BEAST (Browser Exploit Against SSL/TLS) was a security vulnerability discovered in September 2011. This vulnerability primarily affected the TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocol, specifically the Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) encryption mode in conjunction with the SSLv3 and TLS 1.0 protocols.

BEAST allowed an attacker to eavesdrop on and decrypt encrypted traffic between a web browser and a server. This was achieved by exploiting a weakness in the way CBC encryption was implemented in SSL/TLS.

To protect against BEAST attacks, it was recommended to upgrade to newer versions of TLS and to use alternative encryption methods that were not vulnerable to this weakness. Many web servers and browsers also implemented patches to mitigate the impact of BEAST.

POODLE (Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption) was a security vulnerability in the SSLv3 (Secure Sockets Layer version 3) encryption protocol, discovered in October 2014. This vulnerability allowed an attacker to eavesdrop on and manipulate encrypted traffic between a web browser and a server. The attack exploited a weakness in the way SSLv3 processed blocks of encrypted data with padding. By exploiting this vulnerability, an attacker could, under certain circumstances, steal sensitive information such as cookies.

Due to the severity of the vulnerability, security experts recommended disabling the use of SSLv3 and upgrading to newer and more secure encryption protocols such as TLS (Transport Layer Security). Many web servers and browsers removed or disabled SSLv3 support to protect against POODLE attacks.

ASP stands for "Active Server Pages" and is a technology developed by Microsoft for creating dynamic web pages and web applications. It allows developers to create web pages that are dynamically generated on the server side by using scripting languages such as VBScript or JScript.

With ASP, developers can embed server-side scripts directly into HTML documents, allowing them to easily incorporate dynamic content such as database queries, user interactions, and conditional statements. ASP pages typically have the file extension ".asp".

A key component of ASP is the use of ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), which enables developers to access databases to generate dynamic content. This facilitates the development of interactive web applications with database support.

While ASP is still used by some companies, it has largely been superseded by ASP.NET, a more modern and powerful technology for web development from Microsoft. ASP.NET offers improved performance, security, and functionality compared to classic ASP.

Lighttpd (pronounced "Lighty") is an open-source web server known for its lightweight, fast, and efficient nature. It's designed to provide a slim and powerful web server that remains stable and reliable even under high loads.

Some key features of Lighttpd include:

1. Lightweight: Lighttpd is known for its low resource usage compared to other web servers like Apache. This makes it particularly well-suited for environments with limited resources or for use on low-powered devices.

2. High speed: Lighttpd is engineered to serve web content quickly and efficiently. Its architecture and optimized implementation allow it to perform well even under heavy loads.

3. Flexibility: Lighttpd supports various features and modules, including support for FastCGI, SCGI, CGI, proxying, SSL, and more. This versatility makes it adaptable to various requirements.

4. Security: Lighttpd prioritizes security and offers features such as SSL/TLS support, URL and access control rules, as well as protection against known security vulnerabilities.

5. Simple configuration: Lighttpd's configuration is done through a simple and clear configuration file. This makes it easy to configure and customize the web server, even for users with little experience.

Due to its characteristics, Lighttpd is often used for applications that require high performance, scalability, and efficiency, such as high-traffic websites, content delivery networks (CDNs), streaming media servers, and more.

FastCGI is a protocol developed to enhance the performance of Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts, particularly in high-traffic web environments. Compared to traditional CGI, FastCGI provides a more efficient way for web servers to interact with external applications or scripts to generate dynamic content.

Essentially, FastCGI works by using a process pool to manage the execution of scripts. Unlike CGI, where a new process is started for each request, FastCGI keeps a group of processes running persistently, waiting for requests. This reduces the overhead costs of starting and terminating processes and leads to an overall faster and more efficient processing of web requests.

FastCGI also provides the ability to transfer data efficiently between the web server and external applications, further enhancing performance. Additionally, FastCGI supports features like multiplexing, where multiple requests can be processed simultaneously over a single connection, improving scalability.

Due to its performance advantages, FastCGI is often used in conjunction with web servers such as Apache, Nginx, and Lighttpd to efficiently serve dynamic web content. It is a key technology in web development, especially for high-traffic websites and web applications.