Hypertext Transfer Protocol(a.k.a. HTTP) Part 1
Hello Friends how are you ?
Welcome back to another topic, HTTP.
Who are regular basis working in internet or IT or Cyber Security, everyone familiar with HTTP or HTTPS.
Now come in Topic:
In our OSI model or TCP/IP model, HTTP is an application-level protocol used to access resources over the World Wide Web. The term “hypertext” stands for text containing links to other resources and text that can be easily interpreted by the readers.
HTTP communication consists of a client and a server, where the client requests the server for a resource. The server processes the requests and returns the requested resource. The default port for HTTP communication is 80; however, this can be changed. These are the requests to the web servers that we know when using the Internet to visit different websites. We enter a FQDN(Fully Qualified Domain Name)as a URL(uniform resource locator)to reach the desired website, like http://testphp.vulnweb.com/.
The URL offers us much more possibilities than just specifying the website we want to visit. Resources over HTTP are accessed via a URL. Let's look at the structure of a URL.
Here is what each component stands for:
Protocol or Scheme: This is used to identify the protocol being accessed by the client. This is usually http or https.
User Info or Credential: This is an optional component that contains credentials in the form username:password, which is used to authenticate to the host.
Host: The host signifies the resource location. This can be a hostname or an IP address. A colon separates a host and port.
Port: URLs without a port specified point to the default port 80. If the HTTP server port isn't running on port 80, it can be specified in the URL.
Path name: This points to the resource being accessed, which can be a file or a folder. If there is no path specified, the server returns the default index document hosted by it (for example, index.html).
Query String: The query string is preceded by a question mark (?). This is another optional component that is used to pass information to the resource. A query string consists of a parameter and a value. In the example above, the parameter is login, and its value is true. There can be multiple parameters separated by an ampersand (&).
Another one:
Fragments(#): This is processed by browsers on the client-side to locate sections within the primary resource.
Not all components are always required to access a resource. However, a URL should at least contain a scheme and host to make a proper request.
HTTP request and response flow:
The diagram above presents the anatomy of an HTTP request at a very high level. The first time a user enters a URL (inlanefreight.com) into the browser, it requests a DNS (Domain Name Resolution) server to resolve the domain. The DNS server looks up the IP address for inlanefreight.com and returns it. All domain names need to be resolved this way, as a server can't communicate without an IP address.
Next, the browser sends a GET request to the default HTTP port, i.e., 80, asking for the root / folder. Here, GET is the request method. The type of request can vary, as we'll see later. The web server receives the request and processes it. By default, servers are configured to return an index file when a request for / is received. In this case, the contents of index.html are read and returned by the web server as an HTTP response. The response also contains information such as the status code 200 OK , meaning the request processed successfully.
The index.html contents are then rendered by the web browser and presented to the user. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a client-side language that is understood and processed by browsers. It is the standard markup language to display documents via a web browser. HTML pages are assisted by Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which allow flexibility for applying presentation elements such as layout, colors, and fonts to one or multiple web pages as well as scripting languages such as JavaScript which enable interactive web pages.
Thanks for reading.
