Kevin has been asked to write a short program to gather user input for a web application. He likes to keep his code neat and simple. He chooses to use printf(str) where he should have ideally used printf(?s? str). What attack will his program expose the web application to?

While testing web applications, you attempt to insert the following test script into the search area on the company’s web site:

<script>alert(‘Testing Testing Testing’)</script>

Afterwards, when you press the search button, a pop up box appears on your screen with the text "Testing Testing Testing". What vulnerability is detected in the web application here?

Liza has forgotten her password to an online bookstore. The web application asks her to key in her email so that they can send her the password. Liza enters her email liza@yahoo.com’. The application displays server error. What is wrong with the web application?

Bret is a web application administrator and has just read that there are a number of surprisingly common web application vulnerabilities that can be exploited by unsophisticated attackers with easily available tools on the Internet.

He has also read that when an organization deploys a web application, they invite the world to send HTTP requests. Attacks buried in these requests sail past firewalls, filters, platform hardening, SSL, and IDS without notice because they are inside legal HTTP requests. Bret is determined to weed out any vulnerabilities. What are some common vulnerabilities in web applications that he should be concerned about?

Bryan notices the error on the web page and asks Liza to enter liza’ or ‘1’=’1 in the email field. They are greeted with a message "Your login information has been mailed to johndoe@gmail.com". What do you think has occurred?

What does black box testing mean?

You have just received an assignment for an assessment at a company site. Company’s management is concerned about external threat and wants to take appropriate steps to insure security is in place. Anyway the management is also worried about possible threats coming from inside the site, specifically from employees belonging to different Departments. What kind of assessment will you be performing ?

Jim is having no luck performing a penetration test in company’s network. He is running the tests from home and has downloaded every security scanner that he could lay his hands on. Despite knowing the IP range of all the systems, and the exact network configuration, Jim is unable to get any useful results.

Why is Jim having these problems?

Scanning for services is an easy job for Bob as there are so many tools available from the Internet. In order for him to check the vulnerability of company, he went through a few scanners that are currently available. Here are the scanners that he uses:

– Axent’s NetRecon (http://www.axent.com)
– SARA, by Advanced Research Organization (http://www-arc.com/sara)
– VLAD the Scanner, by Razor (http://razor.bindview.com/tools/)

However, there are many other alternative ways to make sure that the services that have been scanned will be more accurate and detailed for Bob.

What would be the best method to accurately identify the services running on a victim host?

Clive has been hired to perform a Black-Box test by one of his clients.

How much information will Clive obtain from the client before commencing his test?