#applicationsecuritytesting

Is your business facing security challenges that are leading to client dissatisfaction? If not addressed soon, these can impact your brand equity negatively and allow clients to look for your competitors. One of the reasons for such challenges to flare up is the lack of integration of cyber security testing in the SDLC. Remember that approximately 84 percent of software breaches occur as a result of application layer vulnerabilities. This is due to the fact that today’s enterprise applications are vast in their sweep, with numerous components and multiple integrations with third-party software.

Also, given the presence of a multitude of APIs, hackers have a goldmine of opportunities to cause security breaches. So, what needs to be done to overcome the challenges of safety, brand recall, and client retention? The answer lies in engaging professional and experienced application security testing services and preventing malicious cyber-attacks. The primary objective of any application security testing company is to identify the vulnerabilities or weaknesses in the digital infrastructure, especially in the applications, and how various threat actors can exploit those vulnerabilities.

Various types of application security testing

For any website or application, it is important to execute a comprehensive application security testing exercise to find different security hacks. The various types of application security testing methodology are:

Static Application Security Testing (SAST): It is a white-box testing approach where testers check the workings of an application by inspecting the static source code, byte code, and binaries and reporting any security vulnerabilities present. SAST can fix codes to nullify the vulnerabilities it scanned. It enables developers to verify the code’s compliance with established secure coding standards and guidelines such as CERT before releasing it into the production environment.

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST): It is a black box testing approach where testers detect security vulnerabilities in an application while it is running. By applying it to an operating code, DAST can detect issues with responses, interfaces, scripting, requests, sessions, data injection, DOM injection, execution of third-party elements, query strings, authentication, and many others. The DAST tools can scan several simulated malicious test cases and report on the application’s response thereto.

Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST): It is a hybrid application security testing approach combining both SAST and DAST methods to identify a wide range of security-related vulnerabilities. Like DAST, IAST tests the applications dynamically while they are in operation, but from within the applications’ server. This allows the IAST tools to test the compiled source codes. The IAST approach provides information about the root cause of vulnerabilities and the specific sections of code that represent them, thereby ensuring quick and effective remediation. IAST tools can analyze data flow, source code, third-party libraries, and configuration in the quest to identify vulnerabilities.

Mobile Application Security Testing (MAST): This testing approach allows application security testing services to combine both static and dynamic analysis and detect a wide range of vulnerabilities and mobile-specific issues, namely, data leakage, jailbreaking, and malicious Wi-Fi networks.

Best practices to follow in application security testing

To detect and mitigate various security-related vulnerabilities in applications and ensure a superior user experience, software security testing services need to employ the best practices as mentioned below:

Shift-left security testing: According to the new development and security paradigms such as DevSecOps, security testing needs to be integrated and implemented across the SDLC. The idea is to detect any security-related vulnerability in its nascent state and fix it before it morphs into something bigger and more complex.

Test internal interfaces: As standard practice, cybersecurity testing services tend to focus on external threats, such as those emanating from web forms and API requests submitted by users. However, threat actors are more likely to exploit vulnerabilities or weak authentication residing in internal interfaces once they make their way in. Hence, testers need to validate the quality of connections, inputs, and integrations between internal systems.

Test often: Enterprise applications have several components and third-party integrations that may develop new vulnerabilities during runtime. Also, many of the components can face end-of-life situations or need security updates, which can present themselves after the initial round of testing is over. Hence, it is important to test enterprise-scale applications as often as possible while focusing on high-impact threats and business-critical systems and components.

Conclusion

The users of today are no longer satisfied with average-quality products or services. They want quality and secure systems to perform various tasks on the go. This is where the role of application security testing services becomes critical for identifying security-related vulnerabilities in the application under development. Prompt mitigation of threats is the recipe for success that enterprises across verticals should envisage and implement. 

Resource

James Daniel is a software Tech enthusiastic & works at Cigniti Technologies. I'm having a great understanding of today's software testing quality that yields strong results and always happy to create valuable content & share thoughts.

What is DAST or Dynamic Application Security Testing?

The world around us is riding the digital wave. Digital-first has become the mantra enterprises want to embrace to attain competitive advantage and deliver high-value products to their customers. There is no industry that has not been impacted by digitization, as it has assisted scores of companies, individuals, entities, and economies in remaining operational while the pandemic loomed. There is no denying that the World Wide Web has bound everyone together by a common thread, whether as entrepreneurs, service providers, or end customers, to achieve a common goal of convenience, speed, and excellence.

However, with every milestone being reached by digital technologies, namely, IoT, AI, ML, cloud computing, and automated botnets, among others, there is the lurking fear of cybercrime as well. With the digital footprint being expanded in every sphere and the confidential information of individuals and entities riding the digital wave, cybercriminals are bent upon raking in the moolah by causing data breaches and other nefarious activities. According to statistics, cybercrime is expected to cost $10.5 trillion by 2025 (Source: Cybersecurity Ventures). As if on cue, global spending on cybersecurity is going to exceed $1.75 trillion between 2021 and 2025 (Source: Cybersecurity Ventures). This calls for leveraging cybersecurity testing services and shoring up the defenses of enterprises from any emanating threats.

Cybercriminals are targeting companies and their supply chains to cause a single breach and harvest a treasure trove of valuable data. So, how do companies prevent such outcomes even when seemingly secure digital ecosystems do not appear to be secure anymore? The answer lies in implementing stringent cybersecurity testing across the value chain and keeping it updated in view of the rapidly emerging attack vectors such as ransomware, trojans, worms, and viruses, among others. Also, it is imperative to conduct cybersecurity risk assessments regularly and back them up with the use of powerful software tools or firewalls.

Types of attack vectors used by cybercriminals

The list of attack vectors is growing by the day, and in most cases, the vectors target the human user, especially taking advantage of his or her ignorance, greed, or curiosity through social engineering tools. The various types of attack vectors let loose on unsuspecting users by cybercriminals are:

Malware: It comes in the form of viruses, trojans, and worms that are introduced into the system through email attachments and software downloads, among others.

Phishing: It is executed through emails containing fraudulent links and seeks to steal users’ confidential information by guiding them to click on the links.

SQL Injection: It exploits known SQL vulnerabilities wherein the SQL server runs malicious code to access confidential information of the users.

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): Here, the cybercriminal injects a malicious code into a script or comment that runs automatically and can damage the website.

Denial-of-Service (Dos): The attacker sends a high volume of traffic through the network until it gets overwhelmed and stops functioning.

Types of cybersecurity technique

Business enterprises employ multiple cybersecurity techniques to keep their critical data and information safe from the prying eyes of cybercriminals.

Penetration or Pen testing: Penetration testing subjects the system to a simulated attack to understand any potential vulnerabilities and then fixes them before the real attacker hits.

Ethical hacking: It involves hacking an enterprise’s IT systems to understand the security flaws or vulnerabilities.

Vulnerability scanning: Here, an automated software scans the system to identify any vulnerabilities.

Risk assessment: Here, an enterprise’s security risks are identified and categorized as low, medium, or high. It recommends measures to reduce the risks.

Security audit: The IT systems comprising applications, operating systems, networks, and others are inspected internally to identify security flaws.

5 ways cybersecurity testing can safeguard enterprises

Robust application security testing can safeguard the IT assets of an enterprise in the following ways:

Adaptable to the enterprise: Cybersecurity testing can be tailor-made to suit the unique requirements of the enterprise. It can protect the enterprise from internal and external networks and secure its web and mobile applications, and/or wireless systems. For instance, in the DevSecOps scheme of things, a code will never be accepted in the repository unless it is found to be safe. So, the developer ought to fix any security issues before moving on to the next code.

Identifies different types of threats: Cybersecurity testing can use many methods to reveal threats facing the enterprise. One of these methods, called social engineering, can reveal sensitive information about the users or enterprises using email phishing. This way, the employees of the enterprise can be sensitized about cybersecurity threats.

Satisfies compliance requirements: The industry has many regulations to safeguard the interests of the users. With software security testing, the enterprise can be assured of adhering to the compliance requirements. These regulations can be in the form of PCI data security standards and/or HIPAA (for medical devices), among others.

Safeguards stored credit card data: Cybersecurity testing is important for companies involved in storing credit card data, using payment processing of any kind, or acting as a PCI service provider for a third party. The testing will validate the process of collecting and storing credit card data and prevent any breach.

Generates critical information: The cybersecurity testing report should meet the needs of various departments in an enterprise, namely, IT, management, and auditors (internal or external), among others. It defines the scope of testing, the methodology used, the vulnerabilities found, and the recommendations to address any adverse findings.

Conclusion

Although no amount of security testing practice can give foolproof security against potential cyber-attacks, it can more or less create for the enterprise a robust security umbrella to prevent its valuable or critical data and assets from falling into the hands of cybercriminals.

Resource

James Daniel is a software Tech enthusiastic & works at Cigniti Technologies. I'm having a great understanding of today's software testing quality that yields strong results and always happy to create valuable content & share thoughts.

What is SAST?

With the spread of digitization across domains, cybercriminals are having a field day. They are leveraging every trick in the book to hack into websites or applications to steal confidential information or disrupt the functioning of an organization’s digital systems. Even statistics buttress the malevolent role of cybercriminals with scary projections. Accordingly, by the end of 2021, the world is going to be poorer by $6 trillion as cybercrime is expected to extract its pound of flesh. And by 2025, the figure is expected to touch $10.5 trillion. No wonder, security testing is pursued with renewed zeal by organizations cutting across domains, with the market size expected to touch $16.9 billion by 2025. One of the measures to implement cybersecurity testing is the use of security testing frameworks. The importance of using such frameworks lies in the fact that they can guide organizations in complying with regulations and security policies relevant to a particular sector. Let us take you through 10 such open-source security testing frameworks to ensure the protection of data in a digital system and maintain its functionality.

10 open-source security testing frameworks        

To identify and mitigate the presence of vulnerabilities and flaws in a web or mobile application, there are many open-source security testing frameworks. These can be customized to match the requirements of each organization and find vulnerabilities such as SQL Injection, Broken Authentication, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), Session Management, and Security Misconfigurations, among others.

#1 Synk: Licensed by Apache, Synk is an open-source vendor application security testing framework that detects underlying vulnerabilities and fixes the same during the development cum testing process. It can be used to secure all components of any cloud-based native application and features continuous AI learning and semantic code analysis in real-time.

#2 NetSparker: It is a one-stop destination for all security needs, which can be easily integrated into any type of development or test environment. NetSparker features a proof-based scanning technology that can identify glitches such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and verify false positives in websites or applications, thereby eliminating the investment in man-hours.

#3 Acunetix: A powerful application security testing solution to secure your web environment and APIs by detecting vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and others. It has a DeepScan crawler that can scan HTML websites and client-side SPAs. Using this, users can export identified vulnerabilities to trackers such as GitHub, Atlassian JIRA, Bugzilla, Mantis, and others.

#4 w3af: Built using Python, the w3af attack and audit framework is a free application security scanner to find and exploit vulnerabilities in web applications during penetration testing.

#5 Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP): Built by OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project), ZAP is an open-source and multi-platform software security testing tool to detect vulnerabilities in a web application. Written in Java, ZAP can intercept a proxy to manually test a webpage and expose errors such as private IP disclosure, SQL injection, missing anti-CSRF tokens, XSS injection, and others.

#6 ImmuniWeb: Employing artificial intelligence, ImmuniWeb is a security platform to conduct security testing. With a one-click patching system, the platform can ensure continuous compliance monitoring and boasts proprietary technology to check for privacy, compliance, and server hardening.

#7 Wapiti: A command-line application to detect scripts and forms where data can be injected. It conducts a black box scan by injecting payloads to check if the detected scripts are vulnerable. Wapiti is capable of generating reports in several features and formats highlighting vulnerabilities such as database injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), file disclosure, and .htaccess configuration, among others.

#8 Vega: Written in Java, this open-source scanning tool working on OSX, Windows, and Linux platforms can detect vulnerabilities such as shell injection, blind SQL injection, and Cross-Site Scripting, among others. Its intercepting proxy facilitates tactical inspection by monitoring client-server communication. The detection modules can create new attack modules using APIs.

#9 Arachni: A free Ruby-based framework, Arachni is leveraged by penetration testers to evaluate the security of web applications. Supporting all major operating systems, this multi-platform cybersecurity testing tool can uncover scores of vulnerabilities, including XSS injection, SQL injection, and invalidated redirect, among others.

#10 Google Nogotofail: A network security testing framework, it can detect known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations such as TLS/SSL. It offers a flexible method of scanning, detecting, and fixing SSL/TLS connections. To be set up as a VPN server, router, or proxy server, it works with major operating systems such as iOS, Android, Windows, OSX, or Linux.

Conclusion

The above-mentioned tools/frameworks used by security testing services can be chosen as per the security testing requirements of organizations. With cybersecurity threats being faced by organizations across domains, the use of these frameworks can keep an organization in good stead in securing customer and business data, adhering to regulatory standards, and delivering superior customer experiences.

Resource

James Daniel is a software Tech enthusiastic & works at Cigniti Technologies. I'm having a great understanding of today's software testing quality that yields strong results and always happy to create valuable content & share thoughts.