The Web Application Hacker's Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting Security Flaws

Chapter 13. Automating Bespoke Attacks

This chapter does not introduce any new categories of vulnerability. Rather, we will be examining one key element in an effective methodology for hacking web applications— that is, the use of automation to strengthen and accelerate bespoke attacks. The range of techniques involved can be applied throughout the application and to every stage of the attack process, from initial mapping to actual exploitation.

Every web application is different. Attacking an application effectively involves using various manual procedures and techniques to understand its behavior and probe for vulnerabilities. It also entails bringing to bear your experience and intuition in an imaginative way. Attacks are typically bespoke, or custom-made, in nature, tailored to the particular behavior you have identified, and the specific ways in which the application enables you to interact with and manipulate it. Performing bespoke attacks manually can be extremely laborious and is prone to mistakes. The most successful web application hackers take their bespoke attacks a step further, and find ways of automating these to make them easier, faster, and more effective.

In this chapter, we will describe a proven methodology for automating bespoke attacks. This methodology combines the virtues of human intelligence and computerized brute force, usually with devastating results.

Uses for Bespoke Automation

There are three main situations in which bespoke automated techniques can be ...