Java and JavaScript have as many security vulnerabilities as other programming languages. These exposures can redirect sessions, manipulate data, and modify and steal information. The security issues can affect server-side environments even though Java and JavaScript are usually viewed as client-side applications. Since the effects of Java and JavaScript vulnerabilities can be severe, it is crucial to recognize the security issues and implement appropriate controls and measures to counter them.
Java has many security exposures, and each has different steps taken to reduce or prevent. The first vulnerability is unpatched libraries, resulting from other applications, such as older versions of software. This issue is countered by ensuring that the components are patched and updated using dependency managers, for example, Maven (Kaur & Nayyar, 2020). The second Java susceptibility is application misconfiguration, which exposes the administration interface, and to counter this vulnerability, remove or disable the servlet from the production web.xml. The third security exposure is cross-site scripting, XSS, which occurs when a malicious HTML or client-side script is embedded by an attacker to send malicious content to an unsuspecting user (Kaur & Nayyar, 2020). To counter this vulnerability, URL-encode or HTML-encode all output data.
Similarly, Javascript has some vulnerabilities, and most of them result from end-user interaction. The first one is cross-site scripting, XSS, a web application flaw allowing attackers to execute JavaScript codes on web pages (Akram, & Ping, 2020). This attack is prevented through the installation of secure cross-site scripting filters to sanitize unscripted domains’ inputs. The second vulnerability is SQL injection, which allows end-users to control a database behind a web application by executing SQL controls. To counter this issue, it is vital to prepare SQL statement s to secure database query strings to validate user inputs (Akram, & Ping, 2020). The third threat is a collection of open-source vulnerabilities that attackers use to compromise or steal data by putting in malicious codes. They can be prevented by setting API access keys and secure cookies, and encrypting data.
In conclusion, there are many Java and JavaScript vulnerabilities, and they differ in nature and effect on data and the server. Identifying each of these security issues is an essential step to deciding on the best ways to counter each of them. Some require simple procedures, while others require careful and detailed manipulation. Some vulnerabilities are common to both Java and JavaScript, for example, cross-site scripting, a prevalent security exposure.
References
Akram, J., & Ping, L. (2020). How to build a vulnerability benchmark to overcome cyber security attacks. IET Information Security, 14(1), 60-71.
Kaur, A., & Nayyar, R. (2020). A comparative study of static code analysis tools for vulnerability detection in C/C++ and JAVA source code. Procedia Computer Science, 171, 2023-2029.