Projects/OWASP Supporting Legacy Web Applications in the Current Environment Project

=Introduction=

=What are legacy web applications= Legacy web applications are built in technologies, those technologies, that have been improved upon in terms of frameworks and key features since they were first built. These are also the systems, the license for whose technologies, are expired, and it is no longer possible to either renew the licenses or to buy new licenses.

=Why do we still have them?= Legacy web applications are retained for a number if reasons, some of them being: 1. Financial resources to replace these applications are not available, though there is a cost benefit in doing the same. 2. The underlying architecture for the applications is complex and it is challenging to reconstruct the same. 3. There are upstream and downstream elements dependent on this application and replacement of the central application will require replacement of all the connected applications.

=What are the vulnerabilities associated with legacy web applications?= Following are some of the vulnerabilities

1. Database connections

2. Sessions

3. Lack of necessary knowledge to support the application

4. Configurations

5. Insecure code

6. Data in transit

7. Data at rest

8. Lack of necessary secure login / authentication mechanism

=What are the threats to these applications?= 1. SQL injections

2. Session replay

3. Incomplete handling of errors

4. Directory listing

5. Visibility of configuration files

6. Broken / stolen authentication

=How do we address these risks in the current environment?= 1. Isolation

2. Wrappers

3. Education

4. Part code replacement

5. Complete code migration

6. Robust processes