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Product Description
The Hands-On, Practical Guide to Preventing Ajax-Related Security Vulnerabilities
More and more Web sites are being rewritten as Ajax applications; even traditional desktop software is rapidly moving to the Web via Ajax. But, all too often, this transition is being made with reckless disregard for security. If Ajax applications aren’t designed and coded properly, they can be susceptible to far more dangerous security vulnerabilities than conventional Web or desktop software. Ajax developers desperately need guidance on securing their applications: knowledge that’s been virtually impossible to find, until now.
Ajax Security systematically debunks today’s most dangerous myths about Ajax security, illustrating key points with detailed case studies of actual exploited Ajax vulnerabilities, ranging from MySpace’s Samy worm to MacWorld’s conference code validator. Even more important, it delivers specific, up-to-the-minute recommendations for securing Ajax applications in each major Web programming language and environment, including .NET, Java, PHP, and even Ruby on Rails. You’ll learn how to:
· Mitigate unique risks associated with Ajax, including overly granular Web services, application control flow tampering, and manipulation of program logic
· Write new Ajax code more safely—and identify and fix flaws in existing code
· Prevent emerging Ajax-specific attacks, including JavaScript hijacking and persistent storage theft
· Avoid attacks based on XSS and SQL Injection—including a dangerous SQL Injection variant that can extract an entire backend database with just two requests
· Leverage security built into Ajax frameworks like Prototype, Dojo, and ASP.NET AJAX Extensions—and recognize what you still must implement on your own
· Create more secure “mashup” applications
Ajax Security will be an indispensable resource for developers coding or maintaining Ajax applications; architects and development managers planning or designing new Ajax software, and all software security professionals, from QA specialists to penetration testers.
From the Back Cover
The Hands-On, Practical Guide to Preventing Ajax-Related Security Vulnerabilities
More and more Web sites are being rewritten as Ajax applications; even traditional desktop software is rapidly moving to the Web via Ajax. But, all too often, this transition is being made with reckless disregard for security. If Ajax applications aren’t designed and coded properly, they can be susceptible to far more dangerous security vulnerabilities than conventional Web or desktop software. Ajax developers desperately need guidance on securing their applications: knowledge that’s been virtually impossible to find, until now.
Ajax Security systematically debunks today’s most dangerous myths about Ajax security, illustrating key points with detailed case studies of actual exploited Ajax vulnerabilities, ranging from MySpace’s Samy worm to MacWorld’s conference code validator. Even more important, it delivers specific, up-to-the-minute recommendations for securing Ajax applications in each major Web programming language and environment, including .NET, Java, PHP, and even Ruby on Rails. You’ll learn how to:
· Mitigate unique risks associated with Ajax, including overly granular Web services, application control flow tampering, and manipulation of program logic
· Write new Ajax code more safely—and identify and fix flaws in existing code
· Prevent emerging Ajax-specific attacks, including JavaScript hijacking and persistent storage theft
· Avoid attacks based on XSS and SQL Injection—including a dangerous SQL Injection variant that can extract an entire backend database with just two requests
· Leverage security built into Ajax frameworks like Prototype, Dojo, and ASP.NET AJAX Extensions—and recognize what you still must implement on your own
· Create more secure “mashup” applications
Ajax Security will be an indispensable resource for developers coding or maintaining Ajax applications; architects and development managers planning or designing new Ajax software, and all software security professionals, from QA specialists to penetration testers.
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Customer Reviews
I am not a Web developer. I was not very familiar with Ajax (beyond its buzzword status and a vague notion of functionality) when I started reading Ajax Security. I attended the authors' Black Hat 2007 talk and was thoroughly impressed and disturbed by the security implications they presented. I expected Ajax Security to be a good book, but one can never be sure if talented hackers and presenters can transfer their skills to the written word. Ajax Security gets the job done.
Despite being a traditional network security guy who prefers inspecting traffic to analyzing JavaScript, I had no problem understanding Ajax Security. The authors do a superb job leading the reader through the issues surrounding modern Web applications. They start by introducing a technology, which is critical for someone like me who doesn't deal with Web development issues. Next they describe how it is broken. They continue with defensive recommendations and summarize their findings in the conclusion. This is a perfect technical writing style that is too often lost on other authors.
Ajax Security makes very good use of case studies (both large stories like ch 2 and small ones throughout the text). The book also integrates code, diagrams, and screen shots. The text itself is very clear and the authors keep the reader's attention throughout. Histories for various technologies provide a welcome background, showing readers how we've ended up in our current Web 2.0 predicament.
If you'd like a positive critique of the technical components of the book by someone who is a Web expert, I recommend reading Dre's review of Ajax Security in the TSSCI-Security blog. Otherwise, I give my highest recommendation to Ajax Security, as my Best Book Bejtlich Read in 2007 award.
The book begins with a brief review of AJAX architecture with an emphasis on security. The writing style is quite engaging including a chapter walking you through an attack from a hacker's point of view. All the major known categories of attacks are included including resource enumeration, parameter manipulation (with SQL and XPATH injection), session hijacking, JSON hijacking, XSS, CSRF, phishing, denial of service, etc.
I particularly liked the analogies to things that happen in the physical world such as resource injection into a roommate's "to do" list and hijacking another customer's paid order in the deli. These made it easy to visualize the problem even for people who don't code often.
The authors were realistic and included the limitations and drawbacks of each tool/framework mentioned. I liked the chapter analyzing two major JavaScript worms including the source code. This really hit home on the importance of certain practices!
All information was up to date as of printing including comments on all four major browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera and Safari.) They even mentioned the HTML 5 specification. The book is not server side language specific, which was nice.
Ajax changes the game in that it moves business logic to the client. In doing so it increases the attack surface of the application. The authors get curious with some real world Ajax frameworks such as Prototype, Dojo, and Microsoft Ajax. They demonstrate with these frameworks how developers might be unknowingly building vulnerabilities into their applications. If you're home brewing Ajax, the authors cover important security considerations you'll need to know so that you don't make the same mistakes the industry leaders have made.
I learned a lot about JavaScript from reading this book. I learned even more about how JavaScript can be used maliciously. The authors describe techniques for function clobbering, JSON hijacking, storage attacks, and presentation layer attacks. One of my favorite parts of the book, not to mention one of the scariest, is an explanation of how to hide malicious JavaScript from signature based anti-virus software.
The authors explain why the Same-Origin Policy is broken and how it can be subverted. Also covered are security considerations for offline applications. An in-depth analysis of Ajax worms is covered. If you are curious about how Ajax is changing web security you should read this book. If your are a web developer or a security professional you should read this book, even if you aren't using Ajax. If you don't believe cross-site scripting is a "big deal", I dare you to read this book and maintain the same opinion.
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