Today, website hacking has become the biggest phenomenon in the digital world. Every day, we hear news about hackers hacking websites. Seeing the massive losses caused by website hacking on people and businesses who have put everything into building their business is very disheartening. It is necessary to understand the entire concept of website hacking before you can learn about it.
What is Website Hacking?
Website hacking means when an unauthorized person gets access to a user’s website without their knowledge or permission and misuses the website for their interest. A hacker may gain access to the owner's website, remove content, and deny them access to it. One of the biggest dangers of website hacking is that the hacker may even use the website to convey a false political message, causing trouble for the website owner.
WAPT / Penetration Testing
The hacker can gain confidential information, remove their website content, and deny their website owner access to the website. The biggest danger of website hacking is that the hacker can even misuse the website to communicate a false political message that can lead the actual owner of the website into trouble. Their work is to identify security faults in web application and their components. Here the ethical hacker uses the attacker’s perspective like SQL injection tests to fabricate a criminal attack.
Burpsuite
Burpsuite is a framework of web application penetration testing based on Java. It is the most common tool used by security professionals in the world which helps them to find faults and verify hackers’ activities affecting web applications. In short, Burpsuite can be defined as an Interception Proxy. It means that with the help of the Burp Suite proxy server, a penetration tester can construct their internet browser while browsing the user application.
LFI
Local File Inclusion (LFI) is a technique that attackers use to trick a target web application into running files or exposing files on the target webserver. Through an LFI attack, an attacker can steal sensitive data and can even lead to remote code execution and cross-site scripting (XSS). Usually, this attack is done when an application treats the file as input without proper approval. This allows the attacker to add mischievous files by manipulating the input. However, the attacker only uses local files to attack through LFI.
RFI
Remote File Inclusion (RFI) is a code injection attack through which an attacker put a link into an URL of a website that guides the website to install a malicious file. The word ‘remote’ in the name itself reveals that the website has sourced the file from another website. RFI is quite similar to LFI and is often underestimated by security professionals as both cyberattacks are elementary attacks.
Authentication Bypass
Authentication bypass in a website hacking is a cyber-attack through which an attacker performs various criminal operations by bypassing the device authentication mechanism. In simple words, authentication bypass is the weakest point where attackers gain access to the application and get users’ confidential data. This type of cyberattack can occur when the user doesn't pay full attention to the security of the application, such as failing to reset the default password, securing servers and data properly, or having an unauthenticated file.
No Rate Limit Attacks
Before understanding the No Rate Limit Attack, you have to learn about the Rate Limit. Rate limiting is a methodology of limiting requests to control network traffic. For example, a web server set a limit of 15 requests per minute. So, if you try to send requests over 15 then the server will get an error and it will stop the person entering the application. Like, you get suspended from your social media account for a few hours when you enter the wrong password 3-4 times.
No rate limit attack is a defect in which the attacker doesn’t get any limitation on the number of attempts on a website server to steal sensitive information. This can lead to a serious issue if the attacker takes advantage of the user’s confidential data and misuses the information.
Xss
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a type of cyberattack, in which the attacker injects the malicious script into a trusted website. It is done when an unauthorized hacker uses a web application to send mischievous code in the form of a browser-side script to another user. These attacks are successful only when a web application uses input from a user output itself when it gets generated without encoding it.
Writing Reports of Penetration Testing
Report writing in penetration testing is an elaborate requirement for successful vulnerability assessments. It requires a detailed explanation of content and design with examples, all based on the tester's working experience with the server. Upon completion, it is shared with senior and technical personnel of the organization for easy reference if any issue arises in the future. The process involves several stages: report planning, information collection, original drafting, review and finalization
Bug Bounty Techniques
Additionally, bounty programs have been developed as incentives to ethical hackers who can discover vulnerabilities in computer systems or web applications; they are often rewarded monetarily on success for their work which may amount to millions in rupees.
Directory Brute-forcing
Directory brute force is a tool that detects invisible and mostly forgotten directories on a website. There are numerous automated tools and scripts that aim to retrieve the status of the directory which is brute-forced from a customized list of words. It is a common form of malicious attack which is used against websites and web servers that contain insecure or outdated software.