Protecting your site and your clients

Web Security

Article from Issue 94/2008
Author(s):

Learn more about protecting your website with NoScript, ModSecurity, and Site Security Policy.

Like many security issues, the World Wide Web presents two very different sets of problems with some very different solutions. On the one side, most of us use a web browser on a regular basis and want to prevent our web clients from running an attacker's code, letting them take over our machine. On the other side are web servers, which you don't want to see compromised, under constant attack (XSS, SQL injection, etc.). So what's the answer? Well, there is no single answer. You need to take steps to protect both the clients and the servers because no matter how security conscious you are, you will interact with servers or clients that are less secure.

JavaScript and NoScript

For the Firefox web browser, out of 196 security advisories, 62 listed disabling JavaScript as a workaround. Additionally, the JavaScript-based vulnerabilities tend to be the ones that allow for arbitrary code execution, so any preemptive security measure that deals with them will have a significant effect.

Securing web clients against attacks is relatively simple; however, some websites might not work properly. Disabling JavaScript entirely is one option, but many sites now rely on JavaScript to present content, forms, and so on.

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