Web Application Development Techniques for Database Security
Databases are a core component of many web applications. The number of web applications that use databases continues to increase each year, and the rate at which malicious users are hacking into databases is growing at an alarming rate. The hacker’s intent is to destroy data or steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, and passwords. This produces a strong need to ensure the integrity of the data and secure the data from unintended access. As a web developer, there are many techniques that can be used to program security into a web application to lessen the likelihood of a malicious user being able to access confidential information. It is
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These passwords should be a minimum of 10 alphanumeric characters. A strong password would be one that is short enough to remember, but long enough to make it difficult for others to guess. It takes much longer to randomly guess a long password than a short one. However, web developers must be careful about forcing users to create overly complex passwords because this often leads to unsafe practices such as writing down passwords, which then leaves an opportunity for malicious database infiltration. Also, never store passwords in a database in plain text. Any compromise to the database should not allow a user’s data to be put at risk, especially the passwords they use. To solve this problem, passwords and other important data should be encrypted before being stored.
SQL Injection
It is a common practice in web applications to allow users to enter information into web forms. This user input, unfortunately, opens up the possibility of SQL injection. SQL injection is the most common and well known web application vulnerability. SQL injections can happen when SQL statements are dynamically created when processing user input. It is not difficult for a malicious user to enter SQL directly into the input fields to dynamically change the SQL statement in order to obtain information from the database.
The PHP code could look like this:
$user_input = “Lucy '; DROP TABLE CUSTOMERS;--”;
$query = “SELECT username, password FROM CUSTOMERS WHERE
Passwords should be designed to prevent them from being discovered by unauthorized persons. All passwords should have at least eight (8) characters. The user-IS should never be used as the password. Words in dictionary, derivates of user-IDs, and common character sequences such as “123456789” should not be employed.
SQL Injection – an input validation attack specific to database applications where SQL code is inserted into application queries to manipulate the database.
Strong Password Assignment. The password must be a minimum of ten characters in length and must contain alpha, numeric, and special characters. Default passwords should be immediately changed when assigned. Users must never reveal their passwords to anyone. Passwords should not be constructed from obvious personal data, i.e. social security number, telephone numbers, relative’s names, pet’s name, etc.
If we turn the clock backwards about 10 or 15 years, we find that people do not care much for the security of the web due to the lack of trying to exploit web applications for personal interests. But more recently, the issues related to the security of the Web began to grow, but unfortunately, there are many Web applications that have been developed, but these applications are started without any design for security.
Cross-site scripting (XSS) is one of the most often found vulnerabilities as well as one of the most dangerous related to web applications.
Due to the internet and E-commerce, data security is even more important due to the possibility of hackers, viruses, and malware.
The Aim Higher college has recently had some issues of sensitive information being stolen from students when registering for classes. I believe that the web application that the student information system is using is a problem named SQL injection. A SQL injection attack is an attack where the attacker can run malicious SQL queries against a web application’s database server and it can be a danger for the users who access the web page because the hacker will look for their personal information records, then delete it or modify the information gained. This type of attack is no joke we have to take action and create a plan to resolve this vulnerability on our database, so the students will register for their courses with our security on their side.
The top ten most common database attacks are excessive privilege, privilege abuse, unauthorized privilege elevation, platform vulnerabilities, SQL injection, weak audit, denial of service, database protocol vulnerabilities, weak authentication, and exposure of backup data. (Schulman, 2012) The majority of these attacks can be mitigated by firewalls, password protection, and appropriate permissions.
Even though there are this kind of attacks. This Microsoft SQL Server has the tools and technologies that mitigate this kind of attacks and there are what am going to talk about.
The company can prevent, remediate, or mitigate the attacks. During the establishment of prevention and
Web applications are nowadays serving as a company’s public face to the internet. This has created the need to identify threats and attacks directed to data servers and web applications. Hackers exploit vulnerabilities in input validation and authentication affecting the web application in order to gain illegal access and disclose sensitive data or manipulate it to their benefits.
The best example for understanding how sql injection done is facebook where whenever you forget your password then your emailid is asked and then the email id is searched in database if the email id is found then your password is send to your email id and you then you reset your password and logged in but if it is not found then no email for resetting password will be send,somehow this is the basic mechanism of sql injection.
With advances in technology constantly happening, it can be hard to keep up with all of the latest trends. If organizations cannot keep up with the latest trends, it can lead to flaws in their security. Any flaws in security can have a detrimental effect on an organization’s database. Almost every organization has some sort of database, whether it is for maintaining customers, inventory, or vital information.
With the widespread growth of technology, application security is increasingly becoming more and more popular. This growth has a direct effect on information crimes, which are being conducted in new and changing ways. Understanding the issues surrounding information crimes and providing simple but effective security models are key. As developers attempt to keep up with this widespread growth, proper security implementation can sometimes slip through the cracks. Insecure applications can cause serious information security and data privacy issues causing severe repercussions on users and organizations alike. To protect against these attacks, IT professionals need to properly understand some of the basics including cross site scripting,
In today’s highly connected digital ecosystem, our lives, businesses, communications, and a lot of activities depend on the websites and web applications. All websites contain sensitive data and deliver business-critical information services to the targeted audience. Due to the rapidly increasing use of websites and web applications, vulnerabilities have become quite rampant. Even the smallest security loophole can give cybercriminals a chance to destroy the web-based business, damage customer confidence, and brand reputation in a short time span.