Table of Contents
What Is Security Testing?
Security testing examines software’s vulnerability to cyber assaults and the effects of malicious or unexpected inputs. Security testing verifies that systems and data are secure and do not allow illegal inputs.
Security testing is non-functional. Unlike functional testing, which examines the software’s functionality (“what” it performs), non-functional testing examines an application’s design and configuration (“how” it performs).
Security testing is structured around several key elements:
- Assets – Protected resources include software programs and computer infrastructure.
- Threats and vulnerabilities – Actions which might result in asset damage or vulnerabilities in one or more assets that could be exploited by attackers. Vulnerabilities include unpatched operating systems or browsers, insufficient authentication, and the absence of fundamental security mechanisms such as firewalls.
- Risk – Security testing is used to assess the likelihood that certain threats or vulnerabilities could negatively affect the organization. Risk is quantified by determining the danger or vulnerability’s severity, plus the chance and effect of exploitation.
- Remediation – Security testing is not only a review of assets in a passive manner; it gives practical instructions for resolving detected vulnerabilities and can verify they’ve been effectively repaired.
8 Essential Types of Security Testing
Vulnerability Scanning
Automated vulnerability scanning is conducted here. This is used to discover known vulnerabilities in software components, and to assess vulnerabilities to determine the risk to the enterprise (plus aid in repair).
Penetration Testing (Ethical Hacking)
Penetration testing simulates real-world cyber assaults on an application, software, system or network. In addition to known vulnerabilities, penetration testing can uncover undiscovered threats and business logic flaws.
Traditionally, an ethical hacker is hired to do manual penetration testing. The hacker operates within a defined scope, seeking to penetrate a company’s systems without causing harm. Automated penetration testing solutions have recently helped enterprises get comparable results at lower costs (and more often).
Web Application Security Testing
Web application security testing examines a web application’s vulnerability to attack. This includes automated and manual procedures.
Web application penetration testing gathers information about a web application, finds system defects or vulnerabilities, investigates their success, and assesses the danger of web application vulnerabilities.
API Security Testing
API security testing helps developers detect and fix APIs and online services vulnerabilities. APIs allow attackers to acquire sensitive data and gain access to internal systems. Regular API testing can safeguard them against illegal access and exploitation.
Malicious code can be injected into internal systems through API injections, while denial of service attacks can flood APIs with bogus traffic to deny service to genuine users. To address these risks, an API must include robust user authentication, user authorization based on the principle of least privilege, SSL/TLS encryption of all communication, and user input sanitization in order to avoid code injection and manipulation.
Configuration Scanning
Constantly monitoring for security flaws in software, networks and other computer systems, this form of scanning often compares systems to a set of best practices or compliance criteria. Automated configuration scanning programs find misconfigurations and report them with ideas on how to fix them.
Security Audits
A security audit is a systematic review/audit of an application/software. Audits often analyze code or designs for security requirements, identify security flaws, and examine the security posture of hardware, operating systems and organizational policies. It also assesses regulatory and standard compliance.
Risk Assessment
Using risk assessment, an organization’s business-critical assets can be identified, analyzed and classified. A risk assessment can assist with identifying critical risks to an organization’s infrastructure and prioritizing system fixes. It can also help with long-term security planning and budgeting.
Security Posture Assessment
This combines security scanning, ethical hacking, and risk assessment to discover an organization’s present security procedures and effectiveness. It can uncover security flaws and offer fixes or upgrades to safeguard assets.
To learn more about security testing, visit CyberHunter online or call us at (833) 292-4868 today.
