Chapter 6

Abusing Design Deficiencies

Mike Shemamikeshema@yahoo.com

487 Hill Street, San Francisco, CA 94114, USA

Information in this chapter:

• Understanding Logic Attacks

• Employing Countermeasures

How does a web site work? This isn’t an existential investigation into its purpose, but a technical one into the inner workings of policies and controls that enforce its security. Sites experience problems with cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection when developers fail to validate incoming data or misplace trust in users to not modify requests. Logic-based attacks target weaknesses in a site’s underlying design and assumptions. Instead of injecting grammar-based payloads (like <script> tags or apostrophes) the hacker is searching for fundamental ...

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