So next week an "Information Security and Compliance Company" is doing a 16 hour "Application Penetration Test" on an application we developed. It's on a dedicated server with all the latest patches and is on lock down with IP address validation through the firewall. We have made sure every query is protected from SQL injection attacks and made sure any file uploaded to the application is uploaded outside the root and can not be called from a URL. We think we have covered all the bases, here is a list of what the application will go through.
 

Input Validation

Buffer Overflow

Cross Site Scripting

URL Manipulation

SQL Injection

Hidden Variable Manipulation

Cookie Modification

Authentication Bypass

Code Execution
 

Now some of these are basic security 101, and ColdFusion has lots of tools to address the attacks. Has anyone ever gone through this? If so what type of things were found? Can anyone give me any suggestion of things to check?

If your one of the cools kids and have a Mac (sorry windows guys) and you need to connect your development environment to a MSSQL server it's really easy. There are lots of guides out there on connecting ColdFusion to MSSQL but if your connecting from OS X server to Windows server there are 2 settings you need to check.

First once you log in to your development server under Object Explorer right click on the server name and click Properties. Under Security make sure "SQL Server and Windows authentication mode" is checked. Next click Connections and make sure "Allow remote connections to this server". If you setup you users and DB correctly you should be able to connect.

Two times this year I have wiped windows box and 2 times I wasted hours connecting to MSSQL from my iMac. I'm going to be adding more tips to help me and anyone else in the future.

Anyone know a better way to break out of XML mode so HTML can run in a ColdFusion Builder Extension.

cgi.http_host and server_name don't always work for what I need. My test app runs great on my Mac but fails if I install on my Windows box. Any suggestions would be great.

I was working on a project today and ran into this error

[Macromedia][SQLServer JDBC Driver]Value can not be converted to requested type

I did a quick search found a lot of theories on why and how it was caused. So it turns out it's a caching error, by default ColdFusion data sources pool 1000 statements, but how to fix. Almost all suggested restarting CF, which I cannot do, change the dsn name open page to error and then change back, or my favorite: "When in doubt kick it in the guts (restart JRUN)". They all work but not the best way to handle the error.

Easiest and best way to get rid of this error is to log in to CF Admin, click Data Sources, find your data source and click it then click Show Advanced Settings. Update "Max Pooled Statements" to zero, click submit, then run page. Now you can change it back. This removes the cached SQL select statements with out resetting connections to users.

Time: 10:58 PM, person calling: boss...

John httpdocs is missing on abc's website!!!

Anyone ever get a call like that? Everything turned out OK, still looking into what happen. If I smoked I'd be smoking now, lol.

So over the last few months my work load has doubled, and I'm not complaining. In March we sold our company and now are a division of a large company now. Cool thing is things haven't changed, just my work load. I'm doing more personal projects at night so I should have more time to do CF fun stuff.

One last thing I need to say thanks to Ben Nadel for helping me a few times over the last 6 months.

Several months ago me and my boss watched an hour and twenty minute video on Google Wave. We both saw great potential in it with how we do business. Well today I got a beta invite and will be setting it up tonight. I'll be posting more about it as I learn more about how it works and how it will change the way we handle customer requests.