Types, tools and best practices of security testing
Translation of the article “Security Testing: Types, Tools, and Best Practices”.
Content
What is security testing?
Types of Security Testing
Test cases and security scenarios
Security Testing Approaches
What is DevSecOps?
Data Security Testing
Security Testing Tools
Security Testing Best Practices
What is security testing?
Security testing verifies the vulnerability of software to cyber attacks and the impact of malicious or unexpected input on its operation. It ensures that systems and information are safe and secure and do not allow unauthorized data entry.
In fact, security testing is a type of non-functional testing. Unlike functionalwhich focuses on the correct operation of software functions (what the software does), non-functional testing focuses on whether the application is designed and configured correctly (how it does it).
The main goals of security testing are:
Definition of assets – what needs to be protected, such as software applications and computing infrastructure.
Identifying threats and vulnerabilities – actions that could cause damage to an asset, or weaknesses in one or more assets that could be exploited by attackers.
Risk identification – Security testing aims to assess the risk that specific threats or vulnerabilities will have a negative impact on the business. Risk is assessed by determining the severity of the threat or vulnerability.
Carrying out corrections. Security testing is not just a passive assessment of assets. It provides practical recommendations for resolving detected vulnerabilities and can confirm that they have been successfully addressed.
Basic Principles of Security Testing
The purpose of security testing is to ensure that an organization’s systems, applications and data comply with the following principles:
Confidentiality – restriction of access to confidential information controlled by the system.
Integrity – ensuring the consistency, accuracy and reliability of data throughout its entire life cycle and the impossibility of changing it by unauthorized persons.
Authentication – ensuring the protection of confidential systems or data through a mechanism that verifies the identity of the person accessing it.
Authorization – ensuring appropriate access controls to sensitive systems or data for authenticated users in accordance with their roles or permissions.
Availability – ensuring the availability of critical systems or data to their users at the right time.
Reliability – Ensures that data sent or received cannot be rejected by exchanging authentication information with a provable timestamp.
Types of Security Testing
Penetration testing (ethical hacking)
Penetration testing is the process of stimulating actual cyberattacks on an application, software, system or network in a secure environment. It helps evaluate how effective existing security measures will be in the face of a real attack. Most importantly, penetration testing can detect unknown vulnerabilities, including zero-day threats and business logic gaps.
Traditionally, penetration testing was performed manually by a vetted and certified security professional, known as an ethical hacker. A hacker works within specified limits, attempting to break into a company’s systems in a controlled manner without causing any damage to the company. In recent years, penetration testing automation tools have helped organizations achieve similar benefits at lower costs and more frequent testing.
Application Security Testing (AST)
Application security testing (AST – Application security testing) describes methods that organizations can use to find and eliminate vulnerabilities in software applications. These techniques include testing, analyzing, and reporting the security status of a software application throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC).
The main goal of application security testing is to prevent software vulnerabilities before it enters the market, and in case of failure, to quickly identify and eliminate them during operation. Successful implementation of AST results in more reliable and secure source code, greater visibility into application security issues, and improved protection against internal and external threats.
Web Application Security Testing
The purpose of web application security testing is to determine the vulnerability of a web application to attacks. It is carried out using various automatic and manual methods.
Penetration testing of a web application aims to gather information about the application, discover weaknesses or flaws in the system, investigate the success of exploiting those weaknesses, and assess the risk of the application’s vulnerabilities.
API Security Testing
API (Application Programming Interface) security testing helps identify vulnerabilities in application programming interfaces and web services, and helps developers fix them in a timely manner. APIs provide access to sensitive data and can be used by attackers as an entry point into internal systems. Thorough and regular testing of APIs can protect them from unauthorized access and abuse.
APIs are particularly vulnerable to threats such as attacks like “man in the middle” (Man in the middle). With them, attackers can eavesdrop on API communications and steal data or accounts. There are also API injections, where attackers can inject malicious code into internal systems, and denial of service (DoS – denial of service attack), in which attackers flood the API with fake traffic to deny service to legitimate users.
To mitigate these threats, the API must be validated to ensure that user requests are strongly authenticated, users are authorized according to the principle of least privilege, and all communications are encrypted using SSL/TLS and sanitizing user input to prevent injections and code hacking.
Vulnerability Management
Vulnerability management is an ongoing process that enables an organization to identify, assess, report, manage, and resolve security gaps in endpoints, workloads, and networks. Security teams typically use specialized scanning tools to detect vulnerabilities and use manual or automated processes to fix them.
A robust vulnerability management program leverages threat intelligence and IT operations knowledge. This helps you understand the real business impact of vulnerabilities, prioritize risks, and address the highest priority ones as quickly as possible.
Configuration Scan
Configuration scanning is the process of identifying misconfigurations in software, networks, and other computing systems. This type of scan typically tests systems against a list of best practices defined by research organizations or standards.
Automated scanning tools identify misconfigurations and provide a report with more detailed information about each one and suggestions for resolving them.
Security Audits
A security audit is a structured process of checking (auditing) an application (software) in accordance with a specific standard. An audit typically includes a security review of code or architecture, analysis of weaknesses, and assessment of the security posture of hardware configurations, operating systems, and organizational practices. Compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is also assessed.
Risk assessment
Risk assessment allows an organization to identify, analyze and categorize the security risks to business-critical assets. It helps you understand which threats are most critical to your organization’s infrastructure and prioritize system recovery. Risk assessments can also help with long-term planning and budgeting for security investments.
Security assessment
A security assessment combines security scanning, ethical hacking, and risk assessment to determine not only the risks an organization faces, but also its current defenses and their effectiveness. It allows you to identify gaps in your existing security system and recommend changes or improvements that will improve the security of the assets being protected.
Test cases and security scenarios
Authentication
Security testing of authentication systems should include the following items:
Checking Password Rules – check the level of security and quality of passwords required by the site.
Vulnerability identification enumerating usernames – check if the error differs depending on whether there is a registered user.
Checking password strength – minimum requirements for creating a password.
Identification account recovery vulnerabilities – check if attacks can be used to recover accounts (for example, by changing email or password).
Username verification – make sure usernames are unique.
Identification authentication failure – check whether the system allows open access even if authentication fails.
Checking Cookie Scaling – check whether cookies are tied to the domain and whether attackers can steal them.
Input Validation
Testing of input data should include the following:
Request parameters – check for reflected parameters and open redirection.
Identifying SQL Injection Vulnerabilities – check whether the system processes parameters as SQL.
Identification SOAP injection vulnerabilities – check if the application responds to SOAP requests.
Identification LDAP injection vulnerabilities – check if the system was unable to sanitize input data.
Identification XML injection vulnerabilities – check whether the injected XML affects the operation of the application.
Identification XXE injection vulnerabilities – check whether attackers can inject external objects.
Applications and business logic
These tests are important for security testing and require manual intervention (they are too complex to automate given the unique logic of each application). Such tests should include the following:
Determining what an attack on application logic looks like – what the application does.
Checking data transfer from clients – see if the transfer of information between applications differs.
Definition Client-side input validation – check where the application bases its logic.
Definition logic flaws in multi-step processes – check if it is possible to bypass the steps.
Incomplete input handling test – check whether the application processes erroneous input.
Checking trust relationships – whether users can access administrator functions.
Other tests
There are additional tests that help ensure the security of the application and identify the following vulnerabilities:
DOM vulnerabilities such as XSS (Cross-Site Scripting – “cross-site scripting”).
Lack of HTTP security headers.
Local privacy vulnerabilities.
Weak and persistent cookies.
Weak SSL ciphers.
URL parameters containing sensitive information.
Security Testing Approaches
Black box testing
In black box testing, a security tester evaluates the security of a system from the outside, without knowing the internal processes that generate responses. A black box is an opaque system, meaning only the input and output data are observable. In some cases, the tester ignores the internal structure of the system, even if it can be understood.
Black box testing provides separation between the tester and the code writer. It forces the tester to adopt the point of view of an outsider and test the software from the point of view of an attacker. The social and technical separation between testing and product development allows the tester to manipulate the application in a way that was not considered by the developer.
White box testing
In white box testing, the tester develops test cases based on the software source code. The tester knows and understands the structure of the code, as opposed to a “black” or “gray box” method. Because of this observability, it is also called “clear” or “glass” box testing.
This testing technique focuses on the internal workings of an application and its software components to test the design and structure of the application from the inside. Testing teams can use it to systemic, integration And modular tests.
Gray box testing
Gray box testing is a kind of hybrid of white and black box. In this case, the tester has a partial understanding of the internal structure and operation of the system.
Testers may base their tests on a limited understanding of the application’s underlying architecture and code. Thus, the test object becomes translucent or “gray”. This approach combines white box and black box testing techniques, getting the most out of both options.
Gray box testers focus on application code, but combine this with a variety of innovative black box approaches such as functional and regression testing. This way, they can simultaneously evaluate what the user sees and the internal workings of the software.
What is DevSecOps?
DevSecOps is a software development and project management strategy that integrates development, security, and operations processes. It combines them with infrastructure as code to create automated continuous delivery pipelines.
The main goal of the DevSecOps pipeline is to provide automation, monitoring, and other security processes throughout the software development lifecycle. It provides security at every stage, including planning, development, creation, testing, release, delivery and deployment.
Incorporating security into all phases of the development process is important for continuous integration and reduces compliance costs. It also allows teams to build secure software faster while reducing the risk of costly errors and rollbacks. In DevSecOps, each team member shares responsibility for security from the very beginning – employees must make informed decisions and consider security at every stage.
Data Security Testing
Data security is a challenge for many organizations. Companies spend a significant portion of their budget on protecting sensitive data from attacks. Business data is a core part of most mission-critical business processes, and a data breach can expose organizations to compliance risks, reputational damage, and financial loss.
To protect data, organizations must carefully review their security controls to ensure they comply with the organization’s security requirements, as well as government regulations and industry standards. In many cases, compliance standards explicitly require security testing to prove to auditors that data is properly protected.
Data security audit
Organizations should conduct a data security audit at least every few months. This allows you to identify risks and weaknesses in data protection mechanisms. Audits can be conducted by internal security or compliance teams, but it may be a good idea to use third-party auditors or penetration testers. Voluntary audits allow important security issues to be identified and addressed before the organization undergoes a risky and stressful external audit.
The main output of such an audit is a report that details the weaknesses and missing elements in the data security model. Efforts must be made to prioritize these weaknesses and address them to improve data security readiness.
Compliance testing
Compliance testing is the process of monitoring and evaluating systems, devices, networks, and cloud environments for compliance with regulatory requirements and industry cybersecurity standards.
Monitoring compliance is not always easy, especially in highly regulated industries and sectors. Regulations and standards change frequently and can contain very detailed requirements affecting every aspect of the IT environment. Today, most organizations are migrating workloads to the cloud, and the dynamic nature of cloud environments can make compliance challenging.
Compliance testing may include tracking sensitive assets, verifying personal information, and conducting routine exercises or penetration tests to ensure the organization is prepared for a breach. A key part of compliance testing is data discovery and classification—understanding where sensitive data is stored and then confirming that appropriate security measures are in place.
Cloud based security testing
Cloud Native is a set of design principles and technologies that enable you to create applications that take full advantage of the cloud. Cloud Native development models, including containerization and serverless computing, aim to improve scalability and elasticity, as well as speed up development and deployment.
One of the problems with cloud native environments is low visibility. A cloud application can have a large number of moving parts, most of which are ephemeral and short-lived. Security testing for cloud applications involves discovering elements of the application and identifying security weaknesses such as misconfigurations, lack of security best practices, and vulnerabilities.
Two important areas for testing cloud native security are container image scanning and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) scanning. IaC patterns are an important attack surface because they are used to automatically create cloud resources at scale.
Database Security Testing
Database security involves protecting database servers such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL from unauthorized access and cyber-attacks. Databases typically store critical business information, making them a valuable target for attackers.
Database security testing is aimed at verifying the security of key elements of the database, including the underlying database management system (DBMS), the hosting server, the data stored in the database, the applications connected to the database server, and the network infrastructure used to access the database.
An important aspect of database security testing is checking for common threat vectors such as SQL injections, NoSQL injections, and local file injections (LFI). Database security testing aims to identify weaknesses in your database and provide actionable information that will help protect it from intrusion, misuse, and compromise.
Cloud Data Testing
Cloud testing is the process of testing software applications deployed on cloud computing resources using the Infrastructure as a Service model (IaaS) or serviced by third-party service providers using the Platform as a Service model (PaaS). “software as a service” (SaaS – Software as a Service).
Cloud data testing helps ensure optimal data performance, availability, and security while minimizing downtime for the underlying infrastructure or platform.
The primary focus of cloud data testing is to ensure that the promises made by cloud and SaaS providers are delivered. For example, testing cloud data can ensure that providers are meeting service level agreements for performance, verify that data is actually replicated to multiple locations, and ensure that disaster recovery processes are working correctly.
Security Testing Tools
Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
SAST (Static Application Security Testing) tools evaluate source code at rest. The goal of SAST is to identify exploitable vulnerabilities and provide a detailed report with findings and recommendations.
You can run SAST to identify problems in your source code to find issues such as input validation, numerical errors, workarounds, etc. SAST can also be used in compiled code, but it requires binary parsers.
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) tools test an application while it is running. The goal of DAST is to detect vulnerabilities in an application while it is running using a wide range of attacks.
The DAST tool often uses fuzzing to throw large volumes of known invalid errors and unexpected test cases into an application in an attempt to discover conditions under which the application can be used.
DAST tests can be run to test a wide range of components, including scripts, sessions, data injection, authentication, interfaces, responses, and requests.
Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)
IAST (Interactive Application Security Testing) tools use both static and dynamic testing to create a hybrid process. The goal is to determine whether known source code vulnerabilities can be exploited at runtime. IAST tools are often used to reduce false positives.
The IAST tool combines various testing techniques to create multiple attack scenarios using pre-collected data and application flow information. The tools then perform dynamic analysis recursively.
Through dynamic analysis loops, IAST continues to learn more about the application based on how it responds to each test case. Such a tool can use the analysis results to create new test cases to gain more information about the application.
Software Configuration Analysis (SCA)
Software Configuration Analysis (SCA) is a technology used to manage and protect open source components. Development teams can use SCA to quickly track and analyze these components deployed in their projects.
SCA tools can discover all required components, the libraries that support them, and direct and indirect dependencies. In each of the components found, they can identify vulnerabilities and suggest measures to eliminate them. The scanning process creates a Bill of Materials (BOM), which contains a complete list of the project’s software assets.
Security Testing Best Practices
Here are some best practices to help you implement successful security testing.
Shift security testing left
With the shift to DevSecOps (closer collaboration between developers, security, and operations), organizations are implementing security practices earlier in the development process. Typically, security testing tools are integrated into the continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) cycle.
Shift security testing left can help developers understand security issues and implement security best practices while the software is under development. It can also help testers find security issues early, before the software is released into production. Finally, operations and security teams can use security testing in production to identify problems and work with other teams to resolve them.
Testing internal interfaces
Security testing typically focuses on external threats, such as user input from public web forms. However, attackers are increasingly exploiting weaknesses in internal systems. Through security testing, it is important to ensure that secure interfaces exist between internal systems and that insider threats or compromised accounts cannot be used to escalate privileges.
Automation and frequent testing
While manual security testing, such as penetration tests or security audits, is important, organizations should automate this type of testing and conduct it as often as possible—preferably whenever applications or computing infrastructure change.
Enterprise applications use a large number of components that may require security updates or may no longer be supported by software vendors. It is important to test business-critical systems, give high priority to the security issues that affect them, and quickly allocate resources to fix them.
Third Party Components and Open Source Security
Organizations should conduct security testing of third-party code used in their applications, especially open source components.
It’s unwise to trust commercial software, and it’s equally important to check open source components that may require updates or may not be properly secured. You should scan and patch third-party code the same way you would your own, and prioritize updates, patches, or replacement of insecure components.
Using the OWASP Web Security Testing Guide
Web Security Testing Guide WSTG The Web Security Testing Guide is an online cybersecurity testing resource for security professionals and web application developers. It was created by professionals in the field together with volunteers to provide a framework of best practices for testing the security of web services and applications.
