Denim Group Releases an Open Source Security Scanner for AJAX

JavaScriptSearch
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; 02:15 AM

Denim Group Ltd. announced the release of Sprajax, an open source web application security scanner developed to assess the security of AJAX-enabled web applications.

Sprajax is the first web security scanner developed specifically to scan AJAX web applications for security vulnerabilities. Denim Group, an IT consultancy specializing in web application security, recognized that there were no tools available on the market able to scan AJAX. AJAX allows web-based applications a higher degree of user-interactivity, a feature with growing popularity among developers.

Denim Group developed this innovative tool that will revolutionize security assessments by providing a more thorough diagnosis of security vulnerabilities within the AJAX code that other web security scanners are not designed to read. The software then produces a report of possible weaknesses for developers to remedy.

"As AJAX becomes more popular with developers, the security of AJAX-enabled web applications will be a growing concern," says Dan Cornell, Principal at Denim Group. “Sprajax is a great tool for application security maintenance, and its availability as an open source application places it within reach for organizations of all sizes.

"While expert security scans are more thorough and usually recommended, internal developers and security auditors can use this software to produce an initial vulnerability assessment. This can be invaluable, especially in the wake of government regulations regarding web application security. Organizations must take steps to protect sensitive data in public facing applications, and an assessment using a tool like Sprajax could be the first step."

Installation and usage of Sprajax requires SQL 2005 database.  Developers say in upcoming versions there will be a data handler for single-session-only results that won't require a database backend.