331 - Network and Web Security - 2023

• Overview. This is the final week of the course. We conclude the client-side security part by looking at the security of sessions, which allow users to access and modify persistent state on the server, such as a bank account or a social network profile. In the lab, we practice CSRF attacks against sessions. Our last topic is web user privacy. We survey key issues, techniques and countermeasures for fingerprinting and tracking on the web. You are encouraged to try the recommended activities, which will deepen your appreciation of the privacy topics.
• Topics
  • 21 Secure sessions
    • Optional reading
      • Browse the Team Cymru SOHO Pharming report
      • Robust Defenses for Cross-Site Request Forgery
      • BrowserAudit: Automated Testing of Browser Security Features
  • 22 Browser fingerprinting
    • Optional reading
      • Exploring the Ecosystem of Web-based Device Fingerprinting
      • Analysis of the Effectiveness of Browser Fingerprinting at Large Scale
  • 23 Web user tracking
    • Optional reading
      • Detecting and Defending Against Third-Party Tracking on the Web
• Activities
  • In class session on Monday
    • Tutorial 8: Code review for PHP and XSS
  • Lab on Tuesday
    • Tutorial 9: Client-side vulnerabilities - Part 2
  • Familiarise with the OWASP cheatsheet for session management
  • Explore the AmIUnique and Panopticlick (aka Cover your Tracks) websites
  • Look at examples of fingerprinting code in fingerprint2.js
  • Install and play with the Monitorito browser extension to investigate tracking

• Overview. This week we focus on the security of the client side of web applications. The same origin policy is the main security policy that the browser implements by default to isolate web pages from each other. We look at XSS and other JavaScript threats, and explore the security implications of cookies and browser-based storage. In the lab session we attempt to find and exploit XSS vulnerabilities.
• Topics
  • 18 Same Origin Policy
    • Optional reading
      • Securing Frame Communication in Browsers
      • For reference: W3C HTML5 specification
  • 19 Scripting attacks
    • Optional reading
      • DOM-based XSS
      • Isolating JavaScript code
      • Defensive JavaScript
      • For reference
        • the W3C Content Security Policy (CSP) candidate recommendation
  • 20 Browser Storage
    • Read Chapter 9 of The Tangled Web
    • Optional reading
      • For reference: IETF RFC for cookies
• Activities
  • In class session on Monday
    • Invited lecture 3: AI for source code security (Joseph Katsioloudes, GitHub Security Lab)
  • Lab on Tuesday
    • Tutorial 7: Client-side vulnerabilities - Part 1
  • Familiarise with the OWASP cheatsheets for
    • XSS evasion
    • XSS protection

• Overview. This week we being with SQL injection, probably the most exploited server-side vulnerability, which we will practice also in the lab session. Then we look at key features and security aspects of JavaScript, and in particular obfuscation techniques. Finally we overview how browsers work, and discuss the main relevant security threats and attacks.
• Topics
  • 15 SQL Injection
    • Read Chapters 9, 10 of The Web Application Hacker's Handbook
    • Optional reading
      • Book: SQL Injection Attacks and Defense
  • 16 JavaScript
    • If you are not familiar with JavaScript, take this w3schools JavaScript tutorial
    • Read Chapter 6 of The Tangled Web
    • Optional reading
      • Studying Minified and Obfuscated Code in the Web
  • 17 Browser security
    • Read Chapter 4 of The Tangled Web
    • Optional reading
      • For reference: Browser security handbook (dated, but a goldmine of interesting details)
      • There is No Free Phish: An Analysis of “Free” and Live Phishing Kits

• Activities

  • In class session on Monday
    • Tutorial 5: Code review for PHP and SQLI
  • Lab on Tuesday
    • Tutorial 6: SQL Injection Vulnerabilities
  • Browser security examples: you are strongly advised to explore them.
    • Phishing: look for a verified and online site on https://phishtank.com
    • A real phishing kit: phishing-kit.zip
    • Clickjacking: adapt the example from https://331.cybersec.fun/xframeoptions.html
    • Drive-by download example from the slides: drive-by-download.zip
    • Polyglot: see example at https://331.cybersec.fun/polyglot.html

• Overview. This week we start with web security. First we look at HTTP which is the main protoocols supporting web applications, then we see how HTTPS protects HTTP by encapsulating it inside TLS. Follows a short introduction to PHP and some of its tricky features. PHP will be our reference language for the server side of web applications. Finally we look at the main threats and vulnerabilities affecting servers. In the tutorial, we will practice identifying some of those vulnerabilities against a demo web application.
• Topics
  • 12 HTTP
    • Read Chapters 2 and 3 of The Tangled Web
    • Optional reading
      • For reference: IETF RFCs for HTTP and HTTPS
  • 13 PHP
    • If you are not familiar with PHP, take this w3schools PHP tutorial
  • 14 Server-side security
    • Read Chapters 1-4, 20, 21 of The Web Application Hacker's Handbook
• Activities
  • In class session on Monday
    • Invited lecture 2: Email Security (Charlie Hothersall-Thomas, Netcraft)
  • Lab on Tuesday
    • Guide: Chrome and Burp in Kali
    • Tutorial 4: Server-side web vulnerabilities
  • Recommended exercise
    • Write a simple web app in PHP that can store HTTP POST data in a SQL database
    • Optional: serve your web app over HTTPS (you can get a certificate for free at https://letsencrypt.org or try using a self-signed certificate)

• Overview. This week we cover core material on network security. This is important in its own merit and also because attacks against web applications sometime span both the application and network layer. We cover a little bit more background on the TCP/IP stack, then look at key weaknesses, threats and attacks techniques for the main protocols that enable web applications: IP, TCP, UDP, DNS and TLS. In the tutorial you will apply some of these concepts in practice, so it should be attempted after reviewing all the modules. Note that module 9 is only a quick overview of firewalls and IDSs, as an in depth study goes beyond the scope of this course.
• Topics
  • 8 IP security
    • Optional reading
      • TCP/IP State Transition Diagram
      • IETF RFC for Internet Communication layer
      • Example of a BGP hijacking campaign
  • 9 Network defenses
  • 10 DNS
    • Optional reading
      • Read the man page for dig Linux utility
      • IETF RFC for DNS
      • FireEye post on Global DNS Hijacking
      • Off-Path Hacking (research paper)
  • 11 TLS
    • Optional reading
      • IETF RFCs for TLS 1.3
• Activities
  • In class session on Monday
    • Invited lecture 1: Introduction to Ransomware Operations (Antoine Vianey-Liaud, Crowdstrike)
  • Lab on Tuesday
    • Tutorial 3: Network security tools

• Overview. This week we cover more background material and general topics relevant to the rest of the course, and end with a quick look at the security of local area networks. Authentication and passwords are pervasive in cybersecurity. We introduce key concepts and best practices here, and will come back to the topic later in the course. Pentesting is a useful conceptual framework to assess the security of a network, and we will practice it in the labs from now on. The networks background module is mostly to the benefit of those students who do not have a computing background, but can serve as a quick refresher to the others. Finally we briefly discuss local area networks and some of their security weaknesses. You will practice some of what you learn on authentication, networks and LANs alread in this week's tutorial, which is practical and based on virtual machines. You will need to have installed Kali on VirtualBox, either on your laptop or on a machine in the labs. Most students have no problems with this process but some find it difficult and time consuming, so please share on EdStem if you have problems, so that other people can benefit too.
• Topics
  • 4 Authentication
  • 5 Pentesting
    • Read Chapters 3 and 4 of Professional Penetration Testing
    • Optional reading
      • Read Chapters 6 and 7 of Professional Penetration Testing
  • 6 Networks background
    • Optional reading (highly recommended if you are new to computer networks)
      • Sections 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 6.4 (up to and including 6.4.3) of Computer Networking - A Top-Down Approach - 7th Edition
  • 7 LAN security
• Activities
  • In class session on Monday
  • Lab on Tuesday
    • Tutorial 2: Virtual security lab and passwords

• Overview. This week we cover some general security topics which are relevant to the rest of the course. In order to secure a system, we want to be able to discover, fix and even better prevent security vulnerabilities. Attackers attempt to install malware on their victimes, and use malware itself to implement further attacks. Although malware is not the focus of this course, we need to have some familiarity with it in order to understand the objectives and techniques used to attack networks and web applications. Threat modelling is a conceptual tool that we will use in the rest of the course to assess the security of applications and systems. Note that this week is a gentle introduction to the course, the pace and difficulty will increase as we get into technical topics.
• Topics
  • 1 Vulnerabilities
    • Read Chapter 2 of Professional Penetration Testing
  • 2 Malware
    • Optional reading
      • Analysis of a Botnet Takeover
      • End-to-End Analysis of the Spam Value Chain
      • Understanding the Mirai Botnet
      • Browse the Evolution of Exploit Kits working paper
  • 3 Threat Modelling
    • Read Chapters 1-4 of Threat modelling – Designing for security
• Activities
  • In class session on Monday
    • Tutorial 1: Threat Modelling
  • Lab on Tuesday
    • Guide: Install VirtualBox and Kali

Sergio Maffeis. Sergio is a senior lecturer in Computer Security at Imperial. He received his Ph.D. from Imperial and his MSc from University of Pisa, Italy. Maffeis' research interests include security, formal methods, and programming languages. His recent work focuses on the application of formal methods to web security. You can find out more from his home page.

Antoine Vianey-Liaud. Antoine manages a team of threat hunters at Crowdstrike, uncovering sophisticated adversaries within the networks of a large customer base. He received his MSc from Imperial College London in 2016, delivering an ISO and thesis under the supervision of Dr Maffeis. His interests include intrusion detection (using security domain knowledge, statistical and data science methods), capture the flag competitions, and security in all its forms.

Charlie Hothersall-Thomas. Charlie is a Director of Engineering at Netcraft, where he leads the DevOps division. Prior to this he worked as a developer on a variety of Netcraft's anti-cybercrime products. His technical expertise includes web security, TLS and PKI, networking, Linux system administration and Tor. He graduated in 2014 with a BEng in Computing from Imperial College London, where he started BrowserAudit as his final year project.

Joseph Katsioloudes. Joseph works for the GitHub Security Lab, and was previously a Security Consultant at IBM. He obtained an MSc in Cyber Security Engineering from the University of Warwick and an MEng in Computing from Imperial College London. His experience in security stems from summer internships and own initiatives to problem-solve. Highlights include the disclosure of a zero-day vulnerability for a top ten cryptocurrency during his final year at Imperial College, the GCHQ security accreditation, software contributions to open-source tools and advanced attack simulations.

Almuthanna Alageel. Almuthanna is a PhD student at Imperial College London under the supervision of Dr. Maffeis. He has been working for KACST in cybersecurity since 2009 in addition to providing consultancy services for several organisations. He holds several professional certifications including CISSP, CISM, CRISC and PMP. He received his MSc in Computer Science from the University of Colorado at Denver, and his BSc in Computer Engineering from King Saud University. Almuthanna is working on detecting evasive APT campaigns.

Fahad Alotaibi. Fahad is a PhD student at Imperial College London under the supervision of Dr. Maffeis. He received his MSc from The University of York (UK) in Cyber Security, and his BCs from Shaqra University (KSA) in Computer Science. Fahad’ research is focused on robusting deep learning-based security applications againsts evasion attacks and concept drift. Fahad is also interested in other areas such as digital forensics and ransomware prevention.

Myles Foley. Myles is a PhD student at Imperial College London under the supervision of Dr. Maffeis. He received his MEng from University College London in Electronic Engineering with Computer Science, earning the ‘Outstanding MEng Graduating Student’ prize. Myles’ research is focused at novel - and exciting - ways of applying reinforcement learning to problems in cyber security.

Mohamad Hazim. Hazim is a PhD student from Imperial under the supervision of Dr. Maffeis. He received his MCompSc from the University of Malaya, Malaysia. His research interests include computer security and artificial intelligence. Hazim is currently working on software vulnerability detection using machine learning.

Kate Highnam. Kate is a PhD student at Imperial College London under the supervision of Dr. Maffeis and Dr. Nicholas R. Jennings. She received her bachelors from the University of Virginia in Computer Science with an undergraduate thesis on automated software patches within drones. After her role as a Cyber Threat Huntress, her research is now focused on domain adaptation for machine learning models in intrusion detection.