A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT AND RISK MITIGATION OF PWA APPLICATIONS' CACHING MECHANISMS: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) revolutionize web experiences by combining accessibility with native-like performance, offline functionality, and responsiveness. However, while service worker caching enhances performance, it also introduces critical security risks that remain inadequately addressed. This research bridges this gap by evaluating both the impact and risks of caching mechanisms, which existing studies often overlook. To achieve this, two identical PWAs, one with service worker caching and one without were developed and tested under controlled conditions, revealing substantial improvements in reload times and offline accessibility, particularly for users on low-bandwidth networks or resource-limited devices. However, the study also identified significant security vulnerabilities, such as Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks caused by unrestricted caching of large media files, leading to storage exhaustion and application crashes. A novel Multi-Layer Defence Architecture was introduced to mitigate these risks while preserving caching benefits, incorporating atomic operations, streaming size validation, proactive cache purging, and real-time quota checks. The implementation of this approach successfully neutralized attack vectors without sacrificing performance, demonstrating a crucial advancement in PWA security. These findings fill a critical research gap and provide practical guidelines for developers and organizations to implement secure and efficient caching strategies. By ensuring that PWAs remain both high-performing and resilient against attacks, this research supports the broader adoption of secure web technologies and contributes to user trust in digital services. Future work will extend these findings by conducting cross-browser performance and security assessments, investigating additional service worker-related vulnerabilities, and developing automated tools for detecting PWA security threats. This study reinforces the necessity of balancing performance and security in modern web applications, ensuring their long-term viability and reliability.