chapter 6: web security

Chapter 6: Web Security

Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals

Second Edition

Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, 2e

2

Objectives

• Protect e-mail systems

• List World Wide Web vulnerabilities

• Secure Web communications

• Secure instant messaging


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Protecting E-Mail Systems

• E-mail has replaced the fax machine as the primary communication tool for businesses

• Has also become a prime target of attackers and must be protected


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How E-Mail Works

• Use two Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocols to send and receive messages

– Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) handles outgoing mail

– Post Office Protocol (POP3 for the current version) handles incoming mail

• The SMTP server on most machines uses sendmail to do the actual sending; this queue is called the sendmail queue


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How E-Mail Works (continued)


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• Sendmail tries to resend queued messages periodically (about every 15 minutes)

• Downloaded messages are erased from POP3 server

• Deleting retrieved messages from the mail server and storing them on a local computer make it difficult to manage messages from multiple computers

• Internet Mail Access Protocol (current version is IMAP4) is a more advanced protocol that solves many problems

– E-mail remains on the e-mail server


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• E-mail attachments are documents in binary format (word processing documents, spreadsheets, sound files, pictures)

• Non-text documents must be converted into text format before being transmitted

• Three bytes from the binary file are extracted and converted to four text characters


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E-Mail Vulnerabilities

• Several e-mail vulnerabilities can be exploited by attackers:

– Malware

– Spam

– Hoaxes


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Malware

• Because of its ubiquity, e-mail has replaced floppy disks as the primary carrier for malware

• E-mail is the malware transport mechanism of choice for two reasons:

– Because almost all Internet users have e-mail, it has the broadest base for attacks

– Malware can use e-mail to propagate itself


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Malware (continued)

• A worm can enter a user’s computer through an e-mail attachment and send itself to all users listed in the address book or attach itself as a reply to all unread e-mail messages

• E-mail clients can be particularly susceptible to macro viruses

– A macro is a script that records the steps a user performs

– A macro virus uses macros to carry out malicious functions


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Malware (continued)• Users must be educated about how malware can enter

a system through e-mail and proper policies must be enacted to reduce risk of infection

– E-mail users should never open attachments with these file extensions: .bat, .ade, .usf, .exe, .pif

• Antivirus software and firewall products must be installed and properly configured to prevent malicious code from entering the network through e-mail

• Procedures including turning off ports and eliminating open mail relay servers must be developed and enforced


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Spam

• The amount of spam (unsolicited e-mail) that flows across the Internet is difficult to judge

• The US Congress passed the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM) in late 2003


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Spam (continued)

• According to a Pew memorial Trust survey, almost half of the approximately 30 billion daily e-mail messages are spam

• Spam is having a negative impact on e-mail users:

– 25% of users say the ever-increasing volume of spam has reduced their overall use of e-mail

– 52% of users indicate spam has made them less trusting of e-mail in general

– 70% of users say spam has made being online unpleasant or annoying


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Spam (continued)

• Filter e-mails at the edge of the network to prevent spam from entering the SMTP server

• Use a backlist of spammers to block any e-mail that originates from their e-mail addresses

• Sophisticated e-mail filters can use Bayesian filtering

– User divides e-mail messages received into two piles, spam and not-spam


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Hoaxes

• E-mail messages that contain false warnings or fraudulent offerings

• Unlike spam, are almost impossible to filter

• Defense against hoaxes is to ignore them


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Hoaxes (continued)

• Any e-mail message that appears as though it could not be true probably is not

• E-mail phishing is also a growing practice

• A message that falsely identifies the sender as someone else is sent to unsuspecting recipients


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E-Mail Encryption

• Two technologies used to protect e-mail messages as they are being transported:

– Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

– Pretty Good Privacy


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Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME)

• Protocol that adds digital signatures and encryption to Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) messages

• Provides these features:

– Digital signatures – Interoperability

– Message privacy – Seamless integration

– Tamper detection


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Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)• Functions much like S/MIME by encrypting messages

using digital signatures

• A user can sign an e-mail message without encrypting it, verifying the sender but not preventing anyone from seeing the contents

• First compresses the message

– Reduces patterns and enhances resistance to cryptanalysis

• Creates a session key (a one-time-only secret key)

– This key is a number generated from random movements of the mouse and keystrokes typed


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Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) (continued)

• Uses a passphrase to encrypt the private key on the local computer

• Passphrase:

– A longer and more secure version of a password

– Typically composed of multiple words

– More secure against dictionary attacks


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Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) (continued)


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Examining World Wide Web Vulnerabilities

• Buffer overflow attacks are common ways to gain unauthorized access to Web servers

• SMTP relay attacks allow spammers to send thousands of e-mail messages to users

• Web programming tools provide another foothold for Web attacks

• Dynamic content can also be used by attackers

– Sometimes called repurposed programming (using programming tools in ways more harmful than originally intended)


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JavaScript

• Popular technology used to make dynamic content

• When a Web site that uses JavaScript is accessed, the HTML document with the JavaScript code is downloaded onto the user’s computer

• The Web browser then executes that code within the browser using the Virtual Machine (VM)―a Java interpreter


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JavaScript (continued)

• Several defense mechanisms prevent JavaScript programs from causing serious harm:

– JavaScript does not support certain capabilities

– JavaScript has no networking capabilities

• Other security concerns remain:

– JavaScript programs can capture and send user information without the user’s knowledge or authorization

– JavaScript security is handled by restrictions within the Web browser


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JavaScript (continued)


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Java Applet

• A separate program stored on a Web server and downloaded onto a user’s computer along with HTML code

• Can also be made into hostile programs

• Sandbox is a defense against a hostile Java applet

– Surrounds program and keeps it away from private data and other resources on a local computer

• Java applet programs should run within a sandbox


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Java Applet (continued)


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• Two types of Java applets:

– Unsigned Java applet: program that does not come from a trusted source

– Signed Java applet: has a digital signature proving the program is from a trusted source and has not been altered

• The primary defense against Java applets is using the appropriate settings of the Web browser


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ActiveX

• Set of technologies developed by Microsoft

• Outgrowth of two other Microsoft technologies:

– Object Linking and Embedding (OLE)

– Component Object Model (COM)

• Not a programming language but a set of rules for how applications should share information


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ActiveX (continued)

• ActiveX controls represent a specific way of implementing ActiveX

– Can perform many of the same functions of a Java applet, but do not run in a sandbox

– Have full access to Windows operating system

• ActiveX controls are managed through Internet Explorer

• ActiveX controls should be set to most restricted levels


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ActiveX (continued)


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Cookies

• Computer files that contains user-specific information

• Need for cookies is based on Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

• Instead of the Web server asking the user for this information each time they visits that site, the Web server stores that information in a file on the local computer

• Attackers often target cookies because they can contain sensitive information (usernames and other private information)


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Cookies (continued)

• Can be used to determine which Web sites you view

• First-party cookie is created from the Web site you are currently viewing

• Some Web sites attempt to access cookies they did not create

– If you went to wwwborg, that site might attempt to get the cookie A-ORG from your hard drive

– Now known as a third-party cookie because it was not created by Web site that attempts to access the cookie

http://www.b.org/


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Common Gateway Interface (CGI)

• Set of rules that describes how a Web server communicates with other software on the server and vice versa

• Commonly used to allow a Web server to display information from a database on a Web page or for a user to enter information through a Web form that is deposited in a database


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Common Gateway Interface (CGI) (continued)

• CGI scripts create security risks

– Do not filter user input properly

– Can issue commands via Web URLs

• CGI security can be enhanced by:

– Properly configuring CGI

– Disabling unnecessary CGI scripts or programs

– Checking program code that uses CGI for any vulnerabilities


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83 Naming Conventions

• Microsoft Disk Operating System (DOS) limited filenames to eight characters followed by a period and a three-character extension (e.g., Filename.doc)

• Called the 83 naming convention

• Recent versions of Windows allow filenames to contain up to 256 characters

• To maintain backward compatibility with DOS, Windows automatically creates an 83 “alias” filename for every long filename


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83 Naming Conventions (continued)

• The 83 naming convention introduces a security vulnerability with some Web servers

– Microsoft Internet Information Server 40 and other Web servers can inherit privileges from parent directories instead of the requested directory if the requested directory uses a long filename

• Solution is to disable creation of the 83 alias by making a change in the Windows registry database

– In doing so, older programs that do not recognize long filenames are not able to access the files or subdirectories


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Securing Web Communications

• Most common secure connection uses the Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security protocol

• One implementation is the Hypertext Transport Protocol over Secure Sockets Layer


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Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS)

• SSL protocol developed by Netscape to securely transmit documents over the Internet

– Uses private key to encrypt data transferred over the SSL connection

– Version 20 is most widely supported version

– Personal Communications Technology (PCT), developed by Microsoft, is similar to SSL


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(continued)• TLS protocol guarantees privacy and data integrity

between applications communicating over the Internet

– An extension of SSL; they are often referred to as SSL/TLS

• SSL/TLS protocol is made up of two layers


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(continued)• TLS Handshake Protocol allows authentication

between server and client and negotiation of an encryption algorithm and cryptographic keys before any data is transmitted

• FORTEZZA is a US government security standard that satisfies the Defense Messaging System security architecture

– Has cryptographic mechanism that provides message confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and access control to messages, components, and even systems


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Secure Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTPS)

• One common use of SSL is to secure Web HTTP communication between a browser and a Web server

– This version is “plain” HTTP sent over SSL/TLS and named Hypertext Transport Protocol over SSL

• Sometimes designated HTTPS, which is the extension to the HTTP protocol that supports it

• Whereas SSL/TLS creates a secure connection between a client and a server over which any amount of data can be sent security, HTTPS is designed to transmit individual messages securely


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Securing Instant Messaging

• Depending on the service, e-mail messages may take several minutes to be posted to the POP3 account

• Instant messaging (IM) is a complement to e-mail that overcomes these

– Allows sender to enter short messages that the recipient sees and can respond to immediately


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Securing Instant Messaging (continued)

• Some tasks that you can perform with IM:

– Chat

– Images

– Sounds

– Files

– Talk

– Streaming content


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Securing Instant Messaging (continued)

• Steps to secure IM include:

– Keep the IM server within the organization’s firewall and only permit users to send and receive messages with trusted internal workers

– Enable IM virus scanning

– Block all IM file transfers

– Encrypt messages


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Summary

• Protecting basic communication systems is a key to resisting attacks

• E-mail attacks can be malware, spam, or hoaxes

• Web vulnerabilities can open systems up to a variety of attacks

• A Java applet is a separate program stored on the Web server and downloaded onto the user’s computer along with the HTML code


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Summary (continued)

• ActiveX controls present serious security concerns because of the functions that a control can execute

• A cookie is a computer file that contains user-specific information

• CGI is a set of rules that describe how a Web server communicates with other software on the server

• The popularity of IM has made this a tool that many organizations are now using with e-mail

chapter 6: web security

Documents

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editionsecurity guide

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