If businesses want to deliver successful web applications, security is critical. A web application stored on a remote server is delivered to a user over the internet through a browser interface. Users interact with these apps on a daily basis and they collect data that attracts malicious actors. What are some of the key ways to secure web browser applications?
1. Use Authentication & Access Control
Web application security best practices include the use of authentication and access control. When designing a web application, it’s important to use the principle of minimal privilege. This means only giving users access to what they need from the system and no more. Authentication practices include using secure hashing algorithms for storing passwords.
Implementing multi-factor authentication requires taking another step besides using a password for an added layer of security. Authentication and access control also include things like password expiration and account lock-outs where applicable. Poor implementation of authentication and access controls can give attackers access so they can cause damage.
2. Implement Security in the Design Phase
The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) is a non-profit organization. It consists of a global network of experts who share insights on building secure software. The OWASP top 10 is a list of the most critical web application security risks. Finding out more about the OWASP top 10 in detail helps developers, security professionals, and organizations to understand potential software threats. Insecure design can introduce flaws that are harder to fix later on in the development of web apps. Adopting secure coding practices right from the beginning is best.
3. Sanitize And Validate User Input
Sanitizing and validating user input helps to prevent injection attacks and cross-site scripting (XSS). These types of attacks are easy to execute but it is also easy to stop them. Sanitizing input involves removing potentially harmful data or characters from user input. Many frameworks and languages have tools that make it easy to implement this in code. This prevents bad or corrupted data from possibly triggering malfunctions downstream.
Some types of input validation are:
- Data type validation (ensures parameters are of the correct type, such as numeric or text.
- Data format validation (ensures data meets proper format guidelines for schemas like JSON or XML)
- Data value validation (ensures parameters meet expectations for accepted lengths or value ranges)
4. Use Secure HTTPS Protocols
Knowing how to secure a website involves using Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). This is a network security protocol. It encrypts data exchange between a user’s browser and a web server. This protects sensitive information such as financial details from man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. When a site uses HTTPS the address bar of the browser shows a padlock icon which indicates a secure connection. Low security websites only have HTTP without the S.
5. Encrypt Sensitive Data
Encrypting sensitive data is one of the most important application security best practices. Even if malicious actors manage to obtain sensitive information, they are unable to decrypt and use it. User credentials, personal information, and financial records are some of the sensitive information that needs protection.
Protecting data at rest prevents data leaks due to malicious activity. Protecting data in transit secures it from practices like eavesdropping. End-to-end encryption is very reliable because no one apart from the sender and the recipient has access to the data.
6. Implement a Content Security Policy (CSP)
A CSP is a security layer that helps to identify and mitigate attacks such as data injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). It works by specifying valid sources of executed scripts. This helps to avoid malicious script execution. Overly restricting the web application security policy can break web app functionality.
Rather start with a broad policy and slowly add restrictions, testing at each stage. Implementing a CSP requires adding a content-security-policy HTTP header to the web server. This will declare approved sources of content for each resource type.
7. Prevent Security Misconfigurations
Security misconfigurations are a common and often preventable source of vulnerabilities in web apps. To mitigate this risk:
- Secure administrator accounts with strong passwords and change default usernames.
- Use configuration management tools to secure files and directories that contain sensitive information.
- Regularly audit open ports and close any that aren’t essential for an application.
- Regularly update all software libraries, plugins, and frameworks to the latest versions.
- Don’t allow digital certificates to expire.
8. Protect Against Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) Attacks
A cross-site request forgery attack is when an attacker creates a malicious site that looks like a legitimate web app. It tricks users into sharing confidential information.
One remediation method is using anti-forgery tokens. This is randomly generated by the web server and added as a parameter to requests.
During a CSRF attack, web app cookies with the SameSite attribute set to ‘lax’ or ‘strict’ will not be sent after form submission from a malicious site.
9. Regularly Test And Monitor Security
It’s important to perform regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing. Penetration testing can identify vulnerabilities and allow developers to fix them before bad actors can use them. Cybersecurity vs web development is different but in web development, security is vital in every stage.
10. Prioritize High-Level Security Risks
It can be overwhelming to learn about all the threats to security of web browser apps. It can help to prioritize apps with high security risks, such as those that collect sensitive information from external users. Monitoring and testing these apps can help to identify risks early on and fix them before bad actors gain access to them.
Conclusion
The security requirements for web browser applications depend on the specific needs and goals of the application and what the development team thinks as per current and future requirements. Authentication and access control, input validation, and data encryption are just some of the important security requirements. It is important to keep reviewing and improving existing security measures. This ensures that web browser applications are protected against potential threats and maintain their security over time.
