fullstackpython.com/web-application-security.html at patch-1 · nullism/fullstackpython.com · GitHub

History

363 lines (362 loc) · 25.7 KB

Raw

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

168

169

170

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

178

179

180

181

182

183

184

185

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

205

206

207

208

209

210

211

212

213

214

215

216

217

218

219

220

221

222

223

224

225

226

227

228

229

230

231

232

233

234

235

236

237

238

239

240

241

242

243

244

245

246

247

248

249

250

251

252

253

254

255

256

257

258

259

260

261

262

263

264

265

266

267

268

269

270

271

272

273

274

275

276

277

278

279

280

281

282

283

284

285

286

287

288

289

290

291

292

293

294

295

296

297

298

299

300

301

302

303

304

305

306

307

308

309

310

311

312

313

314

315

316

317

318

319

320

321

322

323

324

325

326

327

328

329

330

331

332

333

334

335

336

337

338

339

340

341

342

343

344

345

346

347

348

349

350

351

352

353

354

355

356

357

358

359

360

361

362

363

<!DOCTYPE html>

<head>

<title>Web Application Security - Full Stack Python</title>

<!--[if lt IE 9]>

<![endif]-->

</head>

<body>

<h2 style="color: #fff; margin: 20px 40px 0 0;"><a href="https://www.gumroad.com/l/python-deployments" style="color: #fff">The Full Stack Python Guide to Deployments book</a> has been released!</h2>

</div>

</div> <a href="https://github.com/makaimc/fullstackpython.com"><img style="position: absolute; top: 0; right: 0; border: 0;" src="/theme/img/fork.png" alt="Fork me on GitHub"></a>

<span class="logo-title"><a href="/">Full Stack Python</a></span>

</div>

</div><div class="row">

<h1>Web Application Security</h1>

<p>Website security must be thought about while building every level of the web

stack. However, this section includes topics that deserve particular

treatment, such as cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, cross-site

request forgery and usage of public-private keypairs.</p>

<h2>Security open source projects</h2>

<ul>

<li>

<p><a href="http://www.bro.org/">Bro</a> is a network security and traffic monitor.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="https://github.com/marshyski/quick-secure">quick NIX secure script</a> for

securing Linux distributions.</p>

</li>

</ul>

<h2>HTTPS resources</h2>

<ul>

<li>

<p><a href="http://robertheaton.com/2014/03/27/how-does-https-actually-work/">How does HTTPS actually work?</a>

is a well-written overview of the protocol including certificates,

signatures, signing and related topics.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>These

<a href="https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/07/16/introduction-to-https-webinar/">introduction to HTTPS</a>

videos explain what HTTPS is and how to implement it.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>This question asking <a href="http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/5126/whats-the-difference-between-ssl-tls-and-https">what is the difference between TLS and SSL?</a>

explains that TLS is a newer version of SSL and should be used because

SSL through version 3.0 is insecure.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>If you have wondered what all the SSL/TLS acronyms and settings mean,

read the

<a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS">Security/Server Side TLS guide</a>

which Mozilla uses to operationalize its servers.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>If you're having users submit sensitive information to your site you need

to use SSL/TLS. Anything before TLS is now insecure. Check out this

<a href="http://wingolog.org/archives/2014/10/17/ffs-ssl">handy guide</a> that goes

over some of the nuances of the subject.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="https://hynek.me/talks/tls/">The Sorry State of SSL</a> details the

history and evolution of SSL/TLS. There are important differences between

the versions and Hynek explains why TLS should always be used. The

talk prompted work to improve Python's SSL in 2.7.9 based on the upgrades

in Python 3 outlined in

<a href="https://developer.rackspace.com/blog/the-not-so-sorry-state-of-ssl-in-python/">The not-so-sorry state of SSL in Python</a>.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://blog.hartleybrody.com/https-certificates/">How HTTPS Secures Connections</a>

is a guide for what HTTPS does and does not secure against.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://erik.io/blog/2013/06/08/a-basic-guide-to-when-and-how-to-deploy-https/">When and How to Deploy HTTPS</a></p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://www.moserware.com/2009/06/first-few-milliseconds-of-https.html">The first few milliseconds of an HTTPS connection</a>

provides a detailed look at the SSL handshake process that is implemented

by browsers based on the <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2818">RFC 2818</a>

specification.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/">Qualy SSL Server Test</a> can be used to

determine what's in place and what is missing for your server's HTTPS

connection. Once you run the test read this article on

<a href="https://sethvargo.com/getting-an-a-plus-on-qualys-ssl-labs-tester/">Getting an A+ on Qualy's SSL Labs Tester</a>

to improve your situation.</p>

</li>

</ul>

<h2>General security resources</h2>

<ul>

<li>

<p>The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) has

<a href="https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Cheat_Sheets">cheat sheets for security</a>

topics.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>This page contains a

<a href="http://dfir.org/?q=node/8/">fantastic curated list of security reading material</a>

from beginning to advanced topics.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>The <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/">/r/netsec</a> subreddit is one place to

go to learn more about network and application security.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://gexos.github.io/Hacking-Tools-Repository/">Hacking Tools Repository</a>

is a great list of password cracking, scanning, sniffing and other security

penetration testing tools.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://www.andrewault.net/2010/05/17/securing-an-ubuntu-server/">Securing an Ubuntu Server</a></p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://joshrendek.com/2013/01/securing-ubuntu/">Securing Ubuntu</a></p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/misc/security_tips.html">Security Tips from Apache</a></p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://spenserj.com/blog/2013/07/15/securing-a-linux-server/">Securing a Linux Server</a></p>

</li>

<li>

<p>The EFF has a well written overview on

<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/what-makes-good-security-audit">what makes a good security audit</a>. It's broad but contains some of their behind the

scenes thinking on important considerations with security audits.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Ars Technica wrote posts on

<a href="http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/02/securing-your-website-a-tough-job-but-someones-got-to-do-it/">securing your website</a>

along with <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/11/how-to-set-up-a-safe-and-secure-web-server/">how to set up a safe and secure web server: part 1</a>

and <a href="http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/11/securing-your-web-server-with-ssltls/">part 2</a>

to explain HTTPS and SSL without much required pre-existing knowledge.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="https://www.crypto101.io/">Crypto 101</a> is an introductory course on

cryptography for programmers.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://getprismatic.com/story/1409447605839">An in-depth analysis of SSH attacks on Amazon EC2</a>

shows how important it is to secure your web servers, especially when they are

hosted in IP address ranges that are commonly scanned by malicious actors.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="http://www.infoq.com/articles/cloud-security-auditing-challenges-and-emerging-approaches">Cloud Security Auditing: Challenges and Emerging Approaches</a>

is a high-level overview of some of security auditing problems that come

with cloud deployments.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Wondering how the common buffer overflow attack works? Check out this

<a href="http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/08/how-security-flaws-work-the-buffer-overflow/">article on buffer overflows</a>

that explains the attack in layman's terms.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/7-security-measures-to-protect-your-servers">7 Security Measures to Protect Your Servers</a>

provides a good overview of the fundamentals for how servers should be

configured for baseline security.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>As you're developing on Linux, you'll want to read and follow this

<a href="https://github.com/lfit/itpol/blob/master/linux-workstation-security.md">Linux workstation security</a>

document to make sure your code and environment are not compromised.

If you're on Mac OS X, check out this

<a href="https://github.com/drduh/OS-X-Yosemite-Security-and-Privacy-Guide">securing Yosemite guide</a>

which covers that environment.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><a href="https://www.moses.io/2015/09/tls-and-server-hardening-post-nginx/">TLS and Nginx Web Server Hardening</a>

explains a secure server configuration for the Nginx web server.</p>

</li>

</ul>

<h2>Web security learning checklist</h2>

<ol>

<li>

<p>Read and understand the major web application security flaws that are

commonly exploited by malicious actors. These include cross-site request

forgery (CSRF), cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection and session

hijacking. The

<a href="https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Top_10_2013-Top_10">OWASP top 10 web application vulnerabilities list</a>

is a great place to get an overview of these topics.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Determine how the framework you've chosen mitigates these vulnerabilities.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Ensure your code implements the mitigation techniques for your framework. </p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Think like an attacker and actively work to break into your own system.

If you do not have enough experience to confidently break the security

consider hiring a known white hat attacker. Have her break the

application's security, report the easiest vulnerabilities to exploit in

your app and help implement protections against those weaknesses.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Recognize that no system is ever totally secure. However, the more popular

an application becomes the more attractive a target it is to attackers.

Reevaluate your web application security on a frequent basis.</p>

</li>

</ol>

<h3>What web development topic do you want to learn about next?</h3>

<p class="under-btn">I want to learn more about app users via web analytics.</p> </div>

</div>

<p class="under-btn">How do I integrate existing web APIs into my application?</p> </div>

</div>

<p class="under-btn">How do I log errors that occur in my application?</p> </div>

</div>

</div><div id="mc_embed_signup">

<h4>Sign up here to receive an email with major updates to this site and Python tutorials delivered to your inbox once a month.</h4>

</div>

</div>

</form>

</div>

<p style="font-size: .8em; margin-top: 10px;">Searching for a complete, step-by-step deployment walkthrough? Learn more about <a href="http://www.deploypython.com/">The Full Stack Python Guide to Deployments book</a>.

</p>

</div>

</div> <div class="panel panel-success">

<h3 class="panel-head"><a href="/table-of-contents.html" style="color: #fff;">Table of Contents</a></h3>

</div>

<a href="/introduction.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Introduction</a>

<a href="/learning-programming.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Learning Programming</a>

<a href="/why-use-python.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Why Use Python?</a>

<a href="/python-2-or-3.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Python 2 or 3?</a>

<a href="/enterprise-python.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Enterprise Python</a>

<a href="/best-python-resources.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Best Python Resources</a>

<a href="/best-python-videos.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Best Python Videos</a>

<a href="/development-environments.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Development Environments</a>

<a href="/emacs.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Emacs</a>

<a href="/generators.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Generators</a>

<a href="/comprehensions.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Comprehensions</a>

<a href="/web-frameworks.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Web Frameworks</a>

<a href="/django.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Django</a>

<a href="/flask.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Flask</a>

<a href="/bottle.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Bottle</a>

<a href="/pyramid.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Pyramid</a>

<a href="/morepath.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Morepath</a>

<a href="/other-web-frameworks.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Other Web Frameworks</a>

<a href="/web-design.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Web Design</a>

<a href="/cascading-style-sheets.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Cascading Style Sheets</a>

<a href="/javascript.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>JavaScript</a>

<a href="/websockets.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>WebSockets</a>

<a href="/web-application-security.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item active" style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Web Application Security</a>

<a href="/static-site-generator.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Static Site Generators</a>

<a href="/databases.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Databases</a>

<a href="/no-sql-datastore.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>NoSQL Data Stores</a>

<a href="/object-relational-mappers-orms.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Object-relational Mappers (ORMs)</a>

<a href="/application-programming-interfaces.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Application Programming Interfaces</a>

<a href="/api-integration.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>API Integration</a>

<a href="/api-creation.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>API Creation</a>

<a href="/deployment.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Deployment</a>

<a href="/servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Servers</a>

<a href="/platform-as-a-service.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Platform-as-a-service</a>

<a href="/operating-systems.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Operating Systems</a>

<a href="/web-servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Web Servers</a>

<a href="/wsgi-servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>WSGI Servers</a>

<a href="/source-control.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Source Control</a>

<a href="/application-dependencies.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Application Dependencies</a>

<a href="/static-content.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Static Content</a>

<a href="/task-queues.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Task Queues</a>

<a href="/configuration-management.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Configuration Management</a>

<a href="/continuous-integration.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Continuous Integration</a>

<a href="/logging.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Logging</a>

<a href="/monitoring.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Monitoring</a>

<a href="/web-analytics.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Web Analytics</a>

<a href="/docker.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Docker</a>

<a href="/caching.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Caching</a>

<a href="/microservices.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Microservices</a>

<a href="/testing.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Testing</a>

<a href="/unit-testing.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Unit Testing</a>

<a href="/integration-testing.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Integration Testing</a>

<a href="/code-metrics.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Code Metrics</a>

<a href="/debugging.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Debugging</a>

<a href="/what-full-stack-means.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>What "Full Stack" Means</a>

<a href="/change-log.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Change Log</a>

<a href="/future-directions.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>Future Directions</a>

<a href="/about-author.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item " style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;'>About the Author</a>

</div>

</p>

</div>

</div> <div class="panel panel-success">

<div class="panel-heading"><h3 class="panel-head">Web Application Security</h3></div>

Major updates are tweeted via

<a href="https://twitter.com/fullstackpython">@fullstackpython</a>.

<hr/>

Need more detailed tutorials than you see here?

<a href="http://www.deploypython.com/">Learn more about The Full Stack Python Guide to Deployments book.</a>

</div>

</div></div>

<hr/>

</div>

<a href="http://www.mattmakai.com/" class="underline">Matt Makai</a>

2015

</div>

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){

(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),

m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)

})(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-19910497-7', 'auto');

ga('send', 'pageview');

</script>

var trackOutboundLink = function(url) { ga('send', 'event', 'outbound', 'click', url, {'hitCallback': function () { document.location = url; } }); }

</script>

</body>

</html>

fullstackpython.com/web-application-security.html at patch-1 · nullism/fullstackpython.com · GitHub

Expand file tree

Breadcrumbs

web-application-security.html

Latest commit

History

Breadcrumbs

web-application-security.html

File metadata and controls