CAREER: Web Evolution and Emerging Threats

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The web is one of the most important technology platforms of our time with billions of users and thousands of businesses depending on it. It evolves rapidly in a fantastic interplay between browsers and websites that change constantly. This has attracted miscreants who abuse the platform to their own financial benefit by compromising the privacy and security of web users and businesses. The way that researchers study the web so far is disconnected from how users browse the web, as browsers are not meant to be monitoring tools. Researchers build either ad-hoc solutions or use high-level information from the browser that is inadequate to identify some of the most advanced web attacks. The objective of this research is to develop a new monitoring platform for the modern web and assess current and emerging threats from a new perspective.The specific aims of this research are to develop 1) a new approach of monitoring modern browsers and how they interact with pages when users visit the web 2) build abstract models that characterize the behavior of modern web applications and 3) leverage these behavior models to identify current and emerging threats on the web. In addition, the project will have a publicly available portal for interactive analysis of website behavior. This will allow any researcher, web developer or web user to understand what browser features are used when they visit a website. In summary, this research aims at building the fundamental blocks for studying an increasingly complex web by developing a monitoring platform that sheds light into the inner workings of modern browsers and websites.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.