This post is for website admins who didnt bother there website's security. so every website owner especially noobs should follow certain steps to protect ther website from hackers as now days cyber crime is on "boom"
...:D..!!
Hackers have lots of reasons for attacking your website and protecting it is the only solution. So, what steps can you take to protect your site from these hackers?
Hackers are constantly attacking websites and one day, even if your site is not experiencing huge traffic levels, a hacker might come calling at your door to test your security levels. How do you stop them from gaining access and possibly taking control of your website?
Passwords
Your site admin must have a strong password – never ‘password’ or other obvious words. A medium strength password will include a combination of numbers and letters, ideally using upper and lower case letters. Make it stronger by including other characters, such as @ – ? etc. Anything that you can add that means your password is not a straight forward word or two can really improve it.
Your site admin must have a strong password – never ‘password’ or other obvious words. A medium strength password will include a combination of numbers and letters, ideally using upper and lower case letters. Make it stronger by including other characters, such as @ – ? etc. Anything that you can add that means your password is not a straight forward word or two can really improve it.
Ideally, also sign on with a user name that is not obvious – not ‘admin’, ‘administrator’ and so on. This way the hacker must guess user name and password. And if you can move your administration area to an unusual directory, then the hacker might not even be able to find it!
Watch what is happening
Monitor failed logon attempts to the admin and maybe close it down if there are too many. Be on the look out for multiple failed attempts from the same IP address and multiple failed attempts on the same user name. Hackers might use networks of computers to constantly submit different passwords to your admin and if these are hijacked computers, they will have different IP addresses, but they will all attack the same userid.
Monitor failed logon attempts to the admin and maybe close it down if there are too many. Be on the look out for multiple failed attempts from the same IP address and multiple failed attempts on the same user name. Hackers might use networks of computers to constantly submit different passwords to your admin and if these are hijacked computers, they will have different IP addresses, but they will all attack the same userid.
Be alert to traffic patterns
Watch your traffic stats for sudden interest in pages, especially pages that shouldn’t be there and protect the code from SQL injection. And if any part of your website is uploading files then validate the format. I like to check that images are a valid image format and then put them through a resize algorithm. That way php / asp files cannot be uploaded and ran should a hacker gain entry to an admin system.
Watch your traffic stats for sudden interest in pages, especially pages that shouldn’t be there and protect the code from SQL injection. And if any part of your website is uploading files then validate the format. I like to check that images are a valid image format and then put them through a resize algorithm. That way php / asp files cannot be uploaded and ran should a hacker gain entry to an admin system.
SQL injection
This is a popular way of reading your tables and trying to find out if you have passwords stored there and other malicious tricks, such as uploading content to your pages. Make sure that you use correct escape routines to remove any attempts to inject SQL into your code and on pages where all that is needed is a read only access, just use a read only user id. Then if someone slips in extra code the potential damage might just be limited.
This is a popular way of reading your tables and trying to find out if you have passwords stored there and other malicious tricks, such as uploading content to your pages. Make sure that you use correct escape routines to remove any attempts to inject SQL into your code and on pages where all that is needed is a read only access, just use a read only user id. Then if someone slips in extra code the potential damage might just be limited.
You can also validate inputs to prevent SQL injection. For example, if you are expecting to be passed an id that is an integer, then test that it is an integer. If not, then I like to just exit the code immediately so that there are no extra clues given and the page stops loading immediately.
i want to you to download this website vulnerability scannner tool called ACUNETIX
6 Basic Website Security Steps
In my quest to beat the hackers who have had a go at some customer websites, I have created a list of a few basic security steps for people building their own websites. Please do leave comments of any others you can think of.
1) Make sure that passwords are not readable in your database.
Yes, it can make life more difficult when you need to reset your own password, but if a hacker manages to gain read access to your database (which can be quite easy, see step 5) then if passwords are on show they can access anything. Even if you just create an MD5 checksum of the password so that it is difficult to read, that is a step in the right direction.
Yes, it can make life more difficult when you need to reset your own password, but if a hacker manages to gain read access to your database (which can be quite easy, see step 5) then if passwords are on show they can access anything. Even if you just create an MD5 checksum of the password so that it is difficult to read, that is a step in the right direction.
2) Give your logons good user names.
In single user systems it is tempting to do without user names or use basic names such as ‘admin’. Don’t! If a hacker has to find out a username and a password they are much less likely to get through. Store them on separate tables in your database, or in a single user (or limited user) environment, why not store the username in the PHP / ASP? A username is a good protection against brute force attacks.
In single user systems it is tempting to do without user names or use basic names such as ‘admin’. Don’t! If a hacker has to find out a username and a password they are much less likely to get through. Store them on separate tables in your database, or in a single user (or limited user) environment, why not store the username in the PHP / ASP? A username is a good protection against brute force attacks.
3) Check what you upload!
Does your admin allow you to upload files to your server? This is what a hacker wants – then they can upload their backdoors. If you are expecting to upload images check the file is an image (jpg, gif etc). If it is meant to be PDF validate that. Then, rename the file to hide it! For example picture.jpg might become 1.jpg.
Does your admin allow you to upload files to your server? This is what a hacker wants – then they can upload their backdoors. If you are expecting to upload images check the file is an image (jpg, gif etc). If it is meant to be PDF validate that. Then, rename the file to hide it! For example picture.jpg might become 1.jpg.
4) Do not directly access uploaded images.
If a hacker can upload a file, then they need to find out where it is stored. But, if you instead use a picture resizing routine which has the uploads directory hard coded, then there is no clue as to what directory the files are stored in. If a hacker realises that the uploaded files are well hidden it might be enough to make them leave your site alone.
If a hacker can upload a file, then they need to find out where it is stored. But, if you instead use a picture resizing routine which has the uploads directory hard coded, then there is no clue as to what directory the files are stored in. If a hacker realises that the uploaded files are well hidden it might be enough to make them leave your site alone.
5) Validate all input string parameters.
To gain read access of the database a hacker can try to manipulate inputs. So, make sure the values are what you expected. For example, if you have mypage.php?id=1 and the id is a number, then fail the script immediately if the id is not numeric.
To gain read access of the database a hacker can try to manipulate inputs. So, make sure the values are what you expected. For example, if you have mypage.php?id=1 and the id is a number, then fail the script immediately if the id is not numeric.
If you are passing a string, within the PHP / ASP check it for an exact match on expected results before using it within a MYSQL query. You can do this by running through the database values or a hardcoded list.
If you are running a search function then this is a lot more difficult to protect, but not impossible. Make sure you use the POST method and check the referring page is on your website. If possible, remove all non alpha-numeric characters or at the very least backslash out quotes. If you don’t then they will cause problems anyway in genuine searches.
6) Monitor failed logons.
And maybe even those queries detected in step 5. If the logon fails, send yourself an email. If there is a brute force attack you might find your email box suddenly filled up, so you might prefer to use a separate email address for this. If you want to be really clever monitor the failed logon attempts and lock your admin out for an hour after a few failed attempts.
thanxx for reading well do comment if u got any query :)
And maybe even those queries detected in step 5. If the logon fails, send yourself an email. If there is a brute force attack you might find your email box suddenly filled up, so you might prefer to use a separate email address for this. If you want to be really clever monitor the failed logon attempts and lock your admin out for an hour after a few failed attempts.
thanxx for reading well do comment if u got any query :)
Labels:
cyber security,
PC TIPS,
Website hacking
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