Defense by numbers: Making Problems for Script Kiddies and Scanner Monkeys

Presented at DEF CON 21 (2013), Aug. 4, 2013, 10 a.m. (45 minutes)

On the surface most common browsers look the same, function the same, and deliver web content to the user in a relatively uniformed fashion. Under the shiny surface however, the way specific user agents handle traffic varies in a number of interesting and unique ways. This variation allows for defenders to play games with attackers and scripted attacks in a way that most normal users will never even see.

This talk will attempt to show that differences in how different user agents handle web server responses (specifically status codes) can be used to improve the defensive posture of modern web applications while causing headaches for the average script kiddy or scanner monkey!


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