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Web Exploitation

Web exploitation involves taking advantage of vulnerabilities in web applications to gain unauthorized access, steal data, or disrupt services. These vulnerabilities often arise from coding errors, misconfigurations, or inadequate security measures.

Key Techniques of Web Exploitation

  • SQL Injection (SQLi): Attackers insert malicious SQL queries into input fields (e.g., login forms) to manipulate the database. This can lead to data extraction, modification, or deletion, and even bypass authentication1.

  • Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): Attackers inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. These scripts can steal cookies, session tokens, or other sensitive information and execute unauthorized actions1.

  • Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF): Attackers trick users into performing actions they didn't intend to, such as changing account details or initiating transactions, by exploiting the trust relationship between the user and the web application.

  • Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF): Attackers manipulate the server into making requests to unintended locations, potentially accessing sensitive data or internal systems.

  • Remote Code Execution (RCE): Attackers exploit vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code on the server, gaining full control over the web application and its underlying systems.

Prevention Measures

  • Input Validation: Ensure all user inputs are properly validated and sanitized to prevent injection attacks.
  • Output Encoding: Encode outputs to prevent XSS attacks by ensuring that any user-generated content is rendered harmless.
  • Authentication and Authorization: Implement strong authentication and authorization mechanisms to control access to sensitive data and functionalities.
  • Regular Security Audits: Conduct regular security assessments and code reviews to identify and fix vulnerabilities.
  • Security Headers: Use security headers like Content Security Policy (CSP) to mitigate XSS and other attacks.

Real-World Usage:
In 2024, the Alphv/BlackCat ransomware group targeted Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. This attack disrupted healthcare services nationwide, affecting hospitals' ability to process payments, prescribe medications, and perform procedures1.

Attack Details:
Ransomware Deployment: The attackers deployed ransomware, encrypting critical data and demanding a ransom to restore access. Data Exposure: Over 100 million individuals had their sensitive medical data exposed, making it one of the largest healthcare breaches in history.

Impact:
The attack caused significant disruption to healthcare services, preventing many hospitals and pharmacies from processing claims and receiving payments. Change Healthcare reportedly paid $22 million in ransom to recover operations

Web Exploitation Tools
  • Metasploit JavaScript Obfuscator - How to obfuscate JavaScript in Metasploit.
  • Arachni - Web Application Security Scanner Framework.
  • Beautifier.io - Online JavaScript Beautifier.
  • BurpSuite - A graphical tool to testing website security.
  • Commix - Automated All-in-One OS Command Injection Exploitation Tool.
  • debugHunter - Discover hidden debugging parameters and uncover web application secrets.
  • Dirhunt - Find web directories without bruteforce.
  • dirsearch - Web path scanner.
  • nomore403 - Tool to bypass 40x errors.
  • ffuf - Fast web fuzzer written in Go.
  • git-dumper - A tool to dump a git repository from a website.
  • Gopherus - Tool that generates gopher link for exploiting SSRF and gaining RCE in various servers.
  • Hookbin - Free service that enables you to collect, parse, and view HTTP requests.
  • JSFiddle - Test your JavaScript, CSS, HTML or CoffeeScript online with JSFiddle code editor.
  • ngrok - Secure introspectable tunnels to localhost.
  • OWASP Zap - Intercepting proxy to replay, debug, and fuzz HTTP requests and responses.
  • PHPGGC - Library of PHP unserialize() payloads along with a tool to generate them, from command line or programmatically.
  • Postman - Addon for chrome for debugging network requests.
  • REQBIN - Online REST & SOAP API Testing Tool.
  • Request Bin - A modern request bin to inspect any event by Pipedream.
  • Revelo - Analyze obfuscated Javascript code.
  • Smuggler - An HTTP Request Smuggling / Desync testing tool written in Python3.
  • SQLMap - Automatic SQL injection and database takeover tool.
  • W3af - Web application attack and audit framework.
  • XSSer - Automated XSS testor.
  • ysoserial - Tool for generating payloads that exploit unsafe Java object deserialization.
Web Exploitation Learning Resources