Researcher: Security risks in Web services largely ignored

Robert McMillan   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Security Stories  

Dynamic Data Center and Virtualization Drives Operational Excellence at Emory Healthcare The Secure Web Gateway. Mission Critical For Business Bringing Order and Security to your Mobile Workforce: Corporate Mobility Policy and Device Management An Overview of PAN Manager by Egenera Maximizing Business Agility with the Dynamic Data Center Fast and Simple Recovery of Your Critical Microsoft® Applications with Symantec Backup Exec" Computerworld Report- Large Enterprises Pay More for IPAM An Apple for Your Enterprise? Six Questions To Ask About Information And Competition Sign up to receive Security Resource Alerts

April 7, 2006 (IDG News Service) -- VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- In their rush to implement Web services, some companies may be exposing themselves to new security risks that they may not fully understand, a security researcher said yesterday.

During a presentation at the CanSecWest/core06 conference, researcher Alex Stamos outlined how a number of Web services technologies, including AJAX and the XQuery query language, could be exploited by hackers to dig up secret information and attack systems.

Web services is a catch-all expression used to describe a form of distributed computing that uses standards based on XML to simplify the job of programming software. One of its key tenets is that Web services applications are extremely portable and can easily interact with different types of software.

While this cross-platform capability can simplify programming, it can also create security risks by creating situations that may not have been anticipated by software developers, said Stamos, a founding partner of Information Security Partners LLC in San Francisco. During his talk, he described an attack whereby a user could enter malicious code into a Web form and then get that code to run by calling up the company's customer service number and tricking a representative into inadvertently executing it.

Stamos also showed how Web services requests could be used to conduct denial-of-service attacks, either by creating malicious XML queries that use massive amounts of memory or by bombarding databases applications with more requests than they can handle.

Web application vendors have created tools that work like "magic," hiding complexity and making it easy to create Web services. Unfortunately, these tools also make it easy for their users to ignore the security implications of the software they're building, Stamos said.

"Because of all that magic pixie dust, the people who write Web services don't necessarily understand how they work," he said. "We have a lot of customers who are hanging unbelievably crazy functionality ... just out on the Internet."

And hackers are catching on. Last month, security vendor Symantec Corp. issued its biannual Internet Security Threat report, noting that Web applications represent an increasingly attractive target for attackers. Of all vulnerabilities disclosed in the past six months of 2005, nearly 70% were associated with Web applications, Symantec said.

The trend is of particular concern to smaller companies that may not have the budgets to fully test the security of their software. But Stamos said that Web application vendors could help by adding input filtering capabilities to their products to make them better able to tell when their software is being asked to do something that it shouldn't.

Security researchers also should be paying more attention to the issue, Stamos said. "We want to get more security people looking at Web services stuff," he said. "Web application security is the red-headed stepchild of the security industry."

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2008 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Print this Story

Send Us Feedback

E-mail this Story

Digg this Story

Slashdot this Story

"Some Asian airlines are reporting rising losses to inflight credit card fraud because there is typically no online credit-card authorization..." Read more... "In Wednesday's..." Read more... Read more Security posts or See all Blogs

Microsoft dumps OneCare, slates free security software for '09 Google deal produces 91% of Mozilla's revenue Thanks to gamers, the desktop supercomputer arrives More top stories...

Ballmer: Yahoo acquisition won't happen, despite Yang's departure Microsoft feared Mac vs. Vista comparison in '05, insider e-mails show Microsoft Exchange's challenges: Partners, the cloud, and (still) Lotus Notes

2008 Salary Survey: IT pay takes tiny leaps If you're like our 7,000 survey respondents, your paycheck this year has been flattened and your bonus obliterated. We offer 12 ways to plump up your paycheck. Windows 7 in-depth review and video: This time Microsoft gets it right Microsoft's next OS might more accurately be called Windows 6.5: It's essentially a better version of Vista. Twitter for business: 5 ways to tap the power of the tweet Twitter can be a valuable business tool -- if you know what you're doing. Here's how to juice it for all it's worth. Microsoft's 'Vista Capable' changes outraged HP, insider e-mails show By helping Intel with loosened 'Vista Capable' requirements, Microsoft 'severely damaged' its credibility, said an HP exec in a newly unsealed Feb. 2006 e-mail. Windows 7 Get the latest news, reviews and more about Microsoft's newest desktop operating system More Continuing Coverage Windows 7 Voting Technology Google's Chrome browser Economy in turmoil: Latest news and tips iPhone 3G Bill Gates moves on Windows Vista A to Z Mac A to Z 2008 Salary Survey Find wage data for 50 IT job titles. More Special Reports 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2007 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2008 Best Places to Work in IT 2007 Best Places to Work in IT 2008 Salary Survey 2007 Salary Survey 2006 Salary Survey 2008 IT Forecast 2007 IT Forecast 40 Years of Computerworld Top 12 Green-IT Users The FAQs About Going Green IT Schools to Watch iPhone: One Year Later Global Mobile Your Next Data Center Management: Reinventing IT Stop Data Leaks Web 2.0 Security Surviving Disasters Managing Storage Virtualization The Lean Storage Machine Storage on Trial Can Web 2.0 Save BI? Bypass These BI Potholes All Zones Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone The Enterprise Search Zone Software as a Service Zone The Security Zone See your link here

Moving to Windows Vista: The Promise, The Reality Moving to Windows Vista: The Promise, The Reality View this exclusive webcast today! Go to the webcast  Computerworld Executive Bulletin: Building a Robust Antivirus Defense Download this Executive Bulletin (a $49.95 value) for free, compliments of MessageLabs. (Source: MessageLabs) Antivirus software alone isn't enough to prevent today's speedy, sophisticated virus attacks. Security managers should consider multitiered approaches that include behavior scanning, appliances that check e-mail for worms, and restricting user access to dangerous Web sites. Download this Executive Bulletin (a $49.95 value) for free, compliments of MessageLabs, to learn more. Download this executive briefing  Quick Sizing Guide for SAS Grid Running on HP BladeSystems and EVA Storage Download this white paper today! (Source: HP) Designed for CIOs, IT managers, data center managers and grid computing architects seeking to improve performance, SAS Grid Computing on the HP BladeSystem c-Class helps accelerate growth and mitigate risks with a simplified, consolidated infrastructure that's agile enough to efficiently handle change. SAS Grid Manager on HP BladeSystem can lower costs through automation, virtualization and improved IT efficiency. Download this white paper  White Papers Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Deploying Virtualized NetWare on Linux Whitepaper Collaboration Tools and Organizational Success Driving Business Success Through Workgroup Choice and Flexibility View more whitepapers

• Microsoft dumps OneCare, slates free security software for '09
• Ballmer: Yahoo acquisition won't happen, despite Yang's departure
• Google deal produces 91% of Mozilla's revenue
• More top stories 

The Security Zone With the mobility of employees and the ease with which external devices can be brought in and out of a network, continuing to build your security plan for network servers and clients is a must. Fortunately, there is much that organizations can do to protect themselves from attacks - internal and external. Having the right policies, procedures and server configurations is critical... Learn more in The Security Zone See All Zones

Fired up about IT? Join Sharkbait and share your true tales of IT. SharkBait is the place for you to sound off about everything IT – the good, the bad, and the rest of the weird stuff you deal with every day. New baits

"Turning information into a Competitive Advantage" Companies today are realizing that competitive advantage is harder to sustain when based solely on gains in productivity and cost efficiency. The focus is shifting to invest more in business optimization initiatives which rely on trusted information to develop new insights that deliver better business results. But how can this be done efficiently in a business environment across multiple applications and processes. The answer is an Information Agenda - an innovative approach to transforming business information into a strategic asset for competitive advantage. View this webcast now!  See more Webcasts

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: The World without Linux DATELINE: WindowsWorld 2008: Microsoft CEO and President, Steve Ballmer was happy as a clam today when he announced, for the 4th time this century, that Longhorn would be released soon. ...[more]