How to Develop Secure Web Application in ASP.NET?

Updated on Apr 20th, 2021

Security! Security! Security! This is really a buzzword in this digital era. As the IT is stepping forward, people are now being more conscious about the security and hackers, spammers are becoming more strategically advanced with their efforts. Amidst this tug war between IT security personnel and data breaches of website development services, Its duty of developers to provide the security code and render the potential ground for stakeholders to work upon. The developers working with ASP often pay enough attention to security, the reason is the authentication and validation rules provided by .Net framework. The asp.net framework is amazingly developed to provide the ease of development along with the extensive level of customization.  

Developing a secure web application is not a herculean task for Asp.net development company and it is just extra attention that can pay a huge relief to the user. There are some important factors which need to be paid attention to.

The official documentation over the.Net framework recommends the use of email confirmation for eliminating the spammers. Alongside the use of two factor SMS authentication also help insecure logging in which requires the user to enter the Unique identification pin every time he logs in.

Sanitize the query string:

The malicious data fired through the query string is the most vulnerable attack by any hacker. Query strings are part of the URL which starts after URL followed by the question mark ”?” sign. Data attackers use these strings to feed malicious data into the website. Sometimes these malicious data contains loops which put the system into an unending loop leaving the resources open for attack. Therefore the most important task for developers at ASP.net development companies is to prevent the malicious data from entering into the website. The best security patch for securing the passing query string is to whitelist the URL before reaching to the server and sending the request for data retrieval. Removing the bad URL and cleaning them discourages the characters which are not whitelisted. No technical stakeholders, therefore, need to hire Asp.net developers for minor and major security concerns.

Data Encoding and Encryption:

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Data security experts always recommend encrypting the data before transacting or communicating. The current Azure platform for ASP.net applications is capable and feature-rich. The technology evolves over time, so practice.  

Protect Data: For securing data over the cloud, you need to take account of the data at several states. The best practices for Azure data security and encryption depend on the following data states.

At rest: It consists of all the data statically existing on the physical media such as Magnetic disk.

Transition state: It includes all the data being transmitted to other components, and locations. For example, the data being transferred over the network, between the input-output process and from service bus to cloud or vice versa.

Key management solution

In order to protect the data in the cloud, Azure Key Vault assists by safeguarding the cryptographic keys which cloud apps and services make use of. Here, the key management process is streamlined which solidifies the control of keys for accessing and encrypting the data. Asp.net developers create a key for testing and then migrate to production keys. The keyvaults are used to create secure containers, which are called Vaults, that are backed by HSMs. The vault discourages the accidental loss by centralizing the application secrets. Azure Key vault is made to support the access secrets and application keys, while also hold the responsibility of request and renew the Transport Layer Security certificates and gives the substantial ground for certificate lifecycle management.

Below are the best practices by website development services to use the Key Vault:

1. Granting access at a specific scope: While granting users access for management, assign the predefined key role. You can also define your own custom role if predefined does not suit your requirement.

2. Control the access of users: Access is controlled through two interfaces: Management and Data Plane access control. If you are granting access to use the key in Key Vault, Data Plane access is given. If you are rendering access to read properties, but no access for the key secrets or certificates, only Management Plane access is given.

3. Store certificates in Key Vault: Certificates are of high importance and little carelessness can compromise the security. Azure Resource Manager is used to secure deployment of the certificates from Azure Key Vault to Azure VM. Also, you can manage all the keys and applications of secrets from one place.

4. Ensure the recovery for the deletion of Key Vault objects: You must ensure the recovery of deleted Vault objects. The soft deletion and purge protection must be enabled for the keys that are used for data at Rest. The deletion of the key is equivalent to data loss and therefore, Key Vault recovery must be practiced regularly.

5. Secure management workstation for sensitive accounts and data: Using the secure management workstation helps in mitigating the attacks and ensuring the safe data.

Endpoint protection: Putting the security policy across the devices, which consumes data is a must.  

6. Data Protection at REST: Protection of the data at REST is mandatory for data privacy and sovereignty. Below are the best practices :

  • Azure Disk encryption must be applied which enable the IT administrators for the encryption of Linux IaaS disks and Windows. Azure SQL database usually encrypt data at rest.
  • Mitigate the risk of unauthorized data access through encryption fo drives before writing over them. Enforcing data encryption keeps unauthorized access away and saves from data-confidentiality issues.

7. Protect the transiting data: Protection of the data in the transition phase is essential. It is recommended to always make use of SSL or TSL protocols for exchanging the data across the network. For the data transacting between Azure and on-premise infrastructure, Safeguards such as HTTPS or VPN is used. Alongside, for sending the encrypted traffic between on-premise location and Azure virtual network, Azure VPN gateway is recommended. Protecting the data in transition is necessary for security from session-hijacking and eavesdropping, hire asp.net developer for a secure start.

8. Best practices for HTTPS, Azure VPN Gateway, and SSL/TLS.

  • Access security from multiple management workstation to Azure Virtual Network through the site to site VPN.
  • Access security from individual workstation to Azure Virtual Network through Point to site VPN.
  • Use Express Route along with the encryption through SSL/TLS for moving the large data sets over WAN link.
  • Make use of Storage REST API  over HTTPS to interact Azure Storage.

9. Service call security: When you open the WCF connection through the basicHTTPBinding, it poses the risk for the data breach as the hackers may see the plain data. To send the data in the encrypted form, the use of wsHTTPBinding is recommended. For better security, hosting services are always recommended under the SSL layer.

10. Set ENABLEVIEWSTATEMAC=TRUE: MAC is the cryptographic code, which is generated by the server and assigned to ViewState. MAC value ensures the data has not been manipulated whereas false denotes that the data is vulnerable to cross-site scripting.   

Conclusion:

Today, it is extremely important to monitor the security walls of your applications. To ward off the increasing security attacks, Asp.net development company must pay significant attention to the steps needed for securing the data. Matellio has the expert and experienced developers in its team who work towards the protection of intellectual property rights. The security of intellectual data is powered with the ideology of providing high-quality services to clients. Above mentioned web application security mechanisms are strictly followed by developers at Matellio which minimizes the vulnerabilities. Whether you are looking for websites like Bewakoof or any complex app, partnering with renown company can help.

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