To which aspect of web applications should developers pay special attention to prevent session hijacking?

Session management processes are crucial for preventing session hijacking because they directly impact how user sessions are created, maintained, and terminated. Effective session management includes practices such as assigning secure cookies, implementing proper session timeouts, and ensuring that sessions are invalidated upon logout. It also involves using HTTPS to encrypt session data in transit, making it much harder for attackers to intercept and exploit session identifiers.

When developers focus on strengthening these session management processes, they can significantly reduce the risk of vulnerabilities that lead to session hijacking. For example, using unique session identifiers that are regenerated after successful user authentication can prevent attackers from reusing stolen session IDs. Additionally, implementing checks for the IP address and user agent associated with a session can help detect anomalies that may indicate hijacking attempts.

Other aspects like user interface design, database performance, and web application aesthetics do not directly influence the security of session management and thus do not have the same critical impact on preventing session hijacking. While these are important for the overall user experience and efficiency of the application, they do not address the specific vulnerabilities that session hijacking exploits.