Computer Security Basics, 2nd Edition

Chapter 6. Web Attacks and Internet Vulnerabilities

If you are at all interested in computer and network security, you’ll need to know something about the Internet, and its subset, the World Wide Web (WWW). This chapter deals with the basics of the Internet and the Web, as well as several important Internet protocols that keep the Internet humming from behind the scenes. The chapter then discusses vulnerabilities of several of these services, as well as exploits that can be used to attack them. Finally, this chapter gives several suggestions of how users can defend against those who misuse the Internet to steal or annoy.

About the Internet

The Internet may have been invented by former Vice President Al Gore, but it has since taken on a life of its own.^[24]When many people think of the Internet, the first thing that comes to mind is often the World Wide Web; but the Web is only part of the story, if a highly visible one. This works to the advantage of the attacker, who crafts exploits based on less familiar parts of the Web in order to shut down the parts more readily seen.

In truth, the Internet is composed of many different connection schemes called protocols, all of which transmit over a common system of packetized communication called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Among these are the following:

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

The File Transfer Protocol allows rapid, reliable transfer of data files between repositories, called FTP servers, and between computers ...