What is Web Attack?
A web attack is a plan to exploit weaknesses on the website or parts of it. The attacks may involve the content, web application or server of a site. Websites provide many opportunities for attackers to gain unauthorised access, obtain sensitive information, or create malicious content.
Attackers search for weaknesses in the content or structure of a website, in order to obtain data, gain control of it, or even harm users. The most frequent attacks are brute force attacks, cross-site scripting (XSS) and attacks against uploads of files. Other attacks are carried out through social engineering, such as phishing, and malware attacks such as trojans, ransomware or spyware.
The most frequent attacks on websites target the web application, that is composed of the software and hardware that a website uses to show information to users. Hackers can attack a website using its weaknesses. These include SQL injection, cross site request forgery, and reflection-based XSS.
SQL injection attacks exploit database that web applications use to store and transmit website content. These attacks can expose sensitive data such as passwords, account logins and credit card numbers.
Cross-site scripting attacks depend on the flaws in a website’s code to display unauthorised images or text, take over session details and redirect users to fake websites. Reflective XSS can also allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code.
A man-in-the-middle attack occurs when a third party intercepts the communication between you and a web server. The third party can then modify the messages and spoof certificates, alter DNS responses, and so on. This is an extremely effective way to manipulate your online activities.