Web application frameworks are very alluring for the success of your enterprises. The framework you choose will offer quick access to valuable business resources, user-friendly interfaces and seamless deployment to remote users.
On the other hand, for the same reason, the choice of your framework can be a significant security threat to your business. There are chances that unauthorized users can leverage the same benefits of quick and seamless access to crucial business data as it’s a serious security risk.
Not a single framework on the web is immune to security risks. In today’s cut-throat competition era, cutting-edge business solutions and web applications are developed and deployed with minimalist attention to security threats. It could be because of not detailed consideration is given while choosing a framework. On a daily basis, some corporate websites are being hacked at a rapid pace. Retail, healthcare, financial and government sites are probed on the regular basis; the apparent reason is consequences of security breach: loss of customer loyalty, damage to reliability, loss of revenues as well as legal liabilities.
Therefore, framework choice matters and it should be a key highlight of your web application framework. Security measures should be taken care of right from the initial stage of the development process. If the application isn’t validated or tested against security threats from the very first stage of development, it will fail to defend valuable resources and corporate data from malicious attacks.
Web Application Security should be a Top Priority
Before a decade, data breaches were rare and so does the human errors, such as the loss of a USB drive, laptop, and hacking of social media account. Security breaches were caused by using weak admin credentials, phishing attacks by insider threats or installing malware or by poor encryption techniques. Even some organizations were not able to find the cause as for why and how they were breached.
Moving ten years ahead in 2019, the numbers of data breaches has grown beyond the one’s expectation. Data breaches are the reasons why governments are giving special attention to data protection regulations. Web application security is crucial because an attack against internet-exposed web applications are top causes of data breaches. More than 81% of web applications have at least experienced one security susceptibility as per the Veracode’s 2017 state of the security report.
In and Out: Write Secure Code
The choice of your framework matters as it should be concerned about the passing of data into and out of their application. However, it is true that some frameworks and languages handle data cleaning automatically but, this isn’t the case in certain situations. Let me explain with the example of jQuery. The developer has the freedom to select about anything to browser including JavaScript and HTML. In a rare case, developer is required to generate string data and sent to the browser via jQuery. If any untrusted data is sent to the browser, it is mandatory to be sanitized. In such scenario jQuery function for such a situation that strips HTML tags from DOM elements. This is safer to use than jQuery’s HTML function that does not remove HTML tags.
Inside web application attacks
Phishing a user, remotely control from the infected computer and installing malware without anyone noticing did not have a high success ratio. Also, the longer an attacker remains in a network, it highly increases the chances of being caught. This is a reason; attackers began to shift their emphasis on exploiting web apps security vulnerabilities as such attackers are more effective and efficient. Every time you visit a website enter your sign up credential or purchase details, all of that information including your data is stored on a server. Exploiting a software vulnerability often give access to the stored data on that server.
Invaders inject malicious code into those web forms to leverage the benefits of applications that not allow sanitizing what users have entered into a field. i.e., Instead of allowing to enter a person’s name in the Name field, hackers will expose the application’s code or backend database.
Importance of Web Application Security Testing
Sometimes developers and programmers overtook the significance of security testing during the development process. I have a question for them, does skipping the security testing phase, would they be able to justice the final product?
To build a highly secure web application, the first and foremost thing you need to take care of is security development lifecycle. Security is a crucial element of an application, and it should be considered throughout the application to deal with critical business data and resources. Web application security ensures that the application is capable of maintaining its functionality and protecting the data. The procedure incorporates weaknesses, technical flaws, and vulnerabilities, right from the design as well as development phase. The purpose is to identify the potential risks and fix them before the deployment.
I follow six important security concept during the web application development phase,
- Authentication: Establish the identity of the user
- Authorization: To authorize the user with a service like OTP
- Availability: Communication and information is readily accessible as required
- Confidentiality: Vital data is only available to authorized users
- Integrity: The security measure permits the receiver to conclude that the data is accurate
- Non-repudiation: Avert later rejection of an action that occurred
The future of web app security
Attackers are manipulating web application security to gain access to private data; businesses are required to go for greater lengths to protect websites and applications than usually, they do to protect their network-connected devices and computers. As more organizations move their applications and websites to the cloud, web application security is getting more crucial. Cloud-based security technologies not only protect the websites but stored the data behind them, regardless of where they’re hosted.
Frameworks Matter In Web Application Security
Let me be blunt yet honest here. There no perfect framework and there won’t be any time soon. The best way to choose a framework is go for a framework you are familiar with or approach the one where you can observe similar benefits. Ruby on Rails, React.js, Angular.js, Iconic, .net, PHP, Django, Laravel and observe similar interests.
Enough time, efforts and security knowledge is mandatory to develop a secure web application. If the framework has built-in cross-site request forgery with the one line of code, it straightway decrease the complexity of the application and the required time for development and testing. Developers are not required be security experts to implement such a check that makes it easier to write secure applications.
