Higher Logics

Stan Drapkin, of SecurityDriven.NET fame, was nice enough to provide a little feedback on the Clavis implementation . He pointed out a possible issue with parameter names not being properly URL-encoded, which this release fixes. I also applied a few minor optimizations so generating URLs should be a little faster. I've been using Clavis in production for a couple of years now, so it's fairly stable and user-friendly. The Clavis wiki and issue tracker are available here .

A few years ago, I wrote about a web security microframework for ASP.NET which provided a few primitives for secure parameter-passing and navigation. I've just released a public alpha on Nuget for anyone who's willing to try it. The previous article covered the theoretic foundation of Clavis well enough, but it has undergone a few small revisions to make it easier to use and integrate more seamlessly with ASP.NET. This post will serve as an end-user introduction to Clavis, the rationale behind the design decisions, and the benefits it provides. As a brief summary to whet your appetite, here are the advantages that the Clavis library provides for an otherwise standard ASP.NET web forms or MVC project: By default, URLs are derived from types, so the compiler ensures that every page that will be displayed actually exists. The default URL generated can be overridden via an attribute. Declarative specification of the types and number of parameters a page accepts, which the c...

Web programming has been a pretty big deal for over 10 years now, but in some ways the tools web developers use haven't really progressed that much, particularly when it comes to security. For instance, CSRF and clickjacking are instances of the Confused Deputy problem, a security problem known since at least 1988. Since these are both instances of the same underlying problem, in principle they should have the same or very similar solutions. However, the current solutions to these pervasive vulnerabilities are designed to solve only the specific problem at hand, and not the general problem of Confused Deputies. This means that if another HTML or Flash enhancement comes along that introduces another Confused Deputy, these solutions will not necessarily prevent exploitation of that vulnerability. However, if we solve the underlying Confused Deputy problem, then that solution will address all present and future Confused Deputies , assuming any new features don't violate the...