Just like any form of programming language JavaScript is not without its share of potential risks. Though JavaScript vulnerabilities may go on to redirect sessions, manipulate data, steal data and more. JavaScript protection is important on all counts since security issues may lead to problems in the client-side environment as well. The best form of defence against JavaScript vulnerabilities is to become aware of them and proper controls are to be implemented to reduce any form of exposure.
What is JavaScript security?
JavaScript security is about preventing and resolving security issues in applications where JavaScript is used. It turns out to be a fundamental technology for building web applications and due to its widespread popularity, it is a hit among hackers. Since it is mostly used at the front end it does make sense to focus on JavaScript security issues on the browsers. The software vendors have also realized these issues reacting with JavaScript software along with testing tools that would applications a tinge secure. It is suggested that you have an idea about the vulnerabilities that tend to arise in the code. Appsealing suggests that these are some of the code vulnerabilities with JavaScript and can be solved at the earliest.
Source code vulnerabilities
The source code vulnerabilities may be combined with other JavaScript holes. But in these cases, even a single JavaScript obfuscation cannot prevent or hide such forms of vulnerabilities. The reason being it is interpreted and not compiled. Hence it may seem virtually impossible to protect the application code from being examined by hackers by this method. Still, obfuscation may turn out to be a good practice, as it may slow down the hackers in reverse engineering methods.
There is another cause of security holes in the source code, and that is the rampant use of libraries and public packages. Though the sheer variety that is provided is a definite advantage, what it means is that there are hidden vulnerabilities in the package that would be installed in the web application projects. Even for the simplest of tasks, the developers can install a package.
Unintended script execution
A major chunk of unintended script execution involves cross-site scripting. One of the concerns with JavaScript is the manner by which it goes on to interact with document object models on a webpage. This allows the script to be embedded and executed on client computers all across the web. Still this point in time there are various forms of XSS attacks that exist, they may cause the untrusted server to appear and run in the browser of the user.
One of the basic XSS attacks is often come across on forum websites where users are able to see the messages of each other on the webpage. If JavaScript or HTML is not properly encoded if they are a part of the message, unscrupulous users may end up posting a script into the forum. To prevent the such form of attackers the developers have to apply santization.