In today’s digitalized world, building a secure ASP.NET website application has become somewhat risky because of hackers. The inclusion of the new security features sometimes comes back like a boomerang to the company and the end-users. Companies tend to strengthen the security measures in the early phase of the building process, but this process may be disastrous from the company’s end and damage the brand reputation. However, nowadays, asp.net MVC development company focuses more deeply on security issues at different stages of development. This constant monitoring process proves to be a safeguard for any digital company. Currently, many upgraded MVC.Net Development Services are available worldwide, but often security issues leave the applications vulnerable to hackers.
In this blog, we will talk about how hackers exploit ASP.NET and the ways to prevent the attack.
Many high-skilled ASP.NET developers are famous for creating high-performance code. The attacks noticed on the websites are very common. It would be very helpful to constantly keep an eye on the applications after they are built so that if any problem occurs, an immediate step can be taken by the team members only. The team members do not have to depend on the developers to determine the root of the issue if frequent audits go on.
The Ways Applications are Hacked,
1. Cross-Site Request Forgery
The vulnerability of CSRF allows hackers to forcefully log in to an account to perform malicious actions without their consent. It will be easy to understand the entire process through a practical daily life example.
- The user logs in to a back server.
- The bank approves, and a secure session is established between the back server and the user.
- The hacker mails the user with a fake link.
- The user clicks on the link, and in between, the hacker tries to transfer money from the user’s account to his/her account through the site.
- As the secure session has been established, the fake link will work successfully.
2. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Attacks
Cross-site scripting Attack happens when fake scripts are injected via input fields. This is one of the commonest links used by attackers. Cross-site scripting enables hackers to steal vital information and passwords. This way, hackers damage the reputation of renowned business brands. In this case, the attacker visits a brand website and creates a fake script in the comment box. If the user does not recognize the fake code, the hacker can easily execute the malicious code on the server.
3. Security Misconfiguration
Here, the hacker cuts off the information submitted by the end-user, changes it, and sends the changed information to the server. If you think that only data annotation can secure your page, it cannot. Hackers can very easily bypass the validation and send it to the page server.
4. Upload of Malicious Files
We have already learned about the protection of input fields from hackers, but a severe problem lies in the file-uploading system. Hackers can extend the file size and upload the malicious script as an image file. It is a suggestion to the developers to be alert always, especially during the extension of files.
5. SQL Injection Attack
SQL Injection attack is one of the most dangerous attacks. This attack makes valuable information available to the hacker which leads to an irreparable security issue. It allows the hackers full access to the database server.
With the SQL Injection Attack, the hacker gets complete access to the user’s data and executes malicious activities with the help of the information.
6. Version Disclosure
Hackers can use the version information to smoothen the way to their next plan. Whenever the browser sends an HTTP request to the server, the end-users get a response in header form that contains the server data like,
“X-Powered-BY” reveals the information on which your website framework is running.
“X-AspNet Mvc-Version” shows the information that the ASP.NET MVC version used.
“X-AspNet- Version” shows the information based on which specific version is used.
7. Broken Authentication and Session Management
Lack of proper authentication and session management in any website application leaves the information vulnerable to hackers. Attackers can steal the most important information due to the following reasons,
- Unsecured connection
- Not applying encryption on credentials
- Wrong application logout
- Easily predictable login details
Hackers can attack your website in many ways, but the ‘session fixation’ is the most common of all. In this case, the user sends a request to the server first, and the login page gets loaded. The user has to put in the right credentials to log in to the page. There the page needs some unique value to recognize the user as the very individual. In ASP.NET, a cookie is added to the browser. Even after the user logs out from the page, the cookie remains. Hackers can use this cookie to execute a session fixation attack.
The developers are suggested to double-check the implementation of authentication and session management to resist this kind of fixation attack.
8. Sensitive Data Exposure
Every website and application has a storage system where all the data are stored. The storage also protects passwords, PANs, bank-related information, and many more. Encryption is possible for any information, but we only use it to protect our passwords. Automatically, it becomes easier for hackers to get access to valuable information and use them in the wrong ways.
9. Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards
We can redirect from one page to another in almost all the website applications. In this context, we need to validate the redirects; otherwise, it may lead to invalidated redirects. There lies the chance of attack. Here, the target of the hackers is mostly to steal the significant credentials of the users or to install malicious software.
In these attacks, users often get some lucrative offers associated with mails from the attackers on an online shop. In most cases, the URLs only contain a redirect. In this context, if the user enters the credentials, they will get back to the shopping website, and nothing will happen, apparently. Unfortunately, the details would be gone.
To Conclude,
Now Microsoft can identify such malicious activities and the tool named AntiForgery Token helps to prevent the attacks. MVC alerts the app about an imminent danger. ASP.NET can stop the cross-site script attack. Currently, asp.net MVC development company offers excellent security services to world-class brands. To know more about the preventive measures, get in touch with us.
Hopefully, you have an idea about the hacking ways and the ways to prevent those.
