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Attacking and Exploiting Modern Web Applications

You're reading from  Attacking and Exploiting Modern Web Applications

Product type Book
Published in Aug 2023
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781801816298
Pages 338 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Languages
Authors (2):
Simone Onofri Simone Onofri
Profile icon Simone Onofri
Donato Onofri Donato Onofri
Profile icon Donato Onofri
View More author details

Table of Contents (14) Chapters

Preface 1. Part 1: Attack Preparation
2. Chapter 1: Mindset and Methodologies 3. Chapter 2: Toolset for Web Attacks and Exploitation 4. Part 2: Evergreen Attacks
5. Chapter 3: Attacking the Authentication Layer – a SAML Use Case 6. Chapter 4: Attacking Internet-Facing Web Applications – SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) on WordPress 7. Chapter 5: Attacking IoT Devices – Command Injection and Path Traversal 8. Part 3: Novel Attacks
9. Chapter 6: Attacking Electron JavaScript Applications – from Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) to Remote Command Execution (RCE) 10. Chapter 7: Attacking Ethereum Smart Contracts – Reentrancy, Weak Sources of Randomness, and Business Logic 11. Chapter 8: Continuing the Journey of Vulnerability Discovery 12. Index 13. Other Books You May Enjoy

How smart contracts work on the Ethereum blockchain and security considerations

The first thing to understand is what contracts are, how applications using smart contracts are structured, and how they get on the blockchain. We’ll understand the most famous vulnerability, named Reentrancy.

What are smart contracts in the Ethereum blockchain?

To define smart contracts, we can refer directly to the documentation on Ethereum, which states that a smart contract “is simply a program that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. It’s a collection of code (its functions) and data (its state) that resides at a specific address on the Ethereum blockchain.” [8]

Contracts have a balance and can use it, as specified in their functions, such as via fund transfer or state change. You can send transactions that call upon these functions to interact with these contracts.

Smart contracts – being Turing-complete – can be used to develop different things:

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