RE: Login credentials and session id security

["Ken Schaefer" <Ken () adOpenStatic com>]

Hi,

GET and POST are just HTTP verbs (i.e. ways that the browser can communicate
with the server). A hidden form field is just part of your HTML document.

Neither of which is any more secure than the other, because none of these is
specifically geared towards being an authentication mechanism, or a security
mechanism. Instead, they are geared towards transporting data between your
browser and webserver.

What you are trying to do is say that certain data is "sensitive" and that
you don't want that compromised. Well, HTTP and HTML doesn't really provide
for any such distinction between sensitive data, and non-sensitive data.

So, what are your options?

Now, SSL/TLS is a security mechanism. It's designed to encrypt data, and
protect against man-in-the-middle attacks. That allows you to send data using
a GET/POST request, without worrying too much about attacks on the data
in-transit (you still need to secure the endpoints).

Alternatively, you can look at robust authentication technologies (e.g.
Kerberos, Client Certificates) that are designed to provide a secure
authentication mechanism (obviously your HTTP data isn't protected).

Cheers
Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com] On
Behalf Of Vishal Garg
Sent: Wednesday, 6 June 2007 7:42 PM
To: webappsec () securityfocus com
Subject: Login credentials and session id security

Hi All,

Can someone please tell what is the most secure way of sending login 
credentials to the server. The possible ways that I am familiar with are:

- get method
- post method
- hidden form fields

By using an encrypted connection we cannot sniff the credentials, but 
still it is very easy to capture or manipulate these credentials 
using a web proxy from any of these methods. So I am looking to find 
a method to transport the credentials to the server so that the 
security of these credentials can't be compromised even by deploying 
a web proxy.

Also once a session id is generated, what is the best way to maintain 
the security of a session id.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards
Vishal


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