What is Web Application Penetration Testing? Understanding Its Key Aspects

Quick Summary : Due to rising cases of cyber-attacks and security breaches, it has now become imperative to secure your web solutions and keep them secure. And to take care of these vulnerabilities, organizations today need to opt for web application penetration testing as it helps them identify and rectify issues before the app launches. So, read on the blog to know more!

Nowadays, every organization prefers building digital or online platforms for their business to provide better user engagement and improve revenue generation. Most of them opt for web application development as it’s a remarkable approach to communicating and working seamlessly with clients digitally.

As per recent Forbes Statistics, 28% of all business operations are now conducted digitally and 71% of these businesses have their web solutions.

However, these solutions for your business operations bring out their vulnerabilities and risks. Frequent alterations, updates, and modifications to web apps and websites leave them vulnerable to threats. According to a report by Verizon, attacks on web applications constitute 26% of overall breaches and are the second most common course of attack.

Hence, it has now become necessary for security teams to adapt and shield networks against consistently rising vulnerabilities and maintain overall security. And since web apps are online and open, they need a specific set of security protocols and a unique testing approach to protect them thoroughly.

Businesses can do that with the help of web application penetration testing, also referred to as web pen testing. Here, the organizations test their software solutions by imitating cyberattacks or security breaches to find and rectify any loopholes before the software is launched.

Feeling curious already? Well, in this blog, we’ll discuss what exactly web application penetration testing is and run through its important aspects.

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What is Web Application Penetration Testing?

Web application penetration testing is the process of mimicking attacks on the application to gain better access to sensitive information and, eventually, to determine whether the software is safe.

These attacks are simulated either externally or internally on the web app, helping you gain information on the target system, recognize the loophole within, and rectify any exploits that, in the future, could undermine the entire web app. It is like a health checkup of your software that will notify testers whether more security measures are needed.

Moreover, web penetration testing is a significant part of web application security. It helps companies adhere to important security regulations and protocols such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, etc. Development teams should frequently run web pen testing and ensure that the web applications are up-to-date and secure.

Types of Penetration Testing in Web Applications

Following are the two types of testing used by web application penetration testers worldwide:

• External Penetration Testing

External Pen Tests refer to simulating attacks on web apps or websites. This type of web penetration test utilizes the BlackBox Test Method. During that whole workflow, testers use company IPs to target the system and mimic the behavior of hackers. This test also tells us about the security controls of the application and how they function as itexamine the IDS and server firewalls.

• Internal Penetration Testing

There are times when organizations don't understand the need for internal validation and ignore it. They think (and believe) that no one inside the company could bring any threat. Unfortunately, it's not at all true. Hence, penetration testing on web applications prevents these attacks from abusing any vulnerabilities that reside internally within the corporate firewall.

Importance of Penetration Testing for Web Applications

Following are the reasons why it's important to opt for advanced web application penetration testing:

1. Assess Your Web App Infrastructure - Software infrastructure, like DNS and firewall servers, is disclosed to the public, so, any modifications or upgrades done to the infrastructure can lead to system vulnerability. Hence, it helps determine actual attacks that can exploit these systems.

2. Take Care of Security Policies - Penetration testing on web applications helps assess existing security policies for any shortcomings.

3. Identify Vulnerabilities – It helps detect any unprotected routes or loopholes in your web solution infrastructure before the attacker finds it.

4. Accomplish Compliance Requirements - Automated web application penetration testing is like a savior for some industrial sectors. Carrying out security testing helps organizations satisfy all the compliance requirements.

Moving ahead, now we’ll go through the most important aspect - web application penetration testing steps.

Web Application Penetration Testing – The Step-By-Step Process

The systematic web application penetration testing process includes five important steps as follows:

Step 1: Collecting Information and Planning

This step consists of determining testing aspects, such as what systems to examine, and collecting all the relevant data of the systems hosting your web app (as they are common targets too).

Step 2: Research and Scanning

Before simulating the attack, you can gain a lot of info from scanning your web app's static code. It helps expose the evident loopholes. Additionally, a dynamic application scan when it's in use online helps define its functioning in the real-time scenario.

Step 3: Access and Exploit

In this step, web app pen testers use some standard range of hacking attacks, starting from password cracking to SQL injection. This step of the testing process tries to exploit any system loopholes and use them to check if unauthorized access can be gained or any data can be stolen.

Step 4: Reporting and Guidance

This step is performed to examine and reveal the types and intensities of found vulnerabilities, which type of data can be exploited, and whether a hacker can get into the system or not.

Step 5: Rectification and Further Testing

Before your web app is published, it's important to make all the rectifications to block the detected loopholes. And additional tests need to be performed to ensure that all the loopholes are blocked, and no further issues arise.

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Understanding the Web Application Penetration Testing Methodology

The web app penetration testing methodology involves four phases that are always in the loop. Tester repeats these phases until they don't find any loopholes. Let’s understand them!

• Reconnaissance - The first phase of pen testing methodology is reconnaissance. This process refers to collecting the information or data about the system to be examined.

• Mapping - Now, once you get your targets’ information, including the names and IP addresses, the testers need to map out the system's network topology. The mapping will include a better understanding of how different networks are interlinked with each other and what kinds of security controls they have at back and call.

• Discovery - After mapping out the system's connected network, you now need to carefully discover any risks or loopholes that could provide a chance for attackers to easily gain access to sensitive information.

• Exploitation - This phase refers to simulating exploits for your web solutions like buffer overflows or SQL injections. The testers use these exploits to gain easy access to sensitive data or information residing within the software system itself.

Best Tools for Penetration Testing in Web Applications

Web application penetration testing tools are a vital part of any company’s security strategies. These tools help simulate attacks on your web solutions to determine any vulnerabilities and evaluate the efficiency of the system’s defense mechanism.

Following are some of the best tools for penetration testing of web applications used today:

• Burp Suite
• Aircrack-ng
• Metasploit
• Nmap
• Nessus
• Wireshark
• SQLmap
• John The Ripper
• Astra's Pentest

Web Application Penetration Testing Checklist 

Well, cloud storage, as well as Man-in-the-middle tests are some of the key factors you need to consider while web penetration testing. Are there any other factors, too?

Yes, we've made a web application penetration testing checklist for you to better understand some more crucial factors, such as:

• Retrieve and examine files on robot.txt
• Conduct search engine research for any data leakage
• Review the web page’s content
• Analyze the network infrastructure’s configuration
• Examine the software edition, coding errors, technical error part, and database information
• Evaluate the source code from the front of the app’s accessing pages
• Check CAPTCHA for displaying or not displaying authentication loopholes
• Test retention of sensitive data by file extensions
• Testing cloud storage
• Check error handling and cryptography
• Testing the licenses to access resources and role manipulation
• Encryption check testing for Exposed Session variables
• Perform the Directory Traversal Attack to access and accomplish Restricted Directories commands from outside the root directories of your Web server
• Data validation testing
• Carrying out an MITM (Man-in-the-middle) attack by preventing communications between web servers and end-users from accessing confidential data
• Utilize vulnerability scanning software such as HP Web inspect

Following the above-mentioned web application penetration testing checklist will help your testers avoid the horns of a dilemma.

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ConclusionPenetration testing on web applications plays a crucial role in the Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC), assisting you in building a flawless and secure web application. It also makes sure that the end-users are safe from any kind of cyber-attacks or security breaches like exposure to sensitive data and information theft.If you're on the path to developing a web application, it's important to make web penetration testing your utmost priority.And if you need any help with your web application penetration testing, you can always rely on Radixweb. Being in the IT industry for more than 25 years, we provide on-demand expertise that helps you manage the potential risks in your applications.With our top-notch web app testing services and exploratory risk analysis, you can systematically explore and eliminate any loopholes or vulnerabilities in your web applications.Contact us to learn more about web application penetration testing.