Application Threats and Countermeasures

A good way to analyze application-level threats is to organize them by application vulnerability category. The various categories used in the subsequent sections of this chapter and throughout the guide, together with the main threats to your application, are summarized in Table 2.2.

Table 2.2: Threats by Application Vulnerability Category

Category	Threats
Input validation	Buffer overflow; cross-site scripting; SQL injection; canonicalization
Authentication	Network eavesdropping; brute force attacks; dictionary attacks; cookie replay; credential theft
Authorization	Elevation of privilege; disclosure of confidential data; data tampering; luring attacks
Configuration management	Unauthorized access to administration interfaces; unauthorized access to configuration stores; retrieval of clear text configuration data; lack of individual accountability; over-privileged process and service accounts
Sensitive data	Access sensitive data in storage; network eavesdropping; data tampering
Session management	Session hijacking; session replay; man in the middle
Cryptography	Poor key generation or key management; weak or custom encryption
Parameter manipulation	Query string manipulation; form field manipulation; cookie manipulation; HTTP header manipulation
Exception management	Information disclosure; denial of service
Auditing and logging	User denies performing an operation; attacker exploits an application without trace; attacker covers his or her tracks