Web Functionality
In addition to the core communications protocol used to send messages between client and server, web applications employ numerous technologies to deliver their functionality. Any reasonably functional application may employ dozens of distinct technologies within its server and client components. Before you can mount a serious attack against a web application, you need a basic understanding of how its functionality is implemented, how the technologies used are designed to behave, and where their weak points are likely to lie.
Server-Side Functionality
The early World Wide Web contained entirely static content. Websites consisted of various resources such as HTML pages and images, which were simply loaded onto a web server and delivered to any user who requested them. Each time a particular resource was requested, the server responded with the same content.
Today's web applications still typically employ a fair number of static resources. However, a large amount...