Guidelines for Discovering and Improving Application Security
Gabriel Avramescu, Mihai Bucicoiu, Daniel E. Rosner, Nicolae Ţăpuş · 2013
This paper analyzes current threats in computer security for web-based applications with a SQL database. We conduct a penetration test in a real-case scenario of multiple attacks against the network, the web application and the SQL database. The test infrastructure includes two servers, a firewall and one machine that acts as an attacker's computer. Based on our empirical analysis we diagnose specific vulnerabilities and we formulate best practices to improve security against common attack. The article contributes to the discussion of state-of-the art security techniques and illustrates the value of penetration testing for diagnosing attacks against specific technologies.