🛡️ Pre-Cloud Web Application Security Assessment

📌 Table of Contents

• Overview
• Project Objectives
• Technologies Involved
• Tools Used
• Methodology
• Key Findings
• Threat Model Summary
• Cloud Security Mapping
• Architecture Overview
• Setup
• Future Improvements
• Assumptions & Limitations
• Key Takeaways
• Disclaimer
• Author

📌 Overview

This project presents a web vulnerability scanning and security assessment report focused on identifying risks before deploying an application to a cloud environment.
The objective is to adopt a shift-left security approach, ensuring that common web application vulnerabilities and misconfigurations are addressed early to reduce cloud attack surfaces.

The assessment is conducted in a controlled lab environment using deliberately vulnerable applications and industry-standard security tools.

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🎯 Project Objectives

• Identify common web application vulnerabilities prior to cloud deployment
• Analyze risks aligned with OWASP Top 10
• Provide actionable remediation and pre-cloud hardening recommendations
• Map application vulnerabilities to cloud-native security controls

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🧰 Technologies Involved

Web Technologies

• HTTP / HTTPS
• HTML
• JavaScript (client-side behavior analysis)
• REST-style web requests and responses

Server-side Environment (Test Application)

• Deliberately vulnerable web applications such as:
  • OWASP Juice Shop
  • DVWA
• Backend technologies used by the test applications:
  • Node.js / PHP

No custom application development is performed. The focus is on security assessment and analysis.

🔍 Tools Used

The following industry-standard tools were used during the assessment:

• OWASP ZAP – Primary automated and manual vulnerability scanner
• Burp Suite (Community Edition) – Manual request inspection and validation
• Nikto – Web server and configuration vulnerability scanning
• Nmap – Basic network and service exposure identification

All tools were used in a non-intrusive and ethical testing environment.

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🧪 Methodology

The assessment follows a structured security testing approach:

1. Reconnaissance & Application Mapping

   • Identify application endpoints and functionality

2. Automated Scanning

   • Detect common vulnerabilities and misconfigurations

3. Manual Validation

   • Verify findings to reduce false positives

4. Risk Classification

   • Assess severity and potential impact

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Architecture Overview

flowchart TB
    User[End User / Attacker]
    Internet[Internet]
    WAF[Web Application Firewall]
    APIGW[API Gateway / Load Balancer]
    App[Web Application<br/>Node.js / Express]
    DB[(Database)]
    Storage[(Object Storage)]
    Logs[Logging & Monitoring]

    User --> Internet
    Internet --> WAF
    WAF --> APIGW
    APIGW --> App
    App --> DB
    App --> Storage
    App --> Logs
    WAF --> Logs
    APIGW --> Logs

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📊 Key Findings

The assessment identified multiple vulnerabilities aligned with the OWASP Top 10, including:

• SQL Injection
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
• Broken Authentication
• Security Misconfiguration
• Sensitive Data Exposure
• Missing Security Headers

Each finding includes:

• Description
• Severity level
• Technical impact

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📂 Detailed Assessment Artifacts

Findings

• Critical Vulnerabilities: findings/Critical_Vulnerabilities.md
• High Risk Findings: findings/High_Risk_Findings.md
• Medium Risk Findings: findings/Medium_Risk_Findings.md
• Low Risk Findings: findings/Low_Risk_Findings.md

Scan Results

• OWASP ZAP: scan-results/OWASP_ZAP_Scan_Results.md
• Nikto: scan-results/Nikto_Scan_Output.md
• Burp Suite: scan-results/Burp_Suite_Findings.md
• Nmap: scan-results/Nmap_Service_Discovery.md

Reports & Remediation

• Executive Summary: reports/Executive_Summary.md
• Full Assessment Report: reports/Full_Security_Assessment_Report.md
• Vulnerability Details: reports/Vulnerability_Details.md
• Application Fixes: remediation/Application_Level_Fixes.md
• Configuration Hardening: remediation/Configuration_Hardening.md

🛠️ Recommendations

Recommendations are provided at multiple levels:

• Application-level remediation
• Security configuration improvements
• Pre-cloud deployment hardening measures
• Secure handling of authentication and data

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Threat Model Summary

Primary Threat Actors

• External attackers
• Automated bots
• Malicious authenticated users

Key Attack Vectors

• Injection attacks (SQLi, command injection)
• Authentication bypass
• Insecure file uploads
• Excessive permissions

High-Value Assets

• User credentials
• Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
• Application source logic
• Backend infrastructure

Trust Boundaries

• Internet → WAF
• WAF → Application
• Application → Database
• Application → Object Storage

☁️ Cloud Security Mapping

Each vulnerability is mapped to cloud-native mitigation strategies, such as:

• Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules
• Secure access control and identity management
• Network exposure reduction
• Secure deployment best practices
  This demonstrates how addressing issues early improves cloud security posture.

⚙️ Setup (Optional – Lab Environment)

This project does not require custom code execution.

Optional setup for testing:

• Deploy OWASP Juice Shop or DVWA locally or in a lab environment
• Run scanning tools with default configurations
• Analyze and document findings

▶️ How to Run the Security Scans

All security testing was performed in a controlled lab environment using intentionally vulnerable web applications.
No production or real-world systems were tested.

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OWASP ZAP

Used for automated vulnerability discovery and baseline testing.

zap.sh

Steps:

• Configure browser proxy to 127.0.0.1:8080
• Spider the target application
• Run Active Scan
• Export scan results

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Nikto

Used to identify server-side misconfigurations and insecure defaults.

nikto -h http://localhost:3000

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Burp Suite (Community Edition)

Used for manual validation and business logic testing.

Steps:

• Configure browser proxy (127.0.0.1:8080)
• Intercept requests
• Modify parameters using Repeater
• Validate exploitability manually

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Nmap

Used to identify exposed services and open ports.

nmap -sS -sV -Pn -T4 localhost

Future Improvements

• Integrate SAST and dependency scanning (Snyk, Semgrep)
• Add container security scanning
• Implement CI/CD security gates
• Expand cloud security mapping for Azure and GCP
• Perform authenticated scanning and role-based testing

Assumptions & Limitations

• Testing performed in an isolated lab environment
• No denial-of-service testing conducted
• Cloud deployment simulated, not production
• Findings based on time-boxed assessment

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Key Takeaways

• Performed a full pre-cloud security assessment combining automated scanning and manual validation
• Identified and triaged vulnerabilities using OWASP Top 10 and CVSS
• Demonstrated defense-in-depth by combining application fixes with cloud-native controls
• Mapped application risks to AWS security services (WAF, IAM, Secrets Manager, Monitoring)
• Highlighted limitations of automated tools through false-positive analysis

📄 Disclaimer

This project is created strictly for educational and portfolio purposes.

• No real-world or production systems were tested
• No sensitive or confidential data is included
• All activities were conducted in a controlled lab environment

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👤 Author

Sakshat S
Aspiring Cloud Security Engineer
Focused on pre-cloud security, risk reduction, and secure cloud adoption