Web Server Security Attacks Checklist

Web Servers based attacks

Web Server is the backbone of websites and applications, web servers need to be constantly available to make sure your business is up and running. Given their importance to businesses, web servers are often targeted by hackers, which can lead to downtime or even exposure of confidential data.

Denial of Service attack

DOS attacks are performed by overwhelming the web server in numerous ways including sending invalid data as input that causes application termination, flooding the web server with automated request causing a crash, blocking the traffic resulting in loss of access to the legitimate users.

Man-in-the-Middle

A MitM attack occurs when a hacker inserts himself between the communications of a client and a server. This poses a risk as the hacker can directly interact with a web server by impersonating himself as a legitimate client.

Input Invalidation attack

In this the server executes a code injected by a hacker to the web server or the database server. By executing this code in places where inputs are not validated, information can be retrieved or modified by the attacker and further damages. Tampering of the hidden file is also possible with this attack.

SQLi

When this attack is conducted, there are chances of backend database server to be compromised and it can be catastrophic for a company. This can be done by Injecting malicious scripts into a database to modify or extract information from it. The stored procedures in the database can also be executed through SQL injection and database can be made to do things, it is intended to do only when desired by the authorized personnel.

Password Based Attack

The authentication system of a web server is often based on the password that identifies a valid user and grants access to the web server. If the hacker can, by any means, get your username and password, he or she can access the information that only you are supposed to access.

Poor Error Handling

This can lead to disclosing of Server information by the error pages and then malicious attacks can be crafted, by a hacker, in particular for that server to further damage it.

Buffer Overflow Attack

Once the buffer memory is overflown, the hacker can feed an executable command in the stack. After the stack recovers from the crash, it goes to the return address and if it has been changed and replaced with one that falls within the desired range, the malicious command may execute and grant entry to certain sections of the web server.

Directory Traversal

This is vulnerability where an attacker is able to access beyond the web root directory from the application. If he is able to access beyond web root directory, he might execute OS commands and get sensitive information or access restricted directories