Attacking and Exploiting Modern Web Applications

1

Mindset and Methodologies

“Novices often view exploitation as some sort of magic process, but no magic is involved – only creativity, cleverness, and a lot of dedication. In other words, it is an art.”

Enrico Perla and Massimo Oldani [1]

Welcome to the first chapter, where we will begin our journey by understanding the right approach, mindset, and methodologies for attacking and exploiting modern web applications.

As we read in the epigraph, taken from the book A Guide to Kernel Exploitation, written by a dear friend, exploitation is considered an art, which makes it difficult to systematize. While our discussion focuses on web applications rather than the Linux kernel, it is essential to clarify what we mean by attacking web applications ...