Security testing Java Web applications

Your Web application written in Java is tested functionally, so you are done, right? But did you consider feeding in incorrect values? 16Gbs of data? A null? An apostrophe? Negative numbers, or specifically -1 or -231? Because that’s what the bad guys will do – and the list is far from complete. Testing for security needs a remarkable software security expertise and a healthy level of paranoia, and this is what this course provides: a strong emotional engagement by lots of hands on labs and stories from real life. The curriculum goes through the common Web application security issues following the OWASP Top Ten but goes far beyond it both in coverage and the details.A special focus is given to finding all discussed issues during testing, and an overview is provided on security testing methodology, techniques and tools. So that you are prepared for the forces of the dark side. So that nothing unexpected happens. Nothing.

«I liked the way the course was tailored. Firstly the exercises show us how far the bad guys can attack, then secondly it teaches how to fix them.» Pon Marimuthu Selvaraj, Elhub

Outline:

  • Cyber security basics
  • The OWASP Top Ten
  • Security testing
  • Common software security weaknesses
  • Wrap up

Objective list:

  • Getting familiar with essential cyber security concepts
  • Understanding Web application security issues
  • Detailed analysis of the OWASP Top Ten elements
  • Putting Web application security in the context of Java
  • Going beyond the low hanging fruits
  • Understanding security testing methodology and approaches
  • Getting familiar with common security testing techniques and tools
  • Managing vulnerabilities in third party components
  • Identify vulnerabilities and their consequences
  • Learn the security best practices in Java
  • Input validation approaches and principles

Audience:

Java developers and testers working on Web applications

Prerequisites:

General Java and Web development, testing and QA

Course outline:

Cyber security basics

The OWASP Top Ten

 

  • A1 – Injection
    • Injection principles
    • Injection attacks
    • SQL injection
      • SQL injection basics
      • Lab – SQL injection
      • Attack techniques
      • Content-based blind SQL injection
      • Time-based blind SQL injection
    • SQL injection best practices
      • Input validation
      • Parameterized queries
      • Additional considerations
      • Lab – Using prepared statements
      • Case study – Hacking Fortnite accounts
      • Testing for SQL injection
    • Code injection
      • OS command injection
        • OS command injection best practices
        • Using Runtime.exec()
        • Using ProcessBuilder
        • Case study – Shellshock
        • Lab – Shellshock
        • Case study – Command injection via ping
        • Testing for command injection
      • Script injection
    • General protection best practices

 

  • A2 – Broken Authentication
    • Authentication basics
    • Multi-factor authentication
    • Authentication weaknesses – spoofing
    • Spoofing on the Web
    • Testing for weak authentication
    • Case study – PayPal 2FA bypass
    • Password management
      • Inbound password management
        • Storing account passwords
        • Password in transit
        • Lab – Is just hashing passwords enough?
        • Dictionary attacks and brute forcing
        • Salting
        • Adaptive hash functions for password storage
        • Password policy
        • Case study – The Ashley Madison data breach
          • The dictionary attack
          • The ultimate crack
          • Exploitation and the lessons learned
        • Password database migration
          • (Mis)handling null passwords
          • Testing for password management issues

Security testing

  • Security testing vs functional testing
  • Manual and automated methods
  • Security testing methodology
    • Security testing – goals and methodologies
    • Overview of security testing processes
    • Identifying and rating assets
      • Preparation
      • Identifying assets
      • Identifying the attack surface
      • Assigning security requirements
      • Lab – Identifying and rating assets
    • Threat modeling
      • SDL threat modeling
      • Mapping STRIDE to DFD
      • DFD example
      • Attack trees
      • Attack tree example
      • Lab – Crafting an attack tree
      • Misuse cases
      • Misuse case examples
      • Risk analysis
      • Lab – Risk analysis
    • Security testing approaches
      • Reporting, recommendations, and review

The OWASP Top Ten

  • A3 – Sensitive Data Exposure
    • Information exposure
    • Exposure through extracted data and aggregation
    • Case study – Strava data exposure

 

  • A4 – XML External Entities (XXE)
    • DTD and the entities
    • Entity expansion
    • External Entity Attack (XXE)
      • File inclusion with external entities
      • Server-Side Request Forgery with external entities
      • Lab – External entity attack
      • Case study – XXE vulnerability in SAP Store
      • Preventing XXE
      • Lab – Prohibiting DTD expansion

 

  • A5 – Broken Access Control
    • Access control basics
    • Failure to restrict URL access
    • Testing for authorization issues
    • Confused deputy
      • Insecure direct object reference (IDOR)
      • Lab – Insecure Direct Object Reference
      • Authorization bypass through user-controlled keys
      • Case study – Authorization bypass on Facebook
      • Lab – Horizontal authorization
      • Testing for confused deputy weaknesses
    • File upload
      • Unrestricted file upload
      • Good practices
      • Lab – Unrestricted file upload
      • Testing for file upload vulnerabilities

 

  • A6 – Security Misconfiguration
    • Configuration principles
    • Configuration management
    • Java related components – best practices
      • Testing for misconfiguration issues

 

  • A7 – Cross-site Scripting (XSS)
    • Cross-site scripting basics
    • Cross-site scripting types
      • Persistent cross-site scripting
      • Reflected cross-site scripting
      • Client-side (DOM-based) cross-site scripting
      • Lab – Stored XSS
      • Lab – Reflected XSS
      • Case study – XSS in Fortnite accounts
    • XSS protection best practices
      • Protection principles – escaping
      • XSS protection APIs in Java
      • XSS protection in JSP
      • Lab – XSS fix / stored
      • Lab – XSS fix / reflected
      • Additional protection layers
      • Client-side protection principles
      • Testing for XSS

The OWASP Top Ten

  • A8 – Insecure Deserialization
    • Serialization and deserialization challenges
    • Deserializing untrusted streams
    • Deserialization best practices
    • Using ReadObject
    • Sealed objects
    • Look ahead deserialization
    • Testing for insecure deserialization
    • Property Oriented Programming (POP)
      • Creating payload
      • POP best practices
      • Lab – Creating a POP payload
      • Lab – Using the POP payload

 

  • A9 – Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities
    • Using vulnerable components
    • Untrusted functionality import
    • Importing JavaScript
    • Lab – Importing JavaScript
    • Case study – The British Airways data breach
    • Vulnerability management
      • Patch management
      • Vulnerability databases
      • Lab – Finding vulnerabilities in third-party components
      • DevOps, the build process and CI / CD
      • Dependency checking in Java
      • Lab – Detecting vulnerable components

 

  • A10 – Insufficient Logging & Monitoring
    • Logging and monitoring principles
    • Insufficient logging
    • Plaintext passwords at Facebook
    • Logging best practices
    • OWASP security logging library for Java
  • Web application security beyond the Top Ten
    • Client-side security
    • Tabnabbing
    • Lab – Reverse tabnabbing
    • Frame sandboxing
      • Cross-Frame Scripting (XFS) attack
      • Lab – Clickjacking
      • Clickjacking beyond hijacking a click
      • Clickjacking protection best practices
      • Lab – Using CSP to prevent clickjacking

Security testing

  • Security testing techniques and tools
    • Code analysis
      • Security aspects of code review
      • Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
      • Lab – Using static analysis tools
    • Dynamic analysis
      • Security testing at runtime
      • Penetration testing
      • Stress testing
      • Dynamic analysis tools
        • Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
        • Web vulnerability scanners
        • Lab – Using web vulnerability scanners
        • SQL injection tools
        • Proxy servers
      • Fuzzing

Common software security weaknesses

  • Input validation
    • Input validation principles
      • Blacklists and whitelists
      • Data validation techniques
      • Lab – Input validation
      • What to validate – the attack surface
      • Where to validate – defense in depth
      • How to validate – validation vs transformations
      • Output sanitization
      • Encoding challenges
      • Lab – Encoding challenges
      • Validation with regex
    • Unsafe reflection
      • Reflection without validation
      • Lab – Unsafe reflection

Wrap up

  • Secure coding principles
    • Principles of robust programming by Matt Bishop
    • Secure design principles of Saltzer and Schröder
  • And now what?
    • Software security sources and further reading
    • Java resources
    • Security testing resources

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