State-of-the-art Web Server Spoofer

Abstract

As businesses place more applications on the Web, they expose more of their sensitive customer data to hackers. Web server Fingerprinting is a relatively new topic of discussion in the context of application security. One of the biggest challenges of maintaining a high level of network security is to have a complete and accurate inventory of networked assets. Web servers and web applications have now become a part of the scope of a network security assessment exercise. Traditional firewalls, which have historically done an excellent job preventing outsiders from accessing networks, are no longer sufficient. As Internet Dynamics Corporation (IDC) noted even back in 2002, "firewalls offer little protection at the application layer because ports within the firewall have to be left open for communication." In this project, different techniques for identifying web servers and how to perform HTTP server fingerprinting have been discussed. Solutions on how to detect fingerprinting attempts and how to protect against HTTP server fingerprinting have been proposed.