Detecting web server take-over attacks through objective verification actions

Abstract

Attacks targeting web servers pose a major security threat. Typically prone to a mix of infrastructure and application-level security vulnerabilities, they serve as the lowest hanging fruit for intruders wanting to gain unauthorized access to the entire host network. This is specifically the case for ‘server take- over’ attacks, whose immediate objective is to gain unauthorized remote access to the host server, for example through shell-spawning, backdooring or botnet joining.