Abstract: A method for detecting security vulnerabilities in a web application includes analyzing the client requests and server responses resulting therefrom in order to discover pre-defined elements of the application's interface with external clients and the attributes of these elements. The client requests are then mutated based on a pre-defined set of mutation rules to thereby generate exploits unique to the application. The web application is attacked using the exploits and the results of the attack are evaluated for anomalous application activity.

Abstract: The present invention is a security gateway system positioned between an external, untrusted computing environment and an internal, trusted computing environment that converts messages received from the external environment into simplified messages and converts the simplified messages into messages suitable for use on the internal environment. The conversion involves the removal of external environment transfer protocols and the reduction of the content of the messages left after removing the protocols into a simplified representation of the content to create a simplified message. The simplified representation is then converted to an internal message by converting the simplified representation to a representation appropriate to the internal environment, including to applications operating on the internal environment, and adding internal environment protocols, including transfer protocols, to the converted message.

Abstract: A method and computer program for automatically and continually extracting application protocols (i.e., defining a set of allowable or authorized actions) for any application. The method involves receiving a message from a server before it is sent or in parallel with sending to a client. The message may be in response to a specific request for it from the client. The program then extracts the application protocol data from the server message. Working with a copy of the message, the program strips off the communications protocol(s) from the message and parses the remaining message to identify user-selectable options contained in the message such as commands, fields, etc. These items represent the set of allowable or authorized user actions for the particular “stage” of the current version of the application as set forth in the message. The set of allowable user actions is then stored by the extraction program in a protocol database accessible to a gateway or filter module.