Hi,

here is my project proposal that I would like to submit:

Proposal Title: Cross-site request forgery protection for Tapestry

Student Name: Markus Jung

Student E-mail: [email protected]

Organization/Project: Apache Software Foundation / Tapestry

Assigned Mentor: Ulrich Stärk

Proposal Abstract: 
Tapestry is a component oriented framework for creating dynamic, robust,
highly scalable web applications in Java[1] that lacks a built-in mechanism
to protect web applications against cross-site request forgery. Cross-site
request forgery(CSRF)[2] exploits a target website by transmitting
unauthorized HTTP requests through the client's browser. Malicious links are
placed on a different site and if the user can be tricked to click on such
link the browser executes the link and submits cookie data for that web
page. In this way a malicious link can be executed within a valid user
session if the session identifier is stored in the cookie.

Example:
Target site: http://mybank.com

Malicious link: mybank.com/withdraw?from=markus&to=attacker&value=999998
placed on http://untrustworhty.com

If the user can be tricked to go on http://untrustworthy.com and execute the
link the request is issued within a possible valid sessoin of the user at
the site http://mybank.com

There are several ways how to protect against such an attack. The Open Web
Application security Project outlines the attack in detail and provide some
possible protection mechanisms (2).

One solution is to create a random token that is passed to the client within
a cookie and also attached as parameter to every input form or link that
issues a HTTP request. At the server side the token of the cookie and the
request parameter can be compared. If they are identical the request was
issued by the user on the original side. If the request parameter differs
from the value stored in the cookie a cross site request forgery attack
happened and the request execution has to be stopped.

[1] http://tapestry.apache.org
[2] The Open Web Application security Project -
http://www.owasp.org/images/4/42/RequestRodeo-MartinJohns.pdf

Detailed Description:           

The Tapestry framework allows uses components to build powerful web
applications. Tapestry allows building complex applications by using pages
and components to simplify development. An example for a component is e.g.
the BeanEditForm that contains the logic to render a Java bean and to modify
the content. So called Mixins allows adding behaviour to components. 

The goal of this project is to create a Tapestry built-in protection
mechanism that secures Tapestry applications against CSRF attacks.

Work packages

WP1 - Example Project that shows the CSRF vulnerability 
First a simple example Tapestry project is created that is vulnerable to
CSRF.

WP2 - Discussion of different implementation mechanisms with the development
community in detail.
In this work package I would like to propose different solutions in detail
that could be included in the Tapestry core.
Alternatives:
-) integration of the LinkFactory mechanism described in the Tapestry wiki. 
-) a component or mixin based approach
-) a page level or project scoped approach

WP3 - Test Case Project
The example project from WP1 is extended with a configuration or code that
demonstrates the final solution and works as a test case 
for the CSRF protection.

WP4 - Implementation of the CSRF protection
This work package depends on the solution agreed in WP2. A possible solution
is a Component or a Mixin that creates a 
token based on for example UUID.randomUUID(). This random token is passed as
cookie and as hidden parameter in HTML form elements to the client.
The generation of such token is triggered either in general for all input
forms and action links or only specific for some Components or Pages 
marked with an Java annotation, e.g. @CSRFProtection or as Mixin, e.g.
@Mixin({"CSRFProtected"}). 

The event handler methods e.g. onAction or onSubmit can be annoted with for
example @CheckCSRFProtection, in this case
the token value of the cookie and the sent token parameter value are
compared to each other. In the case of an error an exception is thrown or
a HTTP error response is returned.

Provide also a API to create an check an token in order to provide a generic
way to use the CSRF protection functionality.

If a page or project scope protection mechanism is allowed an annotation has
to be implemented that allows to mark event handler methods to be 
exceptions for CSRF protection, e.g. @NoCSRFProtection.

WP5 - Implementation Verification
Test the implemented Tapestry extension against the test case project
created in WP3. CSRF attacks should not be
possible any more. Further test if there are any side effects on session
replication, book marking, user authentication.

WP6 - Wiki documentation & API documentation
Create a documentation page in the Wiki that describes the CSRF protection
mechanism and demonstrates how to use it. 
The vulnerable test project and the fixed test project are part of the
documentation. Javadoc is also provided as API documentation.

Time Plan:

27. April – 24. Mai 2011
Learning the internals of Tapestry. Check out the source code, make custom
builds and expirement with components, mixins and internal framework
classes.
Work on WP1 and make a showcase of the CSRF vulnerability. Discuss WP2 and
find a protection mechanism that should be implemented.

25. Mail - 12. July 2011
Work on WP3 and create a project that uses the discussed solution and works
as a use-case for the CSRF protection and as a testcase for the upcoming
implementation.
Implementation of the CSRF protection WP4.

15. July 2011 - Mid term evalution deadline

17. July 2011 - 16. August 2011
Evalute the implementation based on WP5. If any problems are found the
solution has to be reworked. Finally a documentation based on a
wiki page, API description and Javadoc is done.

16. August 2011 - suggested pencils down date

26. August 2011 - Final evaluation

Deliverables:
D1 - Tapestry Example Project demonstrating CSRF vulnerability
D2 - How it should be use case project - used to specify the solution and
later used to verify the implementation
D3 - CSRF Protection implementation 
D4 - Show case project that demonstrates the CSRF protection
D5 - Documentation 



--
View this message in context: 
http://tapestry.1045711.n5.nabble.com/GSoC-CSRF-Protection-tp4274965p4286394.html
Sent from the Tapestry - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]

Reply via email to