D5 Creation Blog

Complete Security Analysis

Make Complete Security Analysis of Web Applications

No doubt, Web application security analysis is essential, but why? Before I let you know why it is crucial to analyze web application security testing, it is necessary to understand what web application security testing analysis is? In technical terms, Web application security is a study of information security deals with the security of websites, web applications, and web services. Well, it is a complex term and methodology, but considered as a milestone when it comes to the security premises of a website. In this post, we will cover all the essential determinants concerning Web application security analysis.

What is Web Application Security?

Web application security is also known as Web AppSec. Let me try to make you understand the concept of Web application security with the help of an example. Suppose you want to develop a website, so what do you expect from your website, how it should work when it comes to cyber-attacks? Obviously, you will not want any cyber-attacks to affect the functionality of your website, right? So, this is what we call the process of Web application security.

Web application security can be defined as the process that can help a website work well in the situation of cyber-attacks. Web application security process is a collection of security controls engineered into a Web application to guard its assets against potentially wicked agents. In layman terms, Web application security is the process that defends websites and online services against the various types of security threats that can abuse vulnerabilities in the coding of an application.

Role of Web Application Security Analysis

If you belong from a technical background, you may know that Web applications consist of some inevitable defects. Some of these defects can lead to actual vulnerabilities that can be abused, and even can risk to organizations.

Now the question arises - what role does Web application security plays against these defects? Well, Web application security shields web applications against these defects. It includes leveraging secure development practices and executing security measures during the software testing life cycle (STLC). Web application security makes sure that all the design-level flaws and implementation-level bugs are fixed to strengthen the security analysis of Web applications.

Now the next question that may strike in your mind is - why cyber perpetrators target web applications? Well, there are numerous reasons behind it; some of them are listed below:

  • First of all, the source coding of a web application is an intrinsically complex process that increases the probability of abandoned vulnerabilities and wicked code manipulation.
  • Secondly, it consists of sensitive private data obtained from successful source code manipulation.
  • Next, most of the cyber-attacks can be automated and launched easily by executing them over thousands of targets at the same time. 

Organizations that do not acknowledge the security of their web applications, they are always at risk of cyber-attacks. These cyber-attacks can affect the organizations in various manners, such as license cancellation, information theft, impact over customer base, and more.

Web Application Vulnerabilities

Generally, Web application vulnerabilities are the result of a short of input/output sanitization, which is usually abused to either manage source code or obtain unauthorized access. These vulnerabilities authorize the usage of several attack vectors, including:

SQL Injection: If we talk about SQL Injection, it occurs at the time when a perpetrator makes the use of malicious SQL code to control a backend database so that he can unveil information. Its consequences involve the illegal viewing of lists, deletion of tables, and unauthorized official access.

Cross-site Scripting (XSS): Secondly, Cross-site Scripting (XSS) is an injection attack that targets the users in terms of account access, initiate Trojans, or transform the page content. It is of two types: Stored and Reflected XSS.

  1. Stored XSS occurs when a perpetrator directly injects malicious code into an application.
  2. Reflected XSS is the type of XSS whose malicious script reflected off of an application from the browser of the user.

Remote File Inclusion: Thirdly, when it comes to Remote File Inclusion, we can say that a hacker or perpetrator uses this kind of attack in order to remotely inject a file from a server of a web application. It can result in data theft and data manipulation.

Significance of Web Application Security Testing

I hope now you are aware of Web Application security vulnerabilities. Now, it will be easy for you to understand why web application security testing is essential. Well, web application security testing strives to detect security vulnerabilities in Web applications and their configuration. The main objective of web application security testing is the application layer. On the other hand, if we talk about the testing process of a web application, it includes conveying various sorts of input to stimulate errors to make the system behave in unexpected ways. Moreover, it also includes 'negative tests' that are used to determine whether the system is doing such tasks that it isn't designed for.

Undoubtedly, Web security testing helps in testing the security features of a web application, such as authentication and authorization. Apart from this, it also helps in ensuring that all the other features are also implemented in a securely. Overall, the goal of a web application security testing is to make sure that all the features and functions of a web application are safe and secure.

Types of Web Application Security Testing

Dynamic Application Security Test (DAST):

Firstly, let us talk about the Dynamic Application Security Test (DAST); it is an automated application security testing optimum for internally facing and low-risk applications. Now the question arises - what if you have to test medium-risk applications? Well, in this case, you have to combine DAST with some other manual web security testing to get the best results.

Static Application Security Test (SAST):

The next big thing when it comes to web application security testing is the Static Application Security Test (SAST). If we talk about SAST, it provides the testers with automated and manual testing techniques. SAST is best to use in order to detect bugs, and you know what makes SAST differ from others, you don't require any execute applications while identifying bugs using SAST, isn't it impressive? Moreover, it not only enables the developers to scan source code but also helps them in systematically detecting and eliminating software security vulnerabilities.

Penetration Test:

When it comes to the Penetration Test, it is best for testing critical applications. Moreover, Penetration testing includes business logic and adversary-based testing to identify advanced attack scenarios.

Run-time Application Self Protection (RASP):        

Runtime Application Self Protection (RASP), this type of web application security testing consists of a number of technological techniques implemented in a web application to monitor and block attacks in real-time.

Features Reviewed While Web Application Security Testing

There is a list of non-exhaustive features mentioned below that a web security testing reviewed. Appropriate implementation of each feature is essential, as the inappropriate implementation of a single one can lead to vulnerabilities that can put your organization at risk.

  • Application and server configuration
  • Input validation and error handling
  • Authentication and session management
  • Authorization
  • Business logic
  • Client-side logic

Conclusion:

I hope by reading the information delivered above; now you can understand that there is a wide range of attacks that can impact the functioning of your web application in today's tech-friendly world. So, you can self-assume how important it is to make a complete security analysis of web applications.

All the D5 Creation Themes are highly Security and Performance Optimized. You can use these Themes for your sites. Fortunately, all these Themes have Free Versions available.




Author : Claire Mackerras

Claire Mackerras is a Senior QA Engineer & Editor associated with Bugraptors. A certified software testing company with extensive experience as a third-party testing vendor in US. She is passionate about writing on technological trends for manual & automation software testing.

Comments are Closed