OWASP LAPSE Project

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LAPSE+: The Security Scanner for Java EE Applications

News

 * 4/23/2011 - LAPSE+ version 2.8.1 released
 * 8/23/2006 - version 2.5.5 released (see http://suif.stanford.edu/~livshits/work/lapse/download.html)
 * 8/22/2006 - OWASP LAPSE Project Created



Overview
LAPSE+ is a security scanner for detecting vulnerabilities of untrusted data injection in Java EE Applications. It has been developed as a plugin for Eclipse Java Development Environment, working specifically with Eclipse Helios and Java 1.6 or higher. LAPSE+ is based on the GPL software LAPSE, developed by Benjamin Livshits as part of the Griffin Software Security Project. This new release of the plugin developed by Evalues Lab of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid provides more features to analyze the propagation of the malicious data through the application and includes the identification of new vulnerabilities.

LAPSE+ targets the following Web application vulnerabilities:


 * Parameter Tampering.       * SQL Injection.
 * Header Manipulation.          * Cross-site Scripting (XSS).
 * URL Tampering.             * Command Injection.
 * Cookie Poisoning.      * Path traversal.

The vulnerabilities detected by LAPSE+ are related to the injection of untrusted data to manipulate the behavior of the application. These type of vulnerabilities are defined by OWASP as the most common vulnerabilities in web applications. The detection of these kind of vulnerabilities is performed in three steps:

Vulnerability Source. The first step consist of detecting the points of code that can be source of an attack of malicious data injection. Vulnerability Sink. After detecting the points of code that can be target of data injection, LAPSE+ identifies the points that can propagate the attack and manipulate the behaviour of the application. Provenance Tracker. Finally, we check if it is possible to reach a Vulnerability Source from a Vulnerability Sink performing the backward propagation through the different assignations. If this occurs, we have a vulnerability in our code.

What should you do to avoid these vulnerabilities in your code? How do we protect Web applications from exploits? The proper way to deal with these types of attacks is by sanitizing the tainted input. Please refer to the OWASP guide to find out more about Web application security.

If you are interested in auditing a Java Web application, LAPSE helps you in the following ways:


 * Identify taint sources
 * Identify taint sinks
 * Find paths between sources and sinks

LAPSE is inspired by existing lightweight security auditing tools such as RATS, pscan, and FlawFinder. Unlike those tools, however, LAPSE addresses vulnerabilities in Web applications. LAPSE is not intended as a comprehensive solution for Web application security, but rather as an aid in the code review process. Those looking for more comprehensive tools are encouraged to look at some of the tools produced by Fortify or Ounce Labs.

For now, LAPSE is housed at http://suif.stanford.edu/~livshits/work/lapse/

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