10 Top Web Application Vulnerabilities and How to Prevent Them

In all the exhilaration and enthusiasm of designing, developing, and deploying your web apps, is there anything you forgot? Yes, the security of web applications. In today’s digitally advanced world where web apps are making their huge space day by day, with this, crimes related to cyberspace are also increasing day by day just because of web application vulnerabilities.

Most of the hackers keep their vigilant eye on the web applications and hack easily whenever they get a chance because web application hacking is quite easy as compared to hack other things online. If you are the one who recently launched a web application or in the process of launching then you do not need to worry because, in this blog post, you will find the most common web application vulnerabilities and the best possible solutions to prevent them.

10 Most Critical Web Application Vulnerabilities

If there is a flaw in web application design or web server not configured properly or not validating/sanitizing form inputs then there is a huge change of web application vulnerabilities. These could be effortlessly arranged based on their detectability, exploitability, and effect on the software. So, here is a complete list of some of the most common but very critical web application vulnerabilities:

#1. Injection

An injection is a procedure when any data, that is unfiltered or untrusted, can easily penetrates a server or browser as a chunk of a query. Injections could be of dissimilar types: SQL, NoSQL, LDAP, OS, etc. Though, SQL queries are the most general target of mal-intent. By sharing unfiltered data via the SQL query, hackers get easy access to significant application data. As a consequence, they can execute administration operations, access user private data or info, credit cards, passwords, and others.

#2. Insecure Deserialization

Frequently resulting in remote code performance, deserialization flaws permit cybercriminals to execute several types of attacks comprising injection attacks, privilege escalation outbreaks, and replay bouts.

#3. XML External Entities (XXE)

Cyberspace hackers can exploit not properly configured XML processors just to access private data, inject extra data, make remote tunnels, and perform applications. This susceptibility can effortlessly direct to Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), disowning of service attacks, and remote code implementation.

#4. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

This susceptibility happens when untrusted data is encompassed in a website page without authentication. It injects malevolent code into the web app and performs it on the customer side. It facilitates cyberspace hackers to perform scripts in a user’s browser to attack user sessions, redirect the user to malevolent sites, or ruin internet sites.

#5. Insufficient Monitoring and Logging

Insufficient logging and monitoring let cyberspace hackers stay unnoticed even though attempting to attain their destructive objectives. This susceptibility is the most general factor why companies, either start-ups or big organizations, can’t easily fix data breaches. What is more, insufficient logging and monitoring might affect further diffusions into the system and gigantic losses.

#6. Sensitive Data Exposure

Sensitive data can effortlessly be negotiated if distinct safety measures are not taken when swapped with the browser or some additional safety, like encryption at rest or in transit, is not properly executed. Several online apps are incompetent to shield sensitive data appropriately, which permits cyberspace hackers to steal or change it, resulting in credit/debit card scams, identity theft, and other related crimes.

#7. Use of Components with Known Vulnerabilities

The struggle of detection susceptibilities lies in the difficulty of the online application. Advanced and latest online app development relies much on so many frameworks, libraries, APIs, and others which, in their turn, comprise other important factors that can become a target for the cyberspace hacker attack as well as the application itself.

#8. Security Misconfiguration

Calculated amongst the most dangerous online app safety susceptibilities, it provides attackers a quite simple method into your internet site. Cyberspace hackers can easily exploit unsafe default configurations, effortlessly open cloud storage, unfinished or ad hoc configurations, verbose blunder messages with sensitive data, and misconfigured HTTP headers. Moreover, all operating systems, apps, frameworks, and libraries could be vulnerable to safety misconfigurations.

#9. Broken Access Control

Broken access control is a kind of online app vulnerability when users can perform some actions, they must not have access to. Also, developers with nasty purposes can use it to link to other user accounts, modify data/info inside them, see sensitive data, and, in the worst-case scenario, take complete control over the web application. Furthermore, access control vulnerabilities generally stem from bad functional testing and the absence of automated uncovering.

#10. Broken Authentication

This usually happens when web app works related to session and verification management are executed imperfectly. It permits online hackers to not merely effortlessly compromise keys, session tokens, or passwords but also take up the identities of other users for the time being or forever.

How To Prevent Web Application Vulnerabilities?

Most of the companies that usually do not appropriately safe their online apps are more vulnerable to malevolent attacks, consequential in data/info theft, cancelled licenses, spoiled client relationships, and legal proceedings. There are so many below-mentioned measures can easily take you for safety your online apps:

#1. Cryptography

Try to protect all information transmissions, encrypt precise data, check for randomness mistakes, and evade using poor algorithms.

#2. Permission

Thoroughly check and test your online app for path traversals, lost approval, insecure, direct object references, and horizontal as well as vertical access control problems.

#3. Information collecting

Organize 3rd-party hosted content and try to properly evaluate the application physically just to recognize client-side codes as well as entry points.

#4. Disavowal of service

For enhancing your online application’s resilience against disavowal of service threats, try to thoroughly check for account lockout, anti-automation, SQL wildcard DoS, and HTTP protocol DoS. Always use an amalgamation of scalable resources as well as filtering solutions for complete safety against maximum-volume DDoS as well as DoS attacks.

#5. Online app firewalls (WAFs)

WAFs are the best hardware and software solutions especially designed and developed to scrutinize and check incoming traffic for stopping any attack efforts. They give the unmatched method of compensating for any code purification insufficiencies.

Conclusion – The Final Words

Safety is a vital aspect of contemporary web application development. To always stay competitive in the industry, most companies have to come up with fresh and original safety solutions to confront cyberspace attackers and offer their patrons sturdy as well as secure web applications.

Though, the safety of any online application completely depends on the developers’ alertness of cyber threats as well as scheduled checking of the application activities.

Consequently, making sure that your software engineers have adequate knowledge and profound experience about the most common but critical web application vulnerabilities will facilitate you to secure your web application and develop the best company image.

I hope you enjoyed reading the article over web application vulnerabilities and how you can prevent them. Do like or comment if you have really liked it.