• 07 Jun 2012

    The weakness of vulnerability scans that people (sadly) ignore

    Those of us who live and breathe information security on a daily basis understand that vulnerability scans are only part of the information security assessment equation. We can't live without them but as I've outlined here we by all means cannot rely on them completely.I was just speaking with a colleague about this and came up with an analogy for our overdependence on external vulnerability scans in the name of ...

    Continue Reading...
  • 11 May 2012

    Web application security assessment war stories

    I spend a lot of time performing Web security assessments and every project is a neat learning experience for me. I'm always eager to share my Web security war stories, what to do and what NOT to do so here are some new pieces you may be interested in...From exploiting Web vulnerabilities to IT geek speak and a bunch of stuff in between, I hope there's something here for you:The ...

    Continue Reading...
  • 17 Dec 2011

    WebInspect: How SQL injection testing *should* be done

    SQL injection is arguably the grandest of all security vulnerabilities. It can be exploited anonymously over the Internet to gain full access to sensitive information - and no one will ever know it occurred. Yet time and again it's either: overlooked by people who don't test all of their critical systems from every possible angle overlooked by people who haven't learned how to properly use their Web vulnerability scanners overlooked ...

    Continue Reading...
  • 01 Apr 2011

    Web security tidbits on developers, leadership, weak passwords & more

    Here are a few pieces I've written recently on Web application security you may be interested in...things that affect each and every one of us working in IT and infosec:I wouldn’t want to be a developer these daysDon’t overlook the importance of authenticated testingYou can’t change what you tolerateTesting for weak passwords: a common oversight without a great solutionHow often should you test your web applications?Notable changes in the PCI ...

    Continue Reading...
  • 04 Oct 2010

    Beware of the oversights w/default policies in Web vuln scanners

    I just ran some Web vulnerability scans against an app I'm testing using a couple of default/benign scan policies. Nothing big turned up. I re-ran the scan using a full scan policy that checks for everything and the new MS10-070 ASP.NET padding oracle vulnerability reared its ugly head...BIG difference in the outcome.Keep this in mind when checking for Web security flaws with your automated scanners and never ever completely rely ...

    Continue Reading...