07 May, 2014

Ways to enhance security of Java web applications

Through web applications, end users are provided with client access for server functionality. Mostly the applications enforce intuitive, simple security policies. However, despite that recently there have been a number of attacks on them like cookie theft, cross-site scripting, browser hijacking, session riding, etc. So it is high time that we rethink the security strategy of web applications and enhance it so that it becomes harder for security breaches to take place.

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Input validation- This ensures that whatever data is entered by the users or has been derived as input from applications is without any security hazards and clean. This is a very critically secure coding practice which should be implemented. The design of web applications aims to perform functions or set of functions according to user input. Generally those who attack are also users and commonly the applications used by them do not validate input since they enter arbitrary inputs to successfully perform attacks. Malicious file execution may also result due to lack of input validation. So applications should have inherent capability to validate input for protection against attacks.

Defence in depth- This defence strategy for computer systems aims towards building multiple protection layers so that possible attackers may be isolated from whatever you need to protect. To make this system more secure the approach should be combination of factors that can hinder the accessing attacker from the target; the goal should be made costly so that it proves to be unworthy for him.

Mechanism economy- This principle is a very important one and is often known as Keep It Simple, Stupid or KISS in short. This is due to the fact that architects as well as developers keep this in mind when building solutions so that they are focused on the main problem. This helps in the reduction of possibilities of attackers finding ways of accessing the application which are not foreseen or tested.

Rules validation as well as data entry- These must be performed in back end always even if the validation has already been done at front end. For web applications, input validation must be performed by using JavaScript. Validating rules both on front as well as back end allows you to have an environment which you can completely control regarding what may be or may not be allowed.

Enforcing minimum privileges- Each user and each program must be operating within the minimum privileges that are needed for their capability to perform the related duties. When this principle is followed, the damage that may arise from security breaches is limited so that the interactions between the system components may be reduced to minimum. This facilitates access control and audits case of failures or errors.

Setting standards-based fault- This helps in preparation of architecture and functionality so that decisions may be based on permission instead of exclusion. An example of this is using white lists and not black lists.

Using manifest attributes- A large number of manifest attributes helps ensure that your Java applet or application’s security is not compromised. Permissions attribute may be used for ensuring of the permission level being requested by the application to be exactly what has been specified in JNLP file or applet tag for invoking of applications. Codebase may be used to restrict JAR file’s code base to specified domains. To identify locations where the application may be found, you can use application-library-allowable-codebase. You can also identify domains from where calls may be made to the application by JavaScript code; this helps deny access of unknown JavaScript code to the application.

When considering the security aspects of Java applications one thing that should be kept in mind is that security should be implemented at every level of an application. It may not be possible for us to have applications that are 100% secure but implementing a certain amount of security measure will help eliminate some basic risks.

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