In this section of the course,
we'll focus on the tools
and techniques that enable us
to perform web application attacks.
Web application attacks involves exploiting vulnerabilities
in web applications to steal data,
perform unauthorized actions, or bring down services.
These attacks exploit flaws in code or logic
or design across various components of web application.
It's important to understand which tools
and methods are out there
to exploit vulnerable web applications.
Our focus in this section will be centered
around Domain 4 Attacks and Exploits.
Objectives 4.3 and 4.5 will be our main focus
in this section.
Objective 4.3 states that given a scenario,
we must be able to perform authentication attacks
using the appropriate tools.
Objective 4.5 states, given a scenario,
we must be able to perform web application attacks
using the appropriate tools.
In our first lesson,
we will start with Directory Traversals,
understanding how attackers
exploit insufficient security validation,
and sanitation to access files
or directories that are stored outside
of the intended directory.
Next, we'll have a hands-on demo
about Directory Traversal Tools,
giving a practical experience
in exploiting web applications
to navigate the file system
to access unauthorized files,
using tools such as Gobuster, DirBuster
and WP Scan for WordPress.
Cross-Site Scripting will be explored next,
where we'll learn about the type of injection,
which can be used by attackers
to inject malicious scripts into content
from websites that we would normally trust.
Next, Request Forgeries,
specifically cross site request forgery
and server site request forgery
will be covered to show how attackers can trick a user
into submitting a malicious request they did not intend.
After that, SQL Injections will be discussed,
focusing on exploiting SQL query vulnerabilities
that allow attackers to interfere with the queries
an application makes to this database.
Then we will walk you through our hands-on demo
using Burp Suite and SQLMap
to perform SQL injection attacks
providing practical experience
in the exploitation of SQL injections.
We will then discuss Injection Attacks more broadly,
including XML injections, command injections,
and server side template injections,
showcasing their impact and exploitation techniques.
File Inclusions will be the next topic,
both local and remote,
to demonstrate how attackers add files
to web servers through the web application.
After that, our lesson on Arbitrary Code Execution
will be discussed, detailing how attackers execute code
on a server remotely to take control of or disrupt services.
After that, we'll focus
on Web Application Session Hijacking,
which will focus on exploiting session control mechanisms
to assume the identities of other users.
A demo on Abusing APIs will provide insights
into how poorly secured APIs can be exploited
to access backend information
that should not be accessible
using the popular tool Postman.
We will then perform another demo using OWASP ZAP
to demonstrate how this tool is used
for finding vulnerabilities in web applications,
during development and the testing phases effectively.
And lastly, we'll again perform a comprehensive demo
on Attacking Web Applications,
which will tie together the concepts learned
throughout this section with practical attack
on a vulnerable web application.
Finally, we'll 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 that you can explain why each answer was right.
So if you're ready, let's begin our section
on web application attacks.