What is Session Hijacking?

Session Hijacking is an unauthorized practice to access other user’s data without their permission. It comes under the purview of Hacking. It is different from Ethical hacking. In session hijacking, an intruder puts himself between the server and the user computer. Here the intruder needs a key or session id of the user to breach his session by unauthorized means.
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For example; suppose you have logged into your bank account and logged off after a few minutes. During the session, the intruder or malicious hacker tries to hack your session by unethical means. This leads to loss of money or any secure information. 

Session Hijacking Tools – There are different kinds of tools available to perform session hijacking. One of the major session hijacking tools is Ettercap.  It is a free software application that enables a user to attack as a middle man during a session. Another tool is Cookie Catcher which is an open-source software tool. It enables a user to create intrusion to perform session hijacking by injecting malicious scripts into a webpage. Some people define this as cross-site scripting. 

Types of Session Hijacking

There are different types of session hijacking. The following are the different types of session hijacking techniques that are used to steal someone’s information. 

Brute-Force Attack – It’s a kind of technique where the attacker will try to guess the session id of a user. The attacker uses some informal methods to find out the session id. For doing so, he must have some idea about it. The attacker may take help of the malware or cross-site scripting for this.

Stealing Session ID - The attacker or hacker may use a spoofing technique to steal the session id of the user. By stealing session-id the hacker may enter into the user’s platform where he can perform unauthorized activities on the name of the user.

Cross-site scripting or XSS – It is one of the dangerous methods used by the attackers to hack the user's session by producing some malicious scripts into their websites. It looks impressive and the user tends to click on the link provided. It gives access to the attacker to steal the information during the session. Thus, sending malicious codes or scripts to the user’s site is the major thing here. The method is used widely today.

Fixing Session – To identify the user’s cookie, the hacker may send an email link with a session key, where the user tends to click on the link. It may be a valid login for the user but the key is sent by the attacker. Here the attacker may check the authenticity and then he will try to steal the session.

Stealing Cookies – This method is very commonly used where malware is installed into the user's system during a session. When the user tends to click on the link which he gets in email, the hacker gets a signal and he tries to find out the network traffic link of the user. Once he finds the link he tries to send malicious scripts which makes the attacker use the information on users end.

 How to prevent Session Hijacking?

There are various techniques to prevent session hijacking. It is necessary to identify the session cookies coming through various web applications. Allowing them to identify the user's system and storing the session which is currently in use. The following methods on how to prevent session hijacking are the better attributes in this kind. :-

• Using encrypted connections like HTTPS to ensure the SSL certification for all the session traffic. It guarantees that the connection is encrypted well. If the attacker monitors the user's activities, then he cannot send any intercepting scripts to destroy the session.
• Setting up the attribute HTTPS only, using HTTP header prevents the cookies from malware to access the session. It prevents the user from injecting malicious scripts into his session.
• After the first authentication, regenerating the session key may reduce the chance of attacking from the hacker even if the hacker knows the user's session id. 
• Putting a proper timeout while inactivity of the user’s session also prevents malware attacks. It works as an additional safety to the user. Read on to Find more Cyber Security Online Training

Thus, the above data gives an idea of session hijacking and the prevention techniques to be used for not becoming a victim of such cases. Usage of proper encrypted sites and valid sessions are important to prevent the user from being a victim.