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April 08, 2009

Identifying the Most Vulnerable Areas of Your Website

The increasing number of high profile attacks is solid proof that website hacking is one of the biggest threats facing any organization doing business online.  By manipulating a web server or application, a hacker can break into your website and gain complete access to your sensitive data stored on the back-end.  This can occur even if you have implemented a sophisticated firewall or your web applications and operating system are up to date with the latest patches.

Hackers these days are very determined and armed with the tools needed to access sensitive data through a variety of vulnerable entry points on your network.  Because so many critical areas are involved, you may be curious to know just which elements of your network infrastructure are the most susceptible to attack.  Hackers are able to enter a website in numerous ways, but the components they target the most are the operating system, web server, server-side scripting engine and database server.

The OS

One of the most simple, yet effective exploits hackers employ is checking to see whether the underlying operating system was installed with its default parameters intact.  If they are not changed by the system administrator, the OS is left open to an attack, even if no security flaws or vulnerabilities currently exist.  Many operating systems, Windows in particular, have been exploited due to bugs in the software.  A knowledgeable hacker can use a vulnerable OS to transmit sensitive data to third-party sources or perform actions that compromise the security of the sever or the data it stores.  This is typically the disabling of security settings that essentially leave the gates to a network wide open.

The Web Server

Web server applications run services that listen for and respond to requests made by users through their web browsers.  Apache and Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Service) are the most widely used programs and both have their weaknesses.  Flaws and vulnerabilities in a web server application could allow an unauthorized user to gain remote access to the operating system with enhanced privileges that exceed that of the normal browser request.

The Server-side Technologies

When dynamic web pages are involved, a web server requires a server-side scripting engine provided by programming languages like ASP, ASP.NET or PHP.   These scripts are the biggest culprit of website vulnerability as most hackers use applications to gain entrance.  Some websites are making use of older server-side scripting engines, technologies that have already proven to be vulnerable.  When this is the case, hackers can embed malicious scripts, manipulate variables or use other exploits to access sensitive data.

The Database Server

Many simple activities such as signing into a website, subscribing to a newsletter or purchasing an item all call for data to be stored in a back-end database.  Database servers like MySQL and SQL Server are commonly targeted on many different levels.  Most modern database systems can be accessed via specific TCP ports and anyone can interact directly with a database when bypassing security mechanisms used by the OS.  Because these ports are left open to enable communication with legitimate traffic, databases will always be one of the biggest vulnerabilities in regard to website security.

Conclusion

With all these vulnerable components, you might wonder if achieving adequate website security is even possible.  Although attacks are sure to become more sophisticated, you can better ensure the protection of your website data by making yourself aware of its vulnerabilities and taking the time to properly address them.

Tags: website attacks,  TCP ports,  server-side scripting,  IIS,  hackers,  hacker,  firewall,  apache