attempting XPath Injection Interactively;

12.14 Attempting Server-Side Includes (SSI) Injection Interactively;

12.15 Attempting Server-Side Includes (SSI) Injection Systematically;

12.16 Attempting LDAP Injection Interactively;

12.17 Attempting Log Injection Interactively;

Colophon;