Learning Best Practices from Web Applications to Avoid Similar Security Vulnerabilities in Decentralized Applications

Abstract

Our sensitive information is disseminated across a large number of websites throughout the internet. Most business organizations and associations that individuals deal with have ac- curate and effective security programs to safeguard our confidential information, but this does not prevent cybercriminals from having a try to snatch our data. Vulnerabilities in traditional web-applications are often regarded as one of the reasons that allows cybercrim- inals to hack into systems and purloin thousands of people's personal information. Despite the proven benefits of using web applications, it is imperative to consider using more se- cured technologies, associated with Blockchain, and more specifically to switch to decen- tralized applications. Decentralized Application or DApp for short is an application with source code that anyone can examine, amend, and enhance and connects independently on a decentralized public Blockchain. DApp is stored in a distributed file system, such as IPFS, but transactions among peers are verified through the smart contracts that run on top of the blockchain. This thesis provides a review of common security vulnerabilities in web appli- cations and a comparison how decentralized applications deal with the same vulnerabilities. This provides an insight into how applications may be created in the future.