Despite increasing awareness about security, complex threat vectors continue to put organizations across the globe under attack. So, to eliminate these threats, frauds, and massive data breaches, we need to know and follow a web application security testing checklist. Web application security testing plays a vital role in protecting web applications from all cyber-attacks, and ensuring their safety has become imperative for every organization.
Security becomes one of the significant concerns whenever any technology comes into immense use. In this situation, the chances of fraud and crime usually increase. Similarly, we can see that the use of web applications on a large scale has come under the threat of security issues. Adaptation of large-scale web applications at a broader level in various industries such as banking, healthcare, intelligence services, and others has revealed them to massive data breaches.
Why Is Web Application Security Testing Important?
Web application security testing helps to find security flaws in web applications and their configuration. The primary job is the application layer (i.e., what is going on in the HTTP protocol). Unfortunately, web application security testing usually involves different input types to provoke errors and make the system act unexpectedly. These so-called “negative tests” examine whether the system is doing something it isn’t designed to do.
It is vital to know that web application security testing is not only concerned with the testing (e.g., authentication and utilization) that can be implemented in the application but is also worried about the testing of other features and whether they are implemented securely or not (e.g., business logic and the use of proper input validation and output encoding). The primary aim is to ensure that functions revealed in the web application are secure.
What are the Different Types of Security Tests?
Dynamic Application Security Test (DAST): This automated application security testing is the best for low-risk applications that must comply with regulatory security assessments. If you want to test medium-risk and critical applications requiring minor changes, you can combine DAST with some manual web security testing for usual flaws.
Static Application Security Test (SAST): This web application security test provides manual and automated testing techniques. It is highly beneficial for identifying bugs without the requirement to execute applications in a production environment. In addition, this security testing helps the developers scan the source code and systematically find and delete software security vulnerabilities.
Penetration Test: This manual web application security testing is the best for essential applications, mainly for those undergoing significant changes. This testing technique involves business logic and adversary-based testing to discover additional vulnerabilities.
3 Tips to Get Started with Your Web Application Penetration Testing Checklist
Web application security testing is about how a threat entertainer would lead unauthorized attacks externally or internally on your application and gain access to critical information. But the central part is how, to begin with, this. Don’t you think you should have a web application security checklist? The following tips are for continuing with your web application security testing checklist.
#1 Segregate Test Categories
Segregating and specifying test categories is the first step in the web application security checklist. It is essential to prioritize your categories of testing based on your requirements. For example, there may be your requirements or some business partner requirements. And you need to arrange and manage all the people together.
Based on applications, network systems, and code, you need to consider how you will test them and your particular expectations for the deliverables. This consists of the need for testing any specific user roles. For example, it is suggested to try applications as a typical user, an untrusted outsider, and a user with all the possible privileges within the application.
#2 Create a Baseline for Your Tests
Creating a baseline for your test also comes under the security testing checklist for web applications. It is such a difficult task to include every test scenario in your checklist. However, we should not neglect basic tests that are time-saving and effortless for your organization and cover the significant vulnerabilities. The checklist needs to create a baseline for your tests to ensure that your application satisfies the basic security and other performance standards requirements.
#3 Links to References and Solutions
Linking references and solutions also play a vital role in the web application security checklist. As it is impossible to follow all the testing procedures in your present checklist, you can link references and solutions that include essential information for your checklist. Limiting the number of test scenarios in your checklist is the primary suggestion for the most common ones, and linking references for others to expand coverage.
What Tools Are Best Suited for the Task?
At a minimum, web application security testing requires using a web vulnerability scanner, such as HCL Appscan.
Read how HCL Appscan, the best web application security testing, helps one of its clients facing security issues to test roughly 4,000 applications, both employee and customer-facing. In addition, HCL Appscan offers several commercial options to meet clients’ licensing needs, either SaaS-based or on-prem-based.
It should be clear which applications, network frameworks, and code you want to test, how you will test them, and your assumptions for the expectations. Different devices are accessible on the off chance that source code examination is a prerequisite. Be cautious; the end product will correspond to its price with source code investigation instruments, and most are expensive.
Conclusion
Web application security testing is also one of the most specific targets for malicious hackers. That is why internal and web-based applications should be tested end-to-end to ensure they don’t serve as a gateway of entry for attackers.
It is also critical that web developers carry out web application security assessments frequently, ensure that their web applications are well-maintained, and display a clean bill of health as far as security is concerned.
