Software Engineering Institute

This report models the approach a focused attacker would take in order to breach an organization through web-based protocols and provides detection or prevention methods to counter that approach. It discusses the means an attacker takes to collect information about the organization's web presence. It also describes several threat types, including configuration management issues, authorization problems, data validation issues, session management issues, and cross-site attacks. Individual threats within each type are examined in detail, with examples (where applicable) and a potential network monitoring solution provided. For quick reference, the appendix includes all potential network monitoring solutions for the threats described in the report. Due to the ever-changing entity that is the web, the threats and protections outlined in the report are not to be taken as the definitive resource on web-based attacks. This report is meant to be a starting reference point only.