In this section of the course,
we're going to dive into web application vulnerabilities
by exploring common attack methods and how to fix them.
Now, web application vulnerabilities are weaknesses
or flaws in the design, implementation,
or configuration of a web application
that attackers can exploit to break into the systems
or cause problems.
Understanding these vulnerabilities
helps to build secure web applications
and protect sensitive data.
This section of the course is going to give you
a clear understanding of the different
web application vulnerabilities
and how they can be exploited,
which is important for both defending
and attacking when working as a penetration tester.
Now, our focus in this section
of the course is going to be focused on domain four,
which is attacks and exploits,
and specifically objectives 4.3 and 4.5.
Objective 4.3 states that given a scenario,
we must be able to perform authentication attacks
using appropriate tools.
And objective 4.5 states that given a scenario,
we must be able to perform web application attacks
using the appropriate tools.
Now, we're going to start things off
with our first lesson on race conditions.
In this lesson, you're going to learn about the issues
that happen when multiple processes
are trying to access a shared resource at the same time.
Understanding race conditions can help you
prevent data corruption
and keep your web applications safe.
Next, we're going to move on to buffer overflows.
Buffer overflows are things
that happen when data exceeds the allocated memory buffer,
and these buffer overflows
have the potential of allowing attackers
to execute harmful code on your systems.
Then we're going to provide a hands-on demonstration
of a buffer overflow attack to show you
how an attacker can exploit this vulnerability
and what steps can be taken to stop such a risk.
After that, we're going to explain the authentication flaws
and insecure references.
This lesson will focus on common weaknesses in login systems
and improper handling of references,
which can lead to unauthorized access.
Then we're going to transition to improper error handling
and will highlight the risk of exposing
sensitive information through error messages
and how to handle errors securely.
Next, we'll look at improper headers
and discuss the importance of correctly configuring
HTTP headers to prevent attacks,
like Cross-site Scripting
and Cross-site Requests Forgery attacks.
Then we're going to be exploring code signing,
and we'll be illustrating how code signing
can ensure the integrity and authenticity of your software
to prevent attackers from distributing malicious code
under the guise of a legitimate software package.
After that, we'll explore vulnerable components
and emphasize the need to regularly update
and patch software components
to protect against known vulnerabilities.
And finally, we'll cover software composition
focusing on managing dependencies
and third party libraries,
and maintaining a secure software development lifecycle.
Once we're done with all of that,
we're going to take a short quiz to see what you learned
during this section of the course,
and review each of those quiz questions fully
to ensure you understand why each answer was right
and why each answer was wrong.
So if you're ready,
let's dive into web application flaws and their fixes,
and begin our section on web application vulnerabilities.