A web attack is a technique to exploit weaknesses on the website or in part of it. The attacks may involve the content of a website, web application, or server. Websites provide a variety of opportunities for attackers. They can gain access to websites and obtain confidential information, or create malicious content.
Attackers often search for vulnerabilities in a website’s content or structure to take over data, control the website or harm users. Common attacks include brute force attacks as well as cross-site scripting (XSS) and attacks to upload files. Other attacks are carried out using social engineering, like malware attacks, phishing and such as trojans, ransomware or spyware.
The majority of website attacks focus on the web application. This is the software and hardware used by websites to display information to its visitors. Hackers are able to attack an application on the web by exploiting its weaknesses, including SQL injection cross-site request forgery and reflection-based XSS.
SQL injection attacks exploit the databases which web applications rely on to store and deliver content. These attacks can expose a large amount of sensitive information, particularly passwords, account logins and credit card numbers.
Cross-site scripting attacks rely on the flaws in a website’s code to display unauthorized images or text, hijack session details, and redirect visitors to phishing websites. Reflective XSS also allows an attacker to execute any code.
A man-in-the-middle attack happens when an outside party intercepts the communications between you and the web server. The third party could alter messages, spoof certificates, alter DNS responses and so on. This is a powerful way to control your online activities.