In this section, we'll explain the basics of information disclosure vulnerabilities and describe how you can find and exploit them. We'll also offer some guidance on how you can prevent information disclosure vulnerabilities in your own websites. Show
Learning to find and exploit information disclosure is a vital skill for any tester. You are likely to encounter it on a regular basis and, once you know how to exploit it effectively, it can help you to improve your testing efficiency and enable you to find additional, high-severity bugs. LabsIf you're already familiar with the basic concepts behind information disclosure vulnerabilities and just want to practice exploiting them on some realistic, deliberately vulnerable targets, you can access all of the labs in this topic from the link below. View all information disclosure labs What is information disclosure?Information disclosure, also known as information leakage, is when a website unintentionally reveals sensitive information to its users. Depending on the context, websites may leak all kinds of information to a potential attacker, including:
The dangers of leaking sensitive user or business data are fairly obvious, but disclosing technical information can sometimes be just as serious. Although some of this information will be of limited use, it can potentially be a starting point for exposing an additional attack surface, which may contain other interesting vulnerabilities. The knowledge that you are able to gather could even provide the missing piece of the puzzle when trying to construct complex, high-severity attacks. Occasionally, sensitive information might be carelessly leaked to users who are simply browsing the website in a normal fashion. More commonly, however, an attacker needs to elicit the information disclosure by interacting with the website in unexpected or malicious ways. They will then carefully study the website's responses to try and identify interesting behavior. What are some examples of information disclosure?Some basic examples of information disclosure are as follows:
In this topic, you will learn how to find and exploit some of these examples and more. How do information disclosure vulnerabilities arise?Information disclosure vulnerabilities can arise in countless different ways, but these can broadly be categorized as follows:
What is the impact of information disclosure vulnerabilities?Information disclosure vulnerabilities can have both a direct and indirect impact depending on the purpose of the website and, therefore, what information an attacker is able to obtain. In some cases, the act of disclosing sensitive information alone can have a high impact on the affected parties. For example, an online shop leaking its customers' credit card details is likely to have severe consequences. On the other hand, leaking technical information, such as the directory structure or which third-party frameworks are being used, may have little to no direct impact. However, in the wrong hands, this could be the key information required to construct any number of other exploits. The severity in this case depends on what the attacker is able to do with this information. How to assess the severity of information disclosure vulnerabilitiesAlthough the ultimate impact can potentially be very severe, it is only in specific circumstances that information disclosure is a high-severity issue on its own. During testing, the disclosure of technical information in particular is often only of interest if you are able to demonstrate how an attacker could do something harmful with it. For example, the knowledge that a website is using a particular framework version is of limited use if that version is fully patched. However, this information becomes significant when the website is using an old version that contains a known vulnerability. In this case, performing a devastating attack could be as simple as applying a publicly documented exploit. It is important to exercise common sense when you find that potentially sensitive information is being leaked. It is likely that minor technical details can be discovered in numerous ways on many of the websites you test. Therefore, your main focus should be on the impact and exploitability of the leaked information, not just the presence of information disclosure as a standalone issue. The obvious exception to this is when the leaked information is so sensitive that it warrants attention in its own right. Exploiting information disclosureWe've put together some more practical advice to help you identify and exploit these kinds of vulnerabilities. You can also practice these techniques using our interactive labs. How to prevent information disclosure vulnerabilitiesPreventing information disclosure completely is tricky due to the huge variety of ways in which it can occur. However, there are some general best practices that you can follow to minimize the risk of these kinds of vulnerability creeping into your own websites.
Which statement correctly describes the authenticator and its responsibility?Which statement correctly describes the authenticator and its responsibility? The authenticator, which is usually the switch, acts as an intermediary between the authentication server and the client.
Which two security measures can help block password brute force attacks choose two?How to Prevent Brute Force Attacks. Use Strong Passwords. ... . Limit Login Attempts. ... . Monitor IP addresses. ... . Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). ... . Use CAPTCHAs. ... . Use Unique Login URLs. ... . Disable Root SSH Logins. ... . Use Web Application Firewalls (WAFs). Which command will generate the SSH encryption keys?Using this understanding, we can use the ssh-keygen command to generate SSH key pairs using various algorithms and of varying lengths. We can then use these key pairs to authenticate automatically with applications that support SSH.
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