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IT Security

Launched Q&A site for security professionals to discuss vulnerabilities like XSS, buffer overflows, SQL injection, CSRF, clickjacking, as well as system and network security. Discussions related to OWASP projects, tools, papers, and other materials are encouraged.

Announcements

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Whatever - you ruined the joke. – Nathan Osman Jun 22 '10 at 21:02
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@Jeff, while I love this proposal, and would definitely be active in this site, I'm having a niggling that it might NOT be a good idea, that is to segregate security topics away from programmers eyes and mindset. In line with OWASP intents, it might be better to keep appsec issues back on SO to encourage developer pariticipation and awareness. – AviD Jun 22 '10 at 21:09
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As an example, there are some GREAT practical questions on SO wrt XSS / SQL injection and evasions, CSRF protections, secure cryptowebsystems, etc – AviD Jun 22 '10 at 21:11
show 5 more announcements

62 Example Questions (8 closed)

active newest votes
up vote 23 down vote
To secure my web site with HTTPS, does it matter which company I source my SSL certificate from, or just that the browser recognizes it?
added by Chris W. Rea Jun 23 '10 at 12:38
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Just one more vote needed! – ygjb Aug 3 '10 at 22:41
up vote 20 down vote
My boss thinks that running an automated application vulnerability scanner is sufficient to certify our application is secure. Why isn't it?
added by Chris W. Rea Jun 23 '10 at 12:38
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I don't think this is a good appsec question because the answer is a non-appsec answer: i.e. risk management – Andre Gironda Jul 18 '10 at 20:31
up vote 20 down vote
We are writing a Java web application, what are the recommended tools and practices for locating and fixing potential security issues?
added by Nate Jun 24 '10 at 14:51
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up vote 20 down vote
If I'm running a lean start-up, and I can't afford to pay a dedicated security expert, what types of precautions can I take?
added by Jim G. Jun 26 '10 at 12:58
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up vote 20 down vote
If I hash passwords before storing them in my database, is that sufficient to prevent them being retrieved by anyone?
added by Damovisa Jul 13 '10 at 4:50
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up vote 12 down vote
What security vulnerabilities should I be mitigating in an ASP.NET MVC application?
added by Robert Harvey Jun 22 '10 at 22:58
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up vote 10 down vote
How to test my application for SQL injections?
added by The Disintegrator, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 21 '10 at 9:40
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up vote 9 down vote
What are the best clickjacking defenses?
added by Jeff Williams Jun 22 '10 at 16:47
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Most of cases,you can use framebusting. – HDK Aug 8 '10 at 23:24
up vote 8 down vote
How can I test if an uploaded file is a valid [image format] and not some potentially dangerous file?
added by The Disintegrator, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 21 '10 at 9:39
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up vote 8 down vote
How do I ensure that my users can submit data with special characters without allowing XSS attacks?
added by ygjb Jul 21 '10 at 22:13
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1.HTTP Encoding 2.HTML Encoding Enable header checking for .net application. – HDK Aug 8 '10 at 23:41
up vote 7 down vote
Are there any free tools available that let me intercept and modify HTTP requests for testing?
added by Damovisa, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 13 '10 at 7:35
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up vote 7 down vote
What steps should be taken to validate user uploaded images within an application?
added by Mark Davidson Jul 16 '10 at 10:53
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By which I mean protect against stuff like denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code by special craft image files. ubuntu.com/usn/USN-854-1 – Mark Davidson Jul 16 '10 at 10:54
This is my favorite example question so far. Perfect for on-topic – Andre Gironda Jul 18 '10 at 20:37
up vote 7 down vote
What methods and tools can be used to find business logic flaws in an application?
added by Andre Gironda Jul 18 '10 at 6:14
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You need a risk based approach/Hacker mindset to find a logic flaws.However burp is a good tool :) – HDK Aug 8 '10 at 23:08
up vote 7 down vote
What is the right way of storing database connection strings from the security point of view?
added by rem Jul 21 '10 at 13:27
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1  
we run into this all the time; especially with Java apps – Anonymous Jul 21 '10 at 22:03
up vote 7 down vote
Is code review worth the effort from a security standpoint?
added by EoinK, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 28 '10 at 8:12
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up vote 7 down vote
What is the difference between static analysis and runtime penetration testing? What are the pros and cons of each?
added by EoinK, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 28 '10 at 8:12
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up vote 5 down vote
Is null-byte injection possible in Java filenames?
added by Jeff Williams Jun 22 '10 at 16:48
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up vote 5 down vote
What is rainbow tables and how are they used?
added by Chris Andrè Dale Jul 28 '10 at 8:33
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up vote 4 down vote
How does OWASP ESAPI protect against direct object reference vulnerabilities?
added by Jeff Williams Jun 22 '10 at 16:56
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up vote 4 down vote
I want to use OpenID for my site users. Is there any published analysis of trustworthy providers and implementation models?
added by William Jul 12 '10 at 11:44
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up vote 4 down vote
My application uses OAuth to log in to a social networking site. What attacks do I need to consider on the key, secret and oauth token in the app?
added by Graham Lee Jul 15 '10 at 9:53
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up vote 4 down vote
What are the best pro tips for using BURP's intruder tool to find input validation issues?
added by Tate Hansen Jul 18 '10 at 5:22
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up vote 4 down vote
I am performing a penetration test against a website that uses Flash heavily; what tools can I use to examine the SWF file for vulnerabilities?
added by ygjb, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 22 '10 at 14:15
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HP SWFScan, a free tool to help Flash developers protect their websites against unintended application security ... – HDK Aug 8 '10 at 23:26
up vote 3 down vote
How to properly escape strings in MS SQL queries?
added by extropy, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 17 '10 at 11:16
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up vote 3 down vote
My project team has no security training. What tools, books or training courses could you recommend?
added by Graham Lee Jul 15 '10 at 9:56
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Why off-topic? Isn't it a good thing to help developers to help themselves? – Graham Lee Jul 16 '10 at 10:54
up vote 3 down vote
Is it best to do a web app pen test regardless of a code audit? (Code audit was clean, but a scan found vulnerabilities in 3rd party libraries.)
added by Tate Hansen, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 18 '10 at 11:44
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up vote 3 down vote
What are the steps to protect my web application against XSS attacks?
added by The Disintegrator, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 21 '10 at 9:39
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Input validation and output encoding. – HDK Aug 8 '10 at 23:43
up vote 3 down vote
How can I test my web application for timing attacks?
added by ygjb Jul 21 '10 at 22:13
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up vote 3 down vote
After I deploy to production, what should I do to detect bad things being done to my web app by bad people?
added by Tate Hansen Jul 23 '10 at 8:02
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up vote 2 down vote
What can I do to prevent clickhacking?
added by The Disintegrator, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 21 '10 at 9:38
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up vote 2 down vote
Which password hashing algorithm should I use?
added by TheLQ Jul 23 '10 at 5:38
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up vote 2 down vote
For development teams lacking appsec expertise, is it a good idea to suggest they try out tools like Watcher/RatProxy/Burp to gain knowledge?
added by Tate Hansen, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 26 '10 at 7:44
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up vote 2 down vote
Where will I get a checklist of security best practices to be taken care of while starting any new project?
added by balu, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 26 '10 at 12:35
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up vote 2 down vote
How long should the salts be when hashing passwords? Does it vary with the hashing algorithm?
added by Erlend Jul 28 '10 at 19:01
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up vote 2 down vote
What are the best options for avoiding LDAP-injection? Is there anything like prepared statements for LDAP?
added by Erlend Jul 28 '10 at 19:04
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Baseline rule is Input validation and Output filtering Some LDAP API's you can use. – HDK Aug 8 '10 at 23:49
Aren't these just example questions? No need to answer them. – Erlend Aug 11 '10 at 11:34
up vote 1 down vote
What output escaping technique should be used on a URL within a JavaScript?
added by Jeff Williams, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 10 '10 at 1:09
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up vote 1 down vote
Is there a safe way to allow users to enter fully-formed HTML in my ASP.NET application?
added by Damovisa, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 13 '10 at 7:36
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up vote 1 down vote
How to sanitize user input from a form in language X?
added by The Disintegrator, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jul 21 '10 at 9:41
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up vote 1 down vote
How can I effectively prevent CRSF attacks against my forms? Is a referer check enough?
added by Chris T Aug 7 '10 at 21:10
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up vote 1 down vote
What are the benefits of using mysql_real_escape_string() vs mysql_escape_string()?
added by Chris T Aug 7 '10 at 21:12
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