Training Objective

Writing web applications can be rather complex – reasons range from dealing with legacy technologies or under documented third-party components to sharp deadlines and code maintainability. Yet, beyond all that, what if we told you that attackers were trying to break into your code right now? How likely would they be to succeed?

This course will change the way you look at your code. We'll teach you the common weaknesses and their consequences that can allow hackers to attack your system, and – more importantly – best practices you can apply to protect yourself. We cover typical Web vulnerabilities with a focuson how they affect web apps on the entire stack – from the base environment to modern AJAX and HTML5-based frontends. In addition, we discuss the security aspects of different platforms as well as typical programming mistakes you need to be aware of. We present the entire course through live practical exercises to keep it engaging and fun.

Writing secure code will give you a distinct edge over your competitors. It is your choice to be ahead of the pack – take a step and be a game-changer in the fight against cybercrime.

Training level: Basic

Course outline

Day 1:

IT security and secure coding
- Nature of security
- What is risk?
- IT security vs. secure coding
- From vulnerabilities to botnets and cybercrime
  - Nature of security flaws
  - From an infected computer to targeted attacks
  - The Seven Pernicious Kingdoms
  - OWASP Top Ten 2017
Web application security
- Injection
  - Injection principles
  - SQL injection
  - Exercise – SQL injection
  - Typical SQL Injection attack methods
  - Blind and time-based SQL injection
  - SQL injection protection methods
  - Effect of data storage frameworks on SQL injection
  - Other injection flaws
  - Command injection
  - Case study – ImageMagick
- Broken authentication
  - Session handling threats
  - Session handling best practices
  - Session handling in Java
  - Setting cookie attributes – best practices
  - Cross site request forgery (CSRF)
  - CSRF prevention
  - CSRF prevention in Java frameworks
- XML external entity (XXE)
  - XML Entity introduction
  - XML external entity attack (XXE) – resource inclusion
  - XML external entity attack – URL invocation
  - XML external entity attack – parameter entities
  - Exercise – XXE attack
  - Preventing entity-related attacks
  - Case study – XXE in Google Toolbar

Day 2:

Broken access control
- Typical access control weaknesses
- Insecure direct object reference (IDOR)
- Exercise – Insecure direct object reference
- Protection against IDOR
- Case study – Facebook Notes
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
- Persistent XSS
- Reflected XSS
- DOM-based XSS
- Exercise – Cross Site Scripting
- XSS prevention
- XSS prevention tools in Java and JSP
HTML5 security
- New XSS possibilities in HTML5
- HTML5 clickjacking attack – text field injection
- HTML5 clickjacking – content extraction
- Form tampering
- Exercise – Form tampering
- Cross-origin requests
- HTML proxy with cross-origin request
- Exercise – Client side include
Insecure deserialization
- Serialization and deserialization basics
- Security challenges of deserialization
- Deserialization in Java
- Denial-of-service via Java deserialization
- From deserialization to code execution
- POP payload targeting InvokerTransformer (Java)
- Real-world Java deserialization vulnerabilities
- Issues with alternative Java object deserialization methods
- Secure deserialization with FST
- Secure deserialization with Kryo
- Issues with deserialization – JSON
- Best practices against deserialization vulnerabilities
- Case study – XML deserialization in Apache Struts leading to RCE
- CVE-2017-9805 – Apache Struts RCE when deserializing XML
- Example XML triggering the RCE
Using components with known vulnerabilities
- Vulnerability attributes
- Common Vulnerability Scoring System – CVSS
Insufficient logging and monitoring
- Detection and response
- Logging and log analysis
- Intrusion detection systems and Web application firewalls

Day 3:

Common coding errors and vulnerabilities
- Input validation
  - Input validation concepts
  - Integer problems
  - Representation of negative integers
  - Integer overflow
  - Exercise IntOverflow
  - What is the value of Math.abs(Integer.MIN_VALUE)?
  - Integer problem – best practices
  - Path traversal vulnerability
  - Path traversal – weak protections
  - Path traversal – best practices
  - Unvalidated redirects and forwards
  - Log forging
  - Some other typical problems with log files
- Improper use of security features
  - Typical problems related to the use of security features
  - Password management
  - Exercise – Weakness of hashed passwords
  - Password management and storage
  - Special purpose hash algorithms for password storage
  - Argon2 and PBKDF2 implementations in Java
  - bcrypt and scrypt implementations in Java
  - Case study – the Ashley Madison data breach
  - Typical mistakes in password management
  - Exercise – Hard coded passwords
  - Accessibility modifiers
  - Accessing private fields with reflection in Java
  - Exercise Reflection – Accessing private fields with reflection
  - Exercise ScademyPay – Integrity protection weakness

Day 4

Improper error and exception handling
- Typical problems with error and exception handling
- Empty catch block
- Overly broad throws
- Overly broad catch
- Using multi-catch
- Returning from finally block – spot the bug!
- Catching NullPointerException
- Exception handling – spot the bug!
- Exercise ScademyPay – Error handling
Time and state problems
- Time and state related problems
- Concurrency – spot the bug!
- Calling Thread.run()
- Race condition in servlets – spot the bug!
- Race condition – spot the bug!
- ArrayList vs Vector
Code quality problems
- Dangers arising from poor code quality
- Poor code quality – spot the bug!
- Unreleased resources
- Private arrays – spot the bug!
- Private arrays – typed field returned from a public method
- Exercise Object Hijack
- Public method without final – object hijacking
- Serialization – spot the bug!
- Exercise Serializable Sensitive
- Immutable String – spot the bug!
- Exercise Immutable Strings
- Immutability and security
Principles of security and secure coding
- Matt Bishop’s principles of robust programming
- The security principles of Saltzer and Schroeder
Knowledge sources
- Secure coding sources – a starter kit
- Vulnerability databases
- Java secure coding sources
- Recommended books

What to Bring?

During the training you will be solving hands-on exercises with the help of the trainer on a cloud virtual machine.

These are the requirements to be able to use the VM smoothly.

Hardware

CPU: Intel Core i3 or AMD equivalent
RAM: 2 GB
Display resolution: 1280x1024
2Mbps Internet connection
Possibly two monitors/displays

Software

Web browser with HTML5 support to connect to the VM
PDF reader to follow along the PDF handout

Recommended hardware specification

CPU: Intel Core i5 or AMD equivalent
RAM: 4 GB
Display resolution: 1600x900 or higher
Secondary display for the course material
10+ Mbps Internet connection

Training prerequisites

General software engineer capabilities

Who Should Attend?

Programmers, software developers, team leaders, managers

What to Expect?

Understand basic concepts of security, IT security and secure coding
Learn Web vulnerabilities beyond OWASP Top Ten and know how to avoid them
Learn about XML security
Learn client-side vulnerabilities and secure coding practices
Learn about typical coding mistakes and how to avoid them
Get information about some recent vulnerabilities in the Java framework
Get sources and further readings on secure coding practices

What attendees will get?

Participants will receive a welcome page prior to the training including the course material in a pdf file and access to the cloud VMs during the training.

What not to expect?

an offensive training with demonstration of attack tools,
framework specific best-practices (this is a language agnostic course)

TRAINING