#application security testing

Explore advanced techniques in #applicationsecuritytesting to safeguard against evolving cyber threats and ensure the integrity of your software infrastructure.

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, ensuring the security of your applications is paramount to protecting sensitive data and maintaining customer trust. Application security testing plays a crucial role in identifying and mitigating potential vulnerabilities that could compromise the integrity of your systems. However, when it comes to choosing between automated and manual testing approaches, it's essential to understand the advantages and limitations of each method.

The Case for Automated Application Security Testing

Automated application security testing relies on specialized tools and software to scan code and identify vulnerabilities systematically. One of the primary advantages of automated testing is its efficiency and scalability. Automated tools can analyze large codebases and perform comprehensive scans in a fraction of the time it would take for manual testing. This makes automated testing ideal for identifying common vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and improper input validation across multiple applications and environments.

Moreover, automated testing can be integrated seamlessly into the software development lifecycle (SDLC), enabling developers to identify and address security issues early in the development process. By automating repetitive tasks and streamlining the testing workflow, organizations can accelerate the delivery of secure, high-quality software without sacrificing speed or agility.

The Role of Manual Application Security Testing

While automated testing offers speed and efficiency, manual application security testing provides a level of depth and insight that automated tools alone cannot replicate. Manual testing involves human expertise and intuition to uncover complex security vulnerabilities that may elude automated scanners. Manual testers can simulate real-world attack scenarios, explore application logic, and assess the impact of security flaws on overall system security.

Manual testing is particularly valuable for identifying subtle vulnerabilities, such as business logic flaws, authorization issues, and context-dependent security weaknesses. Additionally, manual testers can provide valuable feedback on the usability and user experience aspects of the application, helping organizations deliver software that not only meets security requirements but also aligns with user expectations and preferences.

Finding the Right Balance

In today’s modern world, application security testing (AST) tools are now widely used due to the prevalence of software-related problems. It is expected that over 84 % of software breaches are caused by vulnerabilities in the application layer. Many IT leaders, software developers, engineers, and application testers may find it difficult to determine which application security testing tools will address which issues as the number of tools is growing daily.  

The primary reason for using application security testing (AST) tools is that it takes a long time to manually review the code and traditional test plans, and as a result, new vulnerabilities continue to be found and introduced in the process. That’s where AST comes in, which automates the testing process and makes things easier to do through automation. 

AST tools provide many benefits for testing applications, including speed, efficiency, and coverage; the tests they carry out are repeatable and scalable. Once a test case has been developed and written, it can easily be run on a large amount of code without significant incremental cost. Therefore, it is cost-effective too, and doesn’t take much time to initiate the process. 

Well, in this article, we will be talking about application security testing, including its top benefits, process, best practices, types, tools, and techniques used in the process. 

Let’s get started. 

What is Application Security Testing? 

Application security testing (AST) is the process of identifying security weaknesses and vulnerabilities in source code in order to make applications more resistant to security threats. 

Initially, application security testing (AST) ran as a manual process, but as enterprise software became more modular, many open-source components were introduced over time. The AST process became more automated with the number of increasing vulnerabilities.

However, a lot of businesses use the combination of various application security testing tools to get more efficient and effective results. 

Application Security Testing: Types and Tools

It’s practically checked that when you perform a dynamic scan, the tool will learn more about the application by looking at how it responds to different test cases: and when you perform a dynamic scan, the tool will learn more about how the application works. 

This knowledge can be used to create additional test cases, which can then lead to gaining more knowledge, and so on. Traditional stand-alone DAST and SAST tools can be too time-consuming for Agile or DevOps environments, which makes IAST tools a good fit. They reduce false positives and work well in Agile and DevOps environments.

Let’s take a look at different types of application security testing (AST) and their uses for the application. 

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools utilize the white box testing approach which inspects application source code, scans static code, and displays security weaknesses. 

Static testing tools are often used on non-compiled code to identify various issues, including input validation issues, math errors, syntax errors, invalid or insecure references, etc. SAST can also be applied to compiled code with the use of binary and byte-code analyzers.

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

Unlike traditional testing techniques, DAST tools execute code and inspect it in real time, determining security issues that indicate security threats and vulnerabilities. 

This type of security testing is done to identify query string issues, requests and responses, script problems, memory leaks, cookie handling, third-party service execution, data injection, and DOM injection that can all affect the performance of your website.

In DAST tools, simulated test cases can be run on a large scale to reproduce unexpected or malicious behavior, and ultimately determine the response of the application. 

Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)

Like DAST tools, IAST tools also run dynamically and examine software while it is running, combining SAST and DAST tools to uncover an even broader range of security flaws. 

Nevertheless, they can inspect compiled source code as IAST tools do, enabling them to identify sources of vulnerabilities and the lines of code that are affected. 

This enables easy remediation of vulnerabilities. This type of testing is best suitable for API testing and helps to analyze source code, data flow, third-party libraries, and configuration.

Mobile Application Security Testing (MAST)

MAST tools are specially designed to study forensic data generated by mobile applications through static, dynamic, and investigative analysis. 

In addition to testing for security vulnerabilities such as IAST, SAST, and DAST, mobile-specific issues include locating jailbroken devices, and malicious Wi-Fi networks, and protecting data on mobile devices.

Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP)

Unlike SAST, DAST, and IAST, RASP tools can analyze application traffic and user behavior at runtime, detecting and preventing cyber threats. As with the previous generations of tools, RASP can analyze the source code of an application to find weaknesses.

RASP tools integrate with applications and analyze traffic at runtime, so they are able not only to detect security vulnerabilities but also to provide active protection, such as terminating sessions or sending alerts.

Implementing this type of in-depth inspection and protection during the runtime can help eliminate the need for SAST, DAST, and IAST, allowing security issues to be detected and prevented without requiring costly development efforts.

Software Composition Analysis (SCA)

Software Configuration Analysis (SCA) is the process of managing and securing open-source components. Developers use SCA to quickly track and analyze the open-source components that are deployed in their projects. 

SCA tool is used to identify all essential components and libraries that support them, along with the direct and indirect dependencies. In addition to this, it helps determine vulnerabilities and provides recommendations for remediation for each of these components. 

Application Security Testing: Best Practices

Security is important at every stage of the software development lifecycle, according to new organizational practices such as DevSecOps. 

The AST tools can help developers understand security concerns and implement the best practices for security at the development stage.

It helps QA testers examine security issues at the early stage before the launching of the actual product. 

More advanced tools such as RASP can help determine and prevent security vulnerabilities in source code while in production.

Test internal interfaces, apart from APIs and UIs

Applications are usually tested for application security using external threats such as user input provided through web forms or requests to public APIs. 

Attackers often target internal systems with weak authentication or vulnerabilities once they have already penetrated security controls. It is imperative that internal systems are integrated, connected, and tested using AST to avoid such issues.

Test often

Thousands of components are used by enterprise applications, all of which may become obsolete or require security updates. As new vulnerabilities are discovered every day. 

In order to make sure critical systems are protected and functioning as efficiently as possible, it is imperative to test them frequently, prioritize issues affecting business-critical systems, and allocate resources to remedy issues quickly.

Third-party code security

AST practices should be applied to all code used in an organization's applications, whether open-source or commercial. Organizations should never trust components from third parties for security reasons. 

Therefore, you need to scan third-party code just like you do your own, and if you find severe issues, you can apply the latest security patches, speak with QA experts, or create a fix of your own.

Benefits of Application Security Testing

Many businesses invest in application security because applications power almost everything businesses do nowadays. Here are several reasons for investing in application security:

Eliminates the risks from internal and as well as third-party sources.

Makes customer data more secure and builds customer trust.

Helps protect sensitive data from leaks.

Improves trust from crucial investors and lenders.

Keep businesses off the headlines in order to maintain their brand reputation.

Application Security Testing: Techniques

An understanding of how client-server (browser) communication works through HTTP is required to prevent all of the above security testing threats/flaws and carry out security testing on a web application. 

It would also require basic knowledge of SQL injection and XSS. Below are some of the most effective techniques used in performing quality security testing:

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Testers must look into some additional checks on the web application for XSS (Cross-site scripting). Make sure that any HTML e.g. <HTML> or any script e.g. <SCRIPT> must not be accepted by the application. 

If it happens, the application will be more likely to get vulnerabilities by Cross-Site Scripting, because attackers often use such methods to execute malicious scripts or URLs on a victim’s browser.

Ethical Hacking

A white-hat hacker is someone who uses hacking to identify potential threats on a computer or network to make it more difficult for black-hat hackers to break in. White hats suggest changes to systems, such as software patches, to make them less susceptible to exploitation. 

On the other hand, a black hat hacker would exploit the vulnerabilities found within a system to gain access to sensitive information. Therefore, it is important to check whether the system is fully protected from such kinds of attacks. 

Password Cracking

A hacker can access the private areas of the application by using a password-cracking tool or by guessing the common username and password of the application. In order to perform system testing, a password-cracking tool is essential. 

There are open-source password-cracking applications available online that can decipher the password for you if you have a commonly used username and password. 

The username and password of a web application are easy to decrypt until a complex password is enforced (e.g., a long password containing both numbers and letters). Another way to crack a password is to target cookies if the cookies aren't encrypted.

Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is the process of attacking a computer system in order to uncover security weaknesses and gain access to its functionality and data.

Risk Assessment

In this process, the organization will assess the possibility of the occurrence of losses and the risks involved with them. This will be determined through interviews, discussions, and analysis within the organization.

Security Auditing

It is a system of evaluating a company's information security by assessing its compliance with a set of standards.

Security Scanning

This program communicates with the web front-end in order to find out potential security threats and vulnerabilities within the web application, OS, and networks. 

Importance of Application Security Testing (AST) for Businesses

A comprehensive security testing framework involves the evaluation of an application's security across all layers, including the infrastructure, network, and database of the application. It concludes by validating the application's exposure through testing the network as well as its database. 

Due to the prevalence of today's cloud and multi-network applications, the security of applications is a fundamental concern. This makes the application less vulnerable to attacks and breaches and helps you run your business application more efficiently and successfully. 

Final Thoughts

Thus, application security testing provides a number of advantages for businesses if they are implemented and performed the right way. To make your business up to the mark and running flawlessly, it is crucial to have the right application security testing employed in your business application. The more secure business you have, the more trusted customers you will get.