Top 10 Common Frontend Security Attacks

In today’s digitization era, web applications are more prevalent than before as our every need from basic to higher (shopping, Banking, Booking, Medical needs, etc) has web-based solutions in place, and with this increase in web-based services, security threats have also increased parallelly.

For protecting web applications, taking front-end security into consideration is a very important aspect as it is an entry point from where users interact with the system. Today in this article we will discuss the Top 10 common frontend security attacks, along with their mechanics and techniques to prevent these threats.

What are Front-End Attacks?

Frontend attacks refer to the vulnerabilities in web applications that attackers exploit by compromising the security of web applications. These attacks often result in data theft, unauthorized access, other malicious activity, manipulating users’ data before submitting, injecting malicious scripts, etc.

Top 10 Common Frontend Security Attacks

These vulnerabilities can be exploited by attackers to steal data, hijack sessions, and manipulate users. By understanding these threats and implementing proper security measures, developers can build more secure and trustworthy web applications. Let’s dive into the details of each attack and explore methods to prevent them.

1. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Cross-Site Scripting also known as XSS, is a most popular security vulnerability that occurs in web applications. XSS attacks occur when attackers inject malicious scripts into web pages that are viewed by users. XSS security threats usually result in theft of session cookies, sensitive data, or unauthorized actions. Stored XSS (Persistent XSS), Reflected XSS (Non-Persistent XSS), and DOM-based XSS are common types of XSS attacks used by attackers.

Prevention Strategies:

• Validating the user’s input helps ensure that input contains only expected user data and does not contain any malicious code.
• Implementing a Content Security Policy helps in identifying the source of content which are allowed to execute on web pages.

2. Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks involve tricking user’s browsers by making an unintended request that points to different websites. Unlike XSS, which targets users directly CSRF targets the web page itself. With Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks, attackers seduce users to visit the malicious webpage or click on malicious links. When users click on links or visit those web pages, sensitive information of users is passed to attackers.

Prevention Strategies:

• Implementing techniques such as CSRF tokens, verifying the origin of requests and SameSite cookies can be used to prevent CSRF attacks on web applications.
• Implementing session timeout to invalid sessions after a period of inactivity can also help in preventing CSRF.

3. Clickjacking

Clickjacking is also a commonly used attack by attackers where they hide malicious content behind legitimate content and trick users into clicking that content unknowingly. Here attackers create overlay content on legitimate web pages that cover the target element of the targeted webpage. This can result in unintended user actions such as granting critical permission or revealing sensitive pieces of user information. Since malicious content is invisible to users, they are unaware that they are intersecting with the target web pages of attackers.

Prevention Strategies:

• Techniques such as X-Frame-Options headers, Content Security Policy (CSP), frame-busting scripts, and making users aware of these attacks tricks can be used to prevent these attacks.
• Using Clickjacking detection tools or available browser plugins can help developers to prevent Clickjacking attacks.

4. HTML Injections

With HTML Injection(also known as Client-Side Injection) attacks, attackers inject malicious HTML code or JavaScript into webpages to modify a web page’s behavior or appearance. Here attackers identify the weaker areas such as input fields where validations are missing and the user inputs data directly and injects malicious code into these web pages. HTML Injections are commonly used for phishing, defacement, or executing other types of attacks.

Prevention Strategies:

• Using Output encoding, Input validations, and Content Security Policy while implementing web applications can help in preventing HTML Injections.
• Doing regular code audits and code reviews to identify HTML injection and adding fixes can help in preventing HTML injection attacks.

5. Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attacks

MitM attacks occur when attackers intercept communication between two parties such as users and servers. In Man-in-the-Middle attacks intruders modify or inject malicious content into communications. Man-in-the-middle attacks are associated with network security and occur mostly at the front-end level. Intruders position themselves between client and server and intercept communication. Mediums for intercepting are mostly insecure wifi and compromised networks. Attackers can steal session cookies and authorization tokens over insecure connections.

Prevention Strategies:

• Ensure connections between the user’s browsers and servers are encrypted with HTTPS connections.
• Use SSL pinning to specify SSL certificates to ensure a secure handshake between browser and server.

6. Session Hijacking

Session Hijacking also known as Session fixation in which the attacker gains unauthorized access to the user’s session in web applications. When users get logged into the web applications, a unique session identifier is created by the server to identify users, these tokens are stored in cookies or appended in URLs mainly. Attackers intercept these identifiers and gain unauthorized access to the user’s session. By doing this attackers can access sensitive user information, change user’s account settings, and perform financial transactions.

Prevention Strategies:

• To prevent the client-side script from accessing cookies, use the HTTP Only attribute, use HTTPS to encrypt communications, and generate random and unpredictable tokens.
• Educate users about session hijacking and explain the importance of logging out from the system, especially from shared devices.

7. Content Security Policy (CSP) Bypass

Content Security Policy is a security standard that helps to prevent various types of attacks such as XSS and data injections. With Content Security Bypass attacks, attackers disable the protections provided by Content Security Policy in web applications. Some common examples of Content Security Policy bypass are Inline scripting injections, Data URI injections, Script dynamic evaluation, and Script source manipulations.

Prevention Strategies:

• Implement strict CSP policies to prevent executions of inline scripts, and avoid the use of ‘unsafe-inline‘ and ‘unsafe-eval‘ directives.
• Using auto-scanning tools for detecting CSP bypass vulnerability, and conducting regular security audits for CSP bypass vulnerability can help to prevent these attacks.

8. Form Tampering

Form tampering attacks involve modifying form data submitted by users in web applications. In this type of attack, attackers modify the values of the form before submitting them by bypassing security validation checks and manipulating data that are stored on the server. These attacks can result in serious vulnerabilities such as injection of malicious code and unauthorized access. Here attackers intercept form submission by listening to network traffic between the user’s browsers and server and then modifying the form field before the submission. Servers accept tapered data without validations which results in security vulnerabilities. Form tampering mostly results in Data manipulation, Privilege Escalation, Injection Attacks, and Denial of Service.

Prevention Strategies:

• Implement server-side form validations to make sure data received are correct and as per expectations.
• Other techniques such as HTTPS encryptions, Hidden form fields for sensitive information, and session integrity checks can help prevent form tampering.

9. Sensitive Data Exposure

Sensitive data exposure is a very critical security vulnerability that usually happens when users’ sensitive information such as passwords, and credit card numbers exposed to unauthorized parties. Sensitive data being passed over the network without encryption can be easily attacked by attackers. Storing sensitive data in securely on the client side including cookies and local storage results in data exposure. Sometimes improperly configured API or web services can also result in sensitive data exposure. Caching the user’s data in the browser’s cache also results in data exposure.

Prevention Strategies:

• Always use HTTPS for encrypting communication between client and server, store data on server securely, implement data masking can help to prevent these attacks.
• Implementing proper authentication techniques, proper session management and regular security audits can help in preventing these attacks.

10. Broken Authentication and Session Management:

Broken Authentication and Session Management type of vulnerability occurs when user authentication and session management are not handled properly. This security threat allows attackers to gain unauthorized access to user data or compromised networks and steal sensitive user data. These attacks mostly occur at front-end flow in web applications. Weak password policies, insecure authentication mechanisms, and session fixation are common ways for these attacks to happen. Attackers can also exploit CSRF vulnerability to perform unauthorized access on behalf of authenticated users in the system.

Prevention Strategies:

• Implementing multi-factor authentication adds an additional security layer that can help in preventing these security threats.
• Using best practices for session management, using anti-SCRF tokens, using HTTPS encryption, and regular security audits can help prevent these security issues.

Conclusion

Frontend security is very important for protecting web applications against the above-listed security attacks. Taking deep knowledge of these attacks making users aware of the reasons for these attacks to happen and using their prevention techniques with best practices can make front-end applications more secure. Taking regular audits, regular code reviews, and staying up to date with security tools are very important to making front-end apps and communication more secure.