Detection of Web-Based Attacks by Analyzing Web Server Log Files

In today’s scenario, Web traffic is increasing everyday in the world and has overtaken P2P traffic. The Websites are getting hacked on daily basis. These rises in hacking activity pose a greater threat than the network attacks as they threaten to steal crucial and important information from Website. This information can be related to the users, employee, and other important data stored in applications and database linked to the Website. Increase in Web network traffic has opened new and more efficient attack vectors for the hackers and attackers to work with. Attackers take advantage of the vulnerability in traditional firewalls deployed on Website. These firewalls are not designed to protect Web applications; lots of Websites are getting attacked by malicious scripts and users. In this paper, many Web attacks are carried out on Web applications hosted on local server to analyze the log file created after the attacks. A Web application log file allows a detailed analysis of a user action. We have simulated some Web attacks using MATLAB. Results extracted from this process helps in the recognition of majority of the attacks and helps in prevention from further exploitation.