JavaScript is a great programming tool, but JavaScript security problems can cause significant damage to organizations and their customers. To help cybersecurity professionals and software developers better understand everything they need to know to improve JavaScript security, we’ve developed a free, comprehensive e-book, The Ultimate Guide to JavaScript Security. In it, we address the increasing number of threats and damaging attacks connected to JavaScript vulnerabilities, flaws, and open-source libraries. The guide highlights the fundamental risks associated with using JavaScript in an unprotected client-side environment, and what application security professionals and web application developers can do to better protect their websites and customers.
JavaScript Is Popular. But It Is Also Insecure.
Among professional developers, for the last nine years in a row, JavaScript has been cited as the most popular programming language, according to the 2021 Stack Overflow Developer Survey. This comes as no surprise. JavaScript is easy to learn and use, operates quickly within a browser, works well with other programming languages, reduces server load, and offers programmers the ability to create rich and engaging interfaces.
But JavaScript has one big problem: it is highly insecure, with threat actors increasingly using JavaScript to deliver attacks, often from open-source and third-party JavaScript libraries.
Leverage the Power of JavaScript while Protecting the Client Side.
The power of JavaScript is evident across today’s digital landscape. Almost 98% of all websites use JavaScript as the client-side programming language to add interactive behavior to webpages and to create web and mobile apps. Banking sites use it for customer forms; e-commerce sites depend on it heavily to support the user experience during the shopping and purchasing process; and businesses use it for advertising and analytics.
However, traditional perimeter security tools, like firewalls, don’t secure the front end or client side of a web application. This means that any organization leveraging JavaScript on the client side is at much greater risk of attack from threats like Magecart, e-skimming, formjacking, and cross-site scripting.
Learn About JavaScript Security in Feroot’s New E-book.
The free, new e-book: The Ultimate Guide to JavaScript Security contains five primary sections that cover everything businesses, AppSec professionals, CISOs, and web developers need to know about JavaScript security:
- Client-Side Attacks and JavaScript Code
- Securing JavaScript
- JavaScript Security Approaches & Technologies
- JavaScript Risks and Threats
- JavaScript Security: Teams and Collaboration
Each of these sections addresses key issues related to JavaScript security from a client-side perspective and provides the reader with guidance on how to better protect customers and businesses.
E-book Highlights
Key highlights from The Ultimate Guide to JavaScript Security include:
- JavaScript is a client-side language processed by the web browser, not the web server, which means client-side activity happens outside of the business’s security perimeter. Traditional security technologies, like firewalls, will not protect the end-user from malicious activity occurring on the client side.
- High-risk industries under threat of a JavaScript attack include financial services & banking, healthcare & medical, e-commerce & retail, travel & hospitality, media companies, and cryptocurrency exchanges & blockchain.
- Automated scanning tools are the best way to detect, identify, and alert on behavior anomalies within JavaScript.
- Research suggests that website and web application attacks account for more than a quarter of all data breaches. Common attack types include e-skimming, Magecart, sideloading, cross-site scripting (XSS), and formjacking.
- JavaScript is vulnerable because it is easy for hackers and other threat actors to input query strings into forms to access, steal, or contaminate protected data. By default, JavaScript environments do not have a security permissions model built in.
- Third- and fourth-party scripts, plug-ins, and extensions are usually written in JavaScript. These tools present added risk since vulnerabilities and bugs can be embedded in the code.
- JavaScript code can lie undetected and seemingly benign, while performing countless nefarious acts such as intercepting customer information from a form or stealing credit card information.
Learn More about JavaScript Security
If you are an AppSec professional or CISO, or maintain a website to support your end users as part of your business model, then client-side security is crucial. Download this free e-book The Ultimate Guide to JavaScript Security. Gain a better understanding of JavaScript security threats and how you can protect your business and your customers from e-skimming, Magecart, cross-site scripting, and the multitude of other cyberthreats attacking the front end of your web applications.