Security of Java based AJAX frameworks

ISBN-13: 9783639141924 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 112 str.

Georg Raffer

Opis

Unfortunately, while AJAX incorporates the bestcapabilities of both thick-client and thin-clientarchitectures, it is vulnerable to the same attacksthat affect both types of applications. Thick-clientapplications are insecure because they could bedecompiled and analyzed by an attacker. The sameproblem exists with AJAX applications - in fact evenmore so, because in most cases the attacker does noteven need to go to the effort of decompiling theprogram. Knowing the attack surface and thearchitectural weakness of a chosen AJAX frameworklays the foundation for a software architect todesign and develop secure and enterprise-ready AJAXweb applications. This paper does not only discussgeneral vulnerabilities of AJAX-based webapplications, but reflects these in a real-worldexample showing the attack surface for applicationsbuilt with state-of-the-art AJAX frameworks likeJBoss Seam and Google Web Toolkit. The findings ofthis paper help software architects and developers toget a practical understanding of potential attacks.They are a contribution to increase the security ofweb applications.

O autorze

Being active in the Internet business since 2001, my professional
interests are focused on development and design of secure
enterprise applications based on Java technology. After finishing
my INFORMATION MANAGEMENT studies in 1999 I continued to focus on
security relevant topics and finished my second studies ADVANCED
SECURITY ENGINEERING in 2008.