Course 27 - Hacking Web Applications, Penetration Testing, CTF | Episode 16: Web Technology Foundations: Protocols, Structure, and Scripting

In this lesson, you’ll learn about:

• Core web technologies and protocols, and how they directly impact web application security and penetration testing methodologies.
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) fundamentals, including:
  • Its stateless, request–response architecture
  • The evolution from HTTP/1.0 to HTTP/3
  • Common request methods such as GET and POST
  • Status code classes (1xx–5xx) and what they reveal about server behavior
• HTTP headers and session management, understanding how cookies maintain state and how security headers help mitigate attacks:
  • Content Security Policy (CSP)
  • HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)
• Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), breaking down their structure to understand how resources are located and how parameters may introduce security risks.
• HTML structure, including:
  • Tags and document layout
  • The risks of exposed HTML comments
  • Security considerations around login forms and input handling
• CSS, and how styling integrates with page rendering without directly providing logic control.
• Client-side and server-side scripting languages, including:
  • JavaScript for browser interactivity
  • PHP for backend processing
  • Python and PowerShell for automation, scripting, and tool development in security testing
• Practical enumeration techniques, using tools such as:
  • Burp Suite to inspect headers and manipulate requests
  • Nmap to identify allowed HTTP methods
  • Metasploit for service interaction and validation

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