Chapter 1. That Horrible Sinking Feeling

Insight into web application security and why you should care about it

I remember it quite clearly. I woke up, stumbled to the coffeemaker to start a brew, went back to my computer to look for updates on the phpBB message board to chat with some friends, and was panicked by what I saw: My home page had been replaced by a message from the "SantyWorm" that looked something like Figure 1-1.

Figure 1.1. Imagine if your website were replaced with this.

My heart began to race, and I worried about what might have happened and how I might fix it. I poked around the administrator pages of the site, but every way that I tried to fix it was met with the "hax0rs lab" message mocking me. Then, defeated, I slumped over in my chair, hung my head, and exhaled deeply. All I wanted was a forum to talk with my friends. I'd never considered that I would need to update that software from time to time. I was naïve.