Issues Surrounding Web Server Scripting- P6
There are many different issues which relate to web server scripting, these issues can be
split down into both ethical and security related issues.
Ethical
Ethical issues arise when website creators add or edit elements on their website for
financial/ informational gain . This can include:
Scanning PCs without consent: Server side scripts such as PHP can be used to gain a lot of
information from users without them even realising this. This includes information such as
the user’s IP address, the page they came from and the browser they are using. This could
be seen to be unethical as the company is collecting information about their users without
the user’s consent.
Faking statistics: Server side scripting languages can be used to find out how many visitors
have visited a website. These visitor numbers can then be used to arrange advertising deals
with other companies. For example for every 100 people that see a banner advertisement,
the company would pay £5 for the banner being shown. However the figures generated by
the statistics software could be faked or altered without the second company knowing.
Use of cookies: Cookies are small text files that can be stored on a user’s computer and
then re-accessed by the web server at a later date. This is most commonly used when users
want their login remembered by the site as the site can access this cookie at a later date,
see they are a valid user and then log them in automatically. However this can, and is,
abused by many different websites who use cookies to target their advertising to certain
users.
Security
There are also a couple of security issues relating to using server side scripting on a web
server. These will need to be taken into account when choosing whether to use server side
scripting, these issues can include:
Password Liabilities: Server side scripting can also lead to security issues because of poorly
implemented password protection. Firstly hackers can try dictionary attacks on a login page.
This is where the hacker tries to gain access to a user’s account by trying many different
passwords. Web server scripting has no way to detect this by default meaning that dictionary
attacks can be a useful way to gain access to a secure website. Forgotten password pages
can also pose security issues to a website if they aren’t implemented particularly well. For
example if a password reset link can be used more than once, there is a danger that a user’s
website account could be compromised if their email account was hacked. Web server
scripting could be used to stop this from happening.
Coding Vulnerabilities: Server side scripts can suffer from coding vulnerabilities which can
impact on the security of the server of user’s information. This could include, for example,
There are many different issues which relate to web server scripting, these issues can be
split down into both ethical and security related issues.
Ethical
Ethical issues arise when website creators add or edit elements on their website for
financial/ informational gain . This can include:
Scanning PCs without consent: Server side scripts such as PHP can be used to gain a lot of
information from users without them even realising this. This includes information such as
the user’s IP address, the page they came from and the browser they are using. This could
be seen to be unethical as the company is collecting information about their users without
the user’s consent.
Faking statistics: Server side scripting languages can be used to find out how many visitors
have visited a website. These visitor numbers can then be used to arrange advertising deals
with other companies. For example for every 100 people that see a banner advertisement,
the company would pay £5 for the banner being shown. However the figures generated by
the statistics software could be faked or altered without the second company knowing.
Use of cookies: Cookies are small text files that can be stored on a user’s computer and
then re-accessed by the web server at a later date. This is most commonly used when users
want their login remembered by the site as the site can access this cookie at a later date,
see they are a valid user and then log them in automatically. However this can, and is,
abused by many different websites who use cookies to target their advertising to certain
users.
Security
There are also a couple of security issues relating to using server side scripting on a web
server. These will need to be taken into account when choosing whether to use server side
scripting, these issues can include:
Password Liabilities: Server side scripting can also lead to security issues because of poorly
implemented password protection. Firstly hackers can try dictionary attacks on a login page.
This is where the hacker tries to gain access to a user’s account by trying many different
passwords. Web server scripting has no way to detect this by default meaning that dictionary
attacks can be a useful way to gain access to a secure website. Forgotten password pages
can also pose security issues to a website if they aren’t implemented particularly well. For
example if a password reset link can be used more than once, there is a danger that a user’s
website account could be compromised if their email account was hacked. Web server
scripting could be used to stop this from happening.
Coding Vulnerabilities: Server side scripts can suffer from coding vulnerabilities which can
impact on the security of the server of user’s information. This could include, for example,
