Web application security testing assesses the different aspects of the web application for design, usage, execution, and source code vulnerability to establish its ability to withstand a certain type of security attack. Overall, it assists organizations in safeguarding user information and ensuring the privacy and accuracy of users’ sensitive information, such as workers’ or customers’ health records. Security testing is part of application security testing, and vulnerabilities or threats may occur through web technologies. Web Application Security Testing Methodology can be used to check for or against cross-site scripting attacks (XSS), SQL injection, broken ACL, and weak ACL.
It allows the organization to identify possible security vulnerabilities before cybercriminals exploit them. Organizations can also make their web application security less prone to attacks by implementing security features such as access control and encryption measures. Therefore, security testing should be done occasionally via vulnerability scans or penetration testing.
Why Is Web Application Security Testing Methodology Important?
Web app security testing is important for several reasons:
This helps you identify some of the flaws that hackers may exploit to compromise your data, hence incurring a financial loss. It is crucial to conduct periodic security checks regarding the user information to ensure it is protect from any intruders.
Besides guarding the identity of a user, web application security testing ensures that companies comply with legislation, regulations, and industry standards such as GDPR or PCI DSS.
The purpose of systematic Web Application Security Testing Methodology is to investigate your current security posture by uncovering past security violations or activities that may occur before developing into severe incidents.
Security pre-testing can be done to assess your position on security before engaging in testing or to avoid incidents and loss of important information through web application testing.
Taking proactive steps to evaluate your security stance by using web application testing can avoid expensive incident handling and data compromise.
Web Application Security Testing Techniques and Tools: Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
Static Application Security Testing
SAST is the acronym for source code or static analysis security testing, where the application’s internal structure is analyzed for any weakness. Since the code is only being analyzed, but not executed during Static Application Security Testing, it enables developers and security personnel to notice vulnerabilities during the early stages of the development process and take all the necessary measures in order not to allow a breach of security.
The main advantage of SAST is that it can detect a vulnerability in the source code relatively early. It is more effective to address these issues at this stage of the development process to rectify them, when they have not sunk their claws deep into the application development process and its outcome.
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
Dynamic Application Security Testing, or DAST, is a form of black-box testing that focuses on interacting with the application and identifying its weaknesses. DAST focuses on how an application works while in use, while SAST is a form of source code analysis that allows a tester to discover things that cannot be seen when analyzing code only.
As with any testing approach, DAST offers some advantages over other approaches to testing. First, being a dynamic testing tool, it can find vulnerabilities that occur at runtime, for instance, runtime injection attacks or misconfigurations. Secondly, DAST is more readily available to non-developers because the approach does not require detailed knowledge of the application source code. Finally, tools for DAST can often be used to test web applications and APIs in equal measure, making it an overall security test tool.
Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)
Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) is a blended method that includes the features of both SAST and DAST. IAST includes instrumenting an application at runtime and tracking its behavior to detect security flaws. By examining the application’s code and its behavior at runtime, IAST gives a more accurate picture of an application’s security stance than SAST or DAST in isolation.
IAST has several benefits compared to conventional Web Application Security Testing Methodology. First, integrating static and dynamic analysis in IAST delivers a better understanding of an application’s security. It allows the tester to independently identify problems that SAST or DAST might miss. Second, since IAST tools scan an application during runtime, they can offer higher-quality, actionable intelligence around vulnerabilities, which lowers the number of false positives and makes remediation easier.
Penetration Testing
Penetration Testing, simply pentesting, is a type of security test technique where realistic attack simulations against an application or a network are undertaken to ascertain any possible weaknesses and the suitability of an organization’s security measures.
It has several advantages over other security testing methods. First, by mimicking actual attacks, penetration tests give organizations an accurate picture of their security stance, allowing them to understand better and prioritize their security threats.
In addition, penetration tests enable organizations to locate vulnerabilities in their security controls and processes, thus enhancing their overall security strategy. Lastly, penetration tests would allow organizations to comply with regulatory requirements and show compliance with industry standards, e.g., the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
A Methodology for Web Application Security Testing
A comprehensive web application security testing process has four key stages:
Stage I: Initiation
Understanding the application
The initial phase of the web application security assessment procedure is to develop a thorough knowledge of the application you’re testing. This involves figuring out the purpose of the application, the target market, and the primary functionality. It is likewise critical to understand the technology and frameworks used within the development of the application, as these will frequently have particular security challenges.
Defining the scope of testing
After you have a good grasp of the application, the next thing to do is to determine the scope of your security testing. This way, you figure out the precise areas of the application you will be testing and the kind of vulnerabilities you’ll be attempting to find. Having an explicit testing scope guarantees that your efforts are targeted and powerful, and it also enables you to avoid viable gaps in your testing coverage.
Assembling the Testing Team
The final thing to do within the initiation phase is to assemble a crew of security experts to carry out the testing. This team must include individuals with quite a few skills, including developers, security analysts, and system administrators. The team members ought to have a top understanding of web application security testing methodology concepts and experience with the technology and frameworks used within the application under test.
Stage II: Evaluation
Document review
Evaluation is initiated by carefully going through the documentation available for the application. This involves checking for any user manuals, design reports, and API documentation that are accessible. Document review helps give insights into the architecture of the application, data flows, and possible security vulnerabilities.
Potential threats identification
Once the documentation is reviewed, the testing team must collaborate and determine possible threats to the application. This is done by considering the different ways an attacker might exploit weaknesses in the application and the potential effects of such exploits. By determining possible threats, the team can prioritize their testing and test the most severe vulnerabilities.
Creating a test plan
The last activity in the evaluation phase is to create an overall test plan that defines the particular tests that will be executed, the instruments and methods to be utilized, and the expected results of every test. The test plan needs to be prepared jointly by the whole testing group and based on the discovered dangers and the particular characteristics of the application.
Stage III: Discovery
Executing the tests
Once there is a good test plan, the testing team can perform various tests as defined under the plan. It involves using tools to search for known vulnerabilities in the application, as well as security testing, for which testers use various techniques to identify flaws in the logic and flow of the application. During the testing phase, team members must diligently document their findings and any supporting evidence.
Analyzing the results
The team should discuss whether any tests done during the evaluation phase have identified weaknesses. This may involve reviewing data from the various scan tools and utilities, scrutinizing logs and other system data, and sharing findings with other team members.
Validating the findings
Before proceeding to the reporting phase, it is helpful in the interest of the testing team to demonstrate the vulnerabilities found in the system. It helps eliminate false positives and provides information concerning some of the potential impacts of the vulnerabilities. Therefore, an essential discovery step as it confirms the contents of the final report and makes them credible.
Stage IV: Reporting
Gathering results
The first reporting step in the testing phase involves structuring the results of the testing process clearly and simply. This may include a table or file presentation in a microcomputer, file server, or mainframe that embraces information such as code, description of the vulnerability, location, or probable consequences. The team should also accompany the test results with other materials collected in the testing process, for instance, screenshots, logs, or code snippets.
Formulating recommendations
Relying on the vulnerabilities discovered, the testing team ought to create a list of recommendations for remediation and enhancing the overall security stance of the application. The recommendations can be in the form of particular remediation steps, such as patching or upgrading software, and more general recommendations for enhancing the application’s architecture or design. The recommendations should be realistic and tangible, considering the application’s distinctive nature and environment.
Presenting the report
The last step in the web application security testing process is presenting the report to the concerned stakeholders, like the application developers, the management, or the clients. The presentation must include a concise description of the testing process, the findings, and the suggestions for improvement.
Conclusion
Unlike the “old school” applications, web applications offer a lot to the market in terms of commerciality and usefulness. They bring functionality to the internet, but at a cost.
These systems are usually publicly available and hence exposed to the internet at all times. Because of the growing popularity and presence on the internet, web applications typically carry vulnerabilities in their design and configuration, which malicious hackers find and exploit.
Because these systems are generally always internet-facing, they present a higher risk and should naturally be a priority regarding penetration testing. If the application processes some credit card information, personal data, or even health records, it would be in a company’s best interest to conduct annual web application penetration testing to comply with the regulatory requirements that most of the data requires.
Where penetration testing is not needed, today, it is strongly advised that it is the best way to achieve the best security level rather than not doing it. With different tools, web application penetration testing has come a long way from being a more organized, automated, and manual testing method.
Using open-source security tools is strongly advised, given the existence of commercial versions of the same tool with enhanced capabilities. To conclude, Web Application Security Testing Methodology includes testing the application’s environment, database connection, source code, insufficient data, and error data to identify and exploit vulnerabilities.
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