Book Image

Kali Linux Web Penetration Testing Cookbook

By : Gilberto Najera-Gutierrez
Book Image

Kali Linux Web Penetration Testing Cookbook

By: Gilberto Najera-Gutierrez

Overview of this book

Web applications are a huge point of attack for malicious hackers and a critical area for security professionals and penetration testers to lock down and secure. Kali Linux is a Linux-based penetration testing platform and operating system that provides a huge array of testing tools, many of which can be used specifically to execute web penetration testing. This book will teach you, in the form step-by-step recipes, how to detect a wide array of vulnerabilities, exploit them to analyze their consequences, and ultimately buffer attackable surfaces so applications are more secure, for you and your users. Starting from the setup of a testing laboratory, this book will give you the skills you need to cover every stage of a penetration test: from gathering information about the system and the application to identifying vulnerabilities through manual testing and the use of vulnerability scanners to both basic and advanced exploitation techniques that may lead to a full system compromise. Finally, we will put this into the context of OWASP and the top 10 web application vulnerabilities you are most likely to encounter, equipping you with the ability to combat them effectively. By the end of the book, you will have the required skills to identify, exploit, and prevent web application vulnerabilities.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Kali Linux Web Penetration Testing Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

A6 – Protecting sensitive data


When an application stores or uses information that is sensitive in some way (credit card numbers, social security numbers, health records, passwords, and so on), special measures should be taken to protect it, as it could result in severe reputational, economic, or even legal damage to the organization that is responsible for its protection and suffers a breach that compromises it.

The sixth place in OWASP Top 10 is the sensitive data exposure, and it happens when data that should be specially protected is exposed in clear-text or with weak security measures.

In this recipe, we will cover some of the best practices when handling, communicating, and storing this type of data.

How to do it...

  1. If the sensitive data you use can be deleted after use, do it. It is much better to ask users every time for their credit card than have it stolen in a breach.

  2. When processing payments, always prefer the use of a payment gateway instead of storing such data in your servers....