Website security tester
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Website Security Considerations - An Evaluation
Alas, there are a lot of ways in which web site security can be jeopardized. Security hazards lurk insidiously which might impinge on Web servers and LANs (local area networks) where Web sites reside, even by the customary use of a Web browser.
Web Masters are in the front line when coping with the major challenges. As soon as a Web server is installed at a site, a porthole is fabricated in the local area network through which anyone on the Internet can peep. Of course, as a rule website visitors look at no more than what they are meant to look at, but a minority try to find areas of the site that aren't intended to be visible to the general public. Pernicious visitors want to go further than just look; they try to unlock the window and creep inside. The damage intruders could inflict might be mere vandalism, such as substituting the website's home page with one of theirs which might say or show anything, or else it might be larceny, such as gaining possession of a contacts or sales database.
It is hard to elude the likelihood that complicated computer software contains bugs. Regardless of how painstakingly it's tested, there will be typically a particular pattern of events or user actions, though it might transpire hardly ever, which leads to a failure. Software bugs cause gaps in system security. A Web server is involved software which can quite easily include a security defect.
It is not just the intricacy of a Web server which can produce a glitch, but also its open architecture. Consider a CGI script as an example. A CGI script can be processed at the server in answer to a remote call from a client. This might be a request from a program or even the click of a button in a browser. If the CGI script has a bug, there could be a possibility of a security violation.
Network Administrators also have to handle problems from Web servers because of the threat they pose to the security of the local area network. Though there must be no unauthorized intrusions, admittance has to be granted to website visitors. This means that access to the network has to be controlled. The Administrator therefore needs to perform a delicate balancing act. Even the most robust firewall may be undermined if the Web server is configured badly. Concomitant with this constraint, normal use of the web site can be impossible if the firewall is configured poorly. Finding an ideal solution is still more difficult if an intranet forms a constituent of the system. Usually, the Web server in that case needs to be configured to identify and authenticate domains and user groups, which are apt to have varying permission levels and access rights.
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Almost everyone using a browser to surf the Web think that they are doing it namelessly and safely. This is not correct. Web browsers may run autonomous software programs on the user's computer which are hosted by a website. Current browsers show a caution and ask consent to execute these kinds of programs. Known generally as "active content", e.g., ActiveX controls or Java applets, these programs, if malicious, could easily inject a virus or other hazardous software on the browser user's PC. After it is in the system it can wreak all kinds of catastrophe and may be very problematical to eradicate.
This is also a concern for Network Administrators. Web browsers make available a path for potentially malicious software to permeate all the way through the local area network's firewall. Once it is in the network, the damage it is able to cause can range from stealthily stealing sensitive data to motiveless carnage.
Besides the problems regarding active content, merely browsing the Internet leaves a trail of the user's activities in the browser's history. This could be utilized by websites and installed software to determine a precise report of the user's behaviour and preferences. Whereas this may be unacceptable as an invasion of privacy by some people, it can be useful by showing related subject matter right away, so exonerating the user of the chore of searching for it.
Privacy is a problem which concerns not only browser users but also Web Masters and Network Administrators for the duration of the actual transmission of data by means of the Web. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the fundamental language of communication for the Internet. When it was created, security was not the principal factor of its blueprint. Both network and Internet transmissions should therefore not be considered as automatically confidential. Every time the browser on a local computer downloads a sensitive file from the remote Web server, or the browser user completes a form with personal data and clicks the 'Submit' button, the transmitted data may be intercepted without consent.
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