ProgressReport.doc (inse_6140@googlegroups.com)

[srivas.v...@gmail.com]

ProgressReport.doc

Message from srivas.v...@gmail.com:

here is the progress report... and you can do the modifications... as if needed

PROJECT PROPOSAL

Team Members:-

1. Aida Pourbiazar
2. Harleen Kaur
3. Prasanna Sambasivan
4. Srivas Venkatesh
5. Yasaman Hashemi

Objective:

The aim of the project is to fix various software vulnerabilities in an intentionally vulnerable web application.

Description:

Any web application may contain many types of vulnerabilities/flaws such as SQL injection, Cross Site Scripting (XSS), Buffer overflows, etc which may act as a target for hackers. Additionally, the actual server that hosts this application may also have vulnerabilities at the Operating system level. With the help of vulnerability scanning tools, we can perform a scan on both the web application and the operating system thereby making it more secure. Two types of scans will be performed, one on the web application, and the second on the actual server hosting the web application. We propose to take this project in 2 stages.

Stage1 -

To begin with, we are going to install a virtual machine ( Oracle VM virtual Box ) and a Xampp package which includes  MySQL, PHP, Perl, Open SSL etc. Next step is to install an intentionally vulnerable web application and conduct a web vulnerability scan to find out the flaws which exists in this web application. We intend using Nikto or Acunetix (if we manage to procure a trial version).

We correct the vulnerabilities by modifying the web application code or scripts and again run our web vulnerability scanner on this hardened application. The results of both the previous scan and the current scan are compared. We form two reports to show the statistics of the scans, and the security breaches found in the application before and after the scan.  

Stage2 -

The actual server that hosts this web application is also scanned for potential vulnerabilities that may exist at the Operating System level, as a result of misconfigurations, open ports or inherent vulnerabilities in the OS kernel. We scan this server using a Vulnerability Scanner. We propose to use Nessus or other commercial tools that may be available to trial.

Server hardening is then done on the basis of the vulnerability reports generated. As before, the scan is run again, after hardening the server.

Work Plan:-

Task	Description	Responsibility	Target Timeline	Actual Completion Dates
Installing prerequisite software	Installing Linux, XAMPP, and other base tools.	Aida Pourbiazar, Yasaman Hashemi, Harleen Kaur	Feb 21st, 2011	Feb 25th, 2011
Installing the web application, scanners and initial configuration	Installation of the vulnerable web application and ensuring communication between web-app and Database.	Srivas Venkatesh, Aida Pourbiazar	March 1st, 2011	March 5th, 2011
Scanning the application and generating reports.	Stage 1 server scanning and report generation	All members.	March 15th , 2011	March 15th, 2011
Hardening the application.	Source code modification of the Web Application and hardening of the server.	All members.	March 22nd, 2011
Stage 2 scanning	Verification scan to confirm mitigation of the vulnerabilities discovered.	Yasaman Hashemi, Prasanna Sambasivan.	April 1st week
Final Report and presentation	Prepare final report document and presentation	All members	As required

 

 

 

PROJECT PROGRESS REPORT – March 14th 2011

As illustrated in the project proposal above, a web application vulnerability assessment, a server vulnerability assessment and a penetration test (if time permits) would be carried out as part of this project, in the order described above.

The following table enlists the list of activities completed until now, and further activities that we intend conducting before the final project report/presentation.

Team Member	Activities  performed until date	Description of activities performed.	Activities remaining.
Aida Pourbiazar	Linux and XAMPP Installation on main machine and backup machine.	Installation of Ubuntu Linux 10.04, to be used as the webserver. LAMP (Linux – Apache – MySQL – PHP) backend on Ubuntu through XAMPP module. Installation replicated on 2nd machine, to be used as backup.	Server hardening on basis of the report generated by Nessus. Source code review of vulnerable web application. Final Report generation Second stage scanning after server and web application has been hardened.
Harleen Kaur
Prasanna Sambasivan	PHP/MySQL application creation, configuration and installation. Selection of tools for server and web application scans. Selection of penetration testing tool	Installation of web application and initial configuration. Damn Vulnerable Web Application (DVWA) based intentionally vulnerable web application was selected for scanning for XSS/SQL Injections and misconfigurations. Nikto/Nessus to be used for scanning the Web Application and conducting VA scans on the Ubuntu Server.	Source code review of vulnerable web application. Penetration Test on the Server (proposed) using Metasploit framework, if time permits. Second stage scanning after server and web application has been hardened.
Srivas Venkatesh	Scanning of the web application using Nikto and Scanning the server using Nessus. Writing this project progress report.	Web Application Scan scheduled to be conducted on March 15th 2011, after configuration of the Ubuntu server and the web application. Server Application scan already conducted and reports in the process of being generated.	Server hardening on basis of the report generated by Nessus. Source code review of vulnerable web application. Presentation slides for final presentation.
Yasaman Hashemi

* Activities remaining column subject to change, depending on availability of team members.

Rationale behind using an intentionally vulnerable Web Application: An intentionally vulnerable web application was selected since the aim of our project is to actively scan the application for XSS and SQL injections. Performing such scans in a live, production environment on a web application hosted on the Internet could be both risky and illegal.

Therefore, in the interest of understanding, analyzing and hardening an application, we have decided to use an intentionally vulnerable application – the source code of which we have access to, and will submit as a part of the final report, as required. Modified source code, which has been hardened will also be submitted.

Note on Penetration Test: We intend conducting a penetration test on the Ubuntu Server on which we have installed a LAMP environment.  The penetration test will be performed if time permits, and we have access to workable installation of Metasploit framework. Since the penetration test can be potentially destructive and can crash our server, we may conduct this test on the backup system and submit the report, or present a live demonstration of the penetration test during the presentation.

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