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OWASP Session Management "Cheat Sheet"

Published: 2011-07-27
Last Updated: 2011-07-27 00:22:49 UTC
by Daniel Wesemann (Version: 1)
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Application session management (or rather the lack thereof) is still one of the most frequently exploited vulnerabilities in web apps. OWASP contributor and fellow SANS ISC Handler Raul Siles has now put together a nice OWASP cheat sheet on things to consider when designing or reviewing web application session handling.  One of my favorite sentences in there is

The session ID must simply be an identifier on the client side, and its value must never include sensitive information (or PII). The meaning and business or application logic associated to the session ID must be stored on the server side,

because not doing so is one of my "favorite" application mistakes when I conduct a penetration test. Times and again do I find session IDs that are actually more than just "random" identifiers. All it takes in such cases is two distinct, valid users .. and looking at their session token readily reveals the non-random portions like account numbers, which can then be manipulated and attacked.

In his write-up, Raul also links to a couple other OWASP cheat sheets that are equally worth reading, like one on cross site scripting (XSS) prevention.  Enjoy!

 

Keywords: OWASP
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