Making JavaScript Render Decisions to Optimize Security-Oriented Crawler Process

The widespread use of web applications requires important changes in cybersecurity to protect online services and data. In the process of identifying security vulnerabilities in web applications, a systematic approach is employed to detect and mitigate cybersecurity risks. This approach utilizes web...

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Main Authors: Onur Aktas, Ahmet Burak Can
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10719995/
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author Onur Aktas
Ahmet Burak Can
author_facet Onur Aktas
Ahmet Burak Can
author_sort Onur Aktas
collection DOAJ
description The widespread use of web applications requires important changes in cybersecurity to protect online services and data. In the process of identifying security vulnerabilities in web applications, a systematic approach is employed to detect and mitigate cybersecurity risks. This approach utilizes web crawlers to identify attack vectors. Traditional web crawling methods are resource-intensive and often need to be more efficient in handling dynamic JavaScript-rich content. Addressing this crucial gap, our study introduces an innovative approach to predict the necessity of JavaScript rendering, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of security-oriented web crawlers. This approach seeks to reduce computational requirements and quicken the security evaluation process through the use of machine learning algorithms. By utilizing a dataset containing the source code from the main pages of 17,160 websites, our experimental results demonstrate a 20% reduction in execution time compared to full JavaScript rendering, indicating an improvement in resource usage without any significant reduction in coverage. Our methodology significantly improves the efficiency of security-focused web crawlers and helps security scanners to detect security risks of web applications with fewer resources.
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spelling doaj-art-6d3a32cb1bab4f07bedd1f77fc6964f92025-08-20T02:12:41ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362024-01-011216168816169610.1109/ACCESS.2024.348164610719995Making JavaScript Render Decisions to Optimize Security-Oriented Crawler ProcessOnur Aktas0https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9144-6494Ahmet Burak Can1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0101-6878S4E, Ankara, TürkiyeDepartment of Computer Engineering, Hacettepe University, Ankara, TürkiyeThe widespread use of web applications requires important changes in cybersecurity to protect online services and data. In the process of identifying security vulnerabilities in web applications, a systematic approach is employed to detect and mitigate cybersecurity risks. This approach utilizes web crawlers to identify attack vectors. Traditional web crawling methods are resource-intensive and often need to be more efficient in handling dynamic JavaScript-rich content. Addressing this crucial gap, our study introduces an innovative approach to predict the necessity of JavaScript rendering, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of security-oriented web crawlers. This approach seeks to reduce computational requirements and quicken the security evaluation process through the use of machine learning algorithms. By utilizing a dataset containing the source code from the main pages of 17,160 websites, our experimental results demonstrate a 20% reduction in execution time compared to full JavaScript rendering, indicating an improvement in resource usage without any significant reduction in coverage. Our methodology significantly improves the efficiency of security-focused web crawlers and helps security scanners to detect security risks of web applications with fewer resources.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10719995/Crawlercyber securityJavaScriptmachine learningrenderingweb application security
spellingShingle Onur Aktas
Ahmet Burak Can
Making JavaScript Render Decisions to Optimize Security-Oriented Crawler Process
IEEE Access
Crawler
cyber security
JavaScript
machine learning
rendering
web application security
title Making JavaScript Render Decisions to Optimize Security-Oriented Crawler Process
title_full Making JavaScript Render Decisions to Optimize Security-Oriented Crawler Process
title_fullStr Making JavaScript Render Decisions to Optimize Security-Oriented Crawler Process
title_full_unstemmed Making JavaScript Render Decisions to Optimize Security-Oriented Crawler Process
title_short Making JavaScript Render Decisions to Optimize Security-Oriented Crawler Process
title_sort making javascript render decisions to optimize security oriented crawler process
topic Crawler
cyber security
JavaScript
machine learning
rendering
web application security
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10719995/
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