Pentesting on web applications using ethical - hacking

Most people in the industrial world use a wide variety of web applications daily with the majority being insecure and vulnerable. This gives hackers the opportunity to steal data from the user’s web application, which may contain sensitive information. Vulnerability detection may be conducted by a rigorous penetration test. A penetration tester’s duty is to define and exploit the web applications’ vulnerabilities.This paper describes a technique for automatic vulnerable web application generation application. Firstly, the prepared web application is sent to the tool to create the vulnerable web application version. This tool does this by the injection of Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) and Cross Site Scripting (XSS) into the web application. Different variant vulnerabilities may be injected too, so different methods are needed, in order to exploit vulnerabilities dependent on the variant. One of the tool’s tasks is to produce web applications, which will be used to train the penetration testers.

The main issues of current web application is easily hacking the user information by unauthorized person. The development of entire web application depends on scripting languages that easily displays the user authentication code to the web browser. All code must be transferred through query string parameter (URL) of the web application. This kind of application security fails when verifying it by penetration testing which is based on XSS languages. This study overcomes the security issues by developing a web application based on cross site scripting technique which the user codes are encrypted using RSA algorithm and cookies, cross domain verification based on encrypted use code. XSS vulnerabilities come in different forms and may be categorized into two varieties: reflected and stored. Reflected is on type of attack which can be performed against applications that employ a dynamic page error message to users. Stored XSS vulnerability appears when data submitted by one user is store in the application or in the back-end database. The user cookies of the web browser store only the encrypted key values. These techniques applied in Enterprise web application it support multiple organization for processing product purchase order, sales order and invoice details.

In current information era, every small-scale industry, MNC's, Schools, and Colleges utilise Web Applications to promote their organizations and provide services to society. Web Applications have become a simple and vital medium for communicating with society. This leads to an increase in website utilization. Threats and cyber-attacks are increasing according to the rate of growth of Web Applications. Any organization must ensure the privacy and security of its users' data in order to maintain the company's and users' integrity. Web application vulnerabilities represent major security risks, making it critical to conduct extensive assessments and penetration testing to discover and remediate such flaws. The paper provides a complete overview of web application vulnerability assessment and penetration testing, emphasizing the need of proactive security measures in protecting sensitive data and preserving application integrity. This study aims to identify and categorize web application vulnerabilities (OWASPs) that may compromise the security of the application and result in user data breaches. The primary focus of this project is the security and privacy of user data. Integrating security practices into the software development life cycle through investigating real-world case studies and industry standards. Ultimately, our research adds to the growing body of knowledge in web application security, assisting organizations in creating resilient defenses against cyber threats.

The biggest challenge of Web application is the inestimable losses arising from security flaws. Two approaches were advanced by a number of scholars to provide security to Web space. One of such approach is vulnerability assessment, which is a conscious effort to isolate, identify and recognize potentials vulnerabilities exploited by attackers. The second being the estimation and determination of level of risks/threats posed to Web applications by vulnerabilities obvious to the developer (or tester); this is generally referred to as penetration testing. Recently, there is Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) that combined these two schemes to improve safety and effectively combat the menace of attackers on Web applications. This paper proposed Fuzzy Classifier-based Vulnerability and Assessment Testing (FCVAPT) model to provide security for sensitive data/information in Web applications. Cross Site Scripting (XSS) and Structured Query Language (SQL) injections were selected for evaluation of proposed FCVAPT model. FCVAPT model’s classification performance for MSE, MAPE and RMSE were 33.33, 14.81% and 5.77% respectively. FCVAPT is considerably effective for detecting vulnerability and ascertaining the nature of threats/risks available to Web applications.

The relevance of the program is to implement the client part with a chatbot, which makes the interface simple for the client and helps the administrator to obtain detailed statistics of client actions for further analysis. The intelligent e-commerce information system of the clothing brand uses a database and filters information that meets the user's request. The task of the project is to develop a software product that implements an algorithm that will allow you to select products and add them to the shopping cart. The software product consists of a chatbot and a web application. The chatbot is designed for customers and helps to view available products, select the required number of products and add these products to the cart, also provides an opportunity to view a list of all products in the cart. The web application is designed for the administrator, and allows you to edit content, track customer activity and view the shopping cart. During the completion of this thesis, development and research were conducted, as well as the implementation of a chatbot and a web application that provides information support in e-commerce of the clothing brand. The theoretical concepts of intelligent information system and e-commerce in general are studied and certain aspects that are essential for the topic of qualification work are described in more detail. Information on the basic parameters of the intelligent information system of e-commerce of the clothing brand is given, the analysis of classification and features of analogues is carried out. A comparative analysis of all existing software options to solve the problem and selected the most effective. The implementation of the information system used a functional approach in combination with object-oriented. JavaScript programming language and a number of closely related frameworks have been chosen for development. As a result of the last section, an intelligent information system for e-commerce of the clothing brand was created. The designed structure of the program, database was analyzed and the server part of the system was created. The main functions of the future system, the sequence of processes and the relationships between them are identified. Also analyzed and selected system and software tools needed to implement the tasks. A ready-to-use software product was developed.

Data analysis is a data inspecting and transforming process for the purpose of making conclusions and obtaining useful information to help make a decision about disclosed forecasts. There are numerous technologies and methods for analyzing data that are mainly determined by the type of data.The paper presents models for organizing web applications' data based on the integrated use of structured data from databases of web applications and unstructured data derived from web pages and server log files. Bu studying the many existing approaches to data analysis from web applications, a summary of the process of data analysis from web applications has been made. An example of using this approach in e-commerce applications is given. The software tools that can be used to perform analyses have been pointed out.

Every organization has implemented cybersecurity for network security. Both web applications and organizations’ network security should be free from complex vulnerabilities. It refers to the security flaws in the network or weakness in the web applications. By using the exploits available, the hacker could attack our target system to steal confidential data. So, to secure the security of networks the most common and major technique used is ethical hacking. It comprises complex levels of vulnerability assessment and performing penetration testing by using the identified exploits. In this research paper, I have demonstrated and analyzed the methodologies through which the pen tester accesses the target system, identifying exploits, attacking the target system using the identified exploit privilege escalation, and capturing the root flag to access the data. Finally, before exiting he should clear the system as before. Finally, the pen tester generates a report containing the guidelines to eliminate the security flaws and improve network security.

Imagine receiving an email from cybercriminals stating that all your personal information has been compromised— name, date of birth, home address, and finances. They are demanding money from you in exchange for not leaking your sensitive information. It's a terrifying situation to be in, isn't it? We adopt an NIDS-based approach for web application penetration testing in order to resolve this issue. Web application penetration testing is an ongoing security evaluation that mimics actual attacks to evaluate how secure web applications are. The main objective is to find any possible flaws, configuration errors, or vulnerabilities that malicious users can use to jeopardize a web application's availability, confidentiality, or integrity. An NIDS is deployed to detect fraudulent activities at the network level, which can complement conventional penetration testing techniques that concentrate on flaws in the software. The goal of this research is to improve the identification of security vulnerabilities at the network and application levels by combining traditional web application penetration testing with Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS).

Internet users and its usage have grown almost exponentially during last decade. Most of the web applications contain both private(sensitive) and public information in theircorresponding database that brings the security of private information on the forefront of the challenge of this domain. Cyber criminals can attempt to stealor tamperwith private information from these insecure or vulnerable web applications by exploiting. In this paper, we have analyzed different approaches of web application security used in current practices since their development such as secure coding, Web Application firewall, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing. In addition, we have also discussed various approachesand repositories which support vulnerability assessment and penetration testing processes.

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities are significant threats to web applications. The number of XSS vulnerabilities reported has increased annually for the past three years, posing a considerable challenge to web application maintainers. Black-box scanners are mainstream tools for security engineers to perform penetration testing and detect XSS vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, black-box scanners rely on crawlers to find input points of web applications and cannot guarantee all input points are tested. To this end, we propose a grey-box fuzzing method based on reinforcement learning, which can detect reflected and stored XSS vulnerabilities for Java web applications. We first use static analysis to identify potential input points from components (i.e., Java code, configuration files, and HTML files) of the Java web application. Then, an XSS vulnerability payload generation method is proposed, which is used together with the reinforcement learning model. We define the state, action, and reward functions of three reinforcement learning models for XSS vulnerability detection scenarios so that the fuzz loop can be performed automatically. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we compare it against four state-of-the-art web scanners. Experimental results show that our method finds all XSS vulnerabilities and has no false positives.

Today, all Universities and Educational Institutions seek to achieve quality in their services. In this project, it analyzes the performance of a school management web application, taking into account “the quality of the product and the quality in use”, according to ISO 25010: 2011, in order to have the data to improve or optimize the system. A methodology for the evaluation of usability is proposed, applying two evaluation methods: the empirical method contemplates the design and application of a data collection instrument that evaluates indicators and metrics by users of the web application; and the heuristic method that discriminates and applies specific use software tools that automatically evaluates the web application. The usability evaluation in its first phase in the empirical method on the product quality model gives us a linear trend between 60% and 80%; in the second phase about the heuristic method on the quality of use with respect to accessibility, it obtained compliance values between 32% and 93%, and in speed from 71% to 99%.

The rising of technology in the 21st century grows in a way that we never thought of before. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted many organizations in different sizes, specialties, and sectors to work online, resulting in a critical need to secure their software, applications, and web-based applications. Furthermore, Organizations that do not implement security in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process often discover that their applications suffer from security flaws and security bugs, thus exposing their applications to attacks. Applying security measures to the SDLC will ensure that applications are secure from the early planning stages until release. Penetration testing is an essential security measure and is counted as one of the best security practices applied to applications because it focuses on the technical part of application security. Each kind of application the organization uses, in-house developed applications or on-the-shelf applications, has its method for penetration testing. This paper is a systematic literature review that examines the web application security measures and the penetration testing methods and tools to detect vulnerabilities on web applications. Moreover, it gives a general view of adapting penetration testing as a security approach to the SDLC.

Penetration testing is a widely used method for testing the security of web applications, but it can be inefficient if it is not done systematically. Public databases of web application vulnerabilities can be used to drive penetration testing, but testers need to understand them and interpret them into executable test cases. This requires an in-depth knowledge of security. This paper proposes a model-based testing approach using a data model that describes the relationship between web security knowledge, business domain knowledge, and test case development. The approach consists of a data model that represents the relevance between attack surface, application fingerprint, attack vectors, and fuzz vectors; a test case generator that automatically generates penetration test scenarios for web applications; and a penetration test framework supported by TTCN-3 test environment. The model-based testing approach can be used to provide structured tool support for developing penetration test campaigns. We demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the approach at the design level.

This capstone project shows the creation and implementation of a virtual environment for the use of penetration testing. This aims to identify vulnerabilities within IT in- frastructure. With a world that is heavily reliant on digital systems, the cybersecurity threats are evolving at a rapid pace which highlights the necessary measurements needed for effective security measures. This project showcases the challenges that are faced by organizations using outdated systems with unpatched vulnerabilities. This exposes them to potential data breaches and substantial financial losses as well as reputational damage.The virtual lab replicates a corporate IT infrastructure with different operating systems including windows, Linux, android as well as web application and network configurations. using both internal and external penetration testing, this is targeting vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), privilege escalation etc. Tools like SQLMap, Metasploit and others are used to simulate real-world attack scenarios. Each one thoroughly documented, a detailed analysis will provide insight into potential exploitation and mitigation strategies.The outcome of this project will include identifying critical security flaws and offering recommendations to enhance security. In addition, this project gives an educational standpoint onto showcasing the value of pen testing, or ethical hacking in the practices of today’s cyber security. These findings showcase how the need for penetration testing will give organizations a framework to protect against threats effectively.For future work, this will involve expanding the lab for more modern threats as they are evolving, as well as introducing more automated penetration testing processes to ease the workload and to keep up with the expanding of IoT’s, In addition this project contributes to the broader field of cybersecurity by giving a more clear understanding Aswell as implementation of practical security measures in the world, specifically IT environments.

SQL injection is one amongst the most dangerous vulnerabilities for Web applications, and it is becoming a frequent cause of attacks as many systems are migrating towards the Web. This paper proposes an approach and a tool-named V1p3R (viper) for Web application penetration testing. The approach is based on pattern matching of error messages and on outputs produced by the application under test, and relies upon an extensible knowledge base consisting in a large set of templates.Results of an empirical study carried out on 12 real Web applications and aimed at comparing V1p3R with SQLMap showed the higher performances of the proposed approach with respect to the existing state-of-the-practice.