Dana Epp's ramblings at the Sanctuary: The 80/20 Rule for Web Application Security


« PHP Security Consortium \| Main \| When security fails to be effective... » January 31, 2005 The 80/20 Rule for Web Application Security The Web Application Security Consortium has released a guest article written by Jeremiah Grossman (CTO of WhiteHat Security) on "The 80/20 Rule for Web Application Security: Increase your security without touching the source code". In this article Jeremiah discusses ways to make your website more difficult to exploit with little effort. It's a short, but interesting read. His basic points include: Supress information in default server error messages to prevent information disclosure. Give to much info, and an attacker will use it against you! Remove or protect hidden files and directories. (in the face of the Google Hacking books and stuff.. this has never been more important) Use web server security add-ons like IIS Lockdown, URL Scan, mod_security, and SecureIIS. This should be a no brainer. Add httpOnly flag to sensitive cookies to reduce the risk of cross scripting attacks (only works on IE currently) All good points, and easy to do. If you work on web apps, you should take a moment to read this article. Posted by SilverStr at January 31, 2005 10:34 AM \| TrackBack		My 5 Favorite Books Writing Secure Code Secure Programming Cookbook Security Engineering Secure Coding Principles & Practice Inside the Security Mind My 5 Favorite Papers Smashing the Stack Penetration Studies Covert Channel Analysis of Trusted Systems DoD Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria NSA Security Recommendation Guides Archives June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 GeoURL

January 31, 2005

The 80/20 Rule for Web Application Security