Table of Contents:
- Types of Penetration Testing for Web Applications
- How Is Penetration Testing for Web Apps Done?
- Specialized Cybersecurity Consulting Services
Due to various cyber threats in the present digital environment, businesses are continuously searching for innovative web application security solutions. Penetration testing is one of these approaches which has become an integral element of any sound security plan.
Penetration testing, often known as a “pen test” or “pentesting”, is increasing in popularity. The market for penetration testing is anticipated to grow from $1.7 billion in 2020 to $4.5 billion in 2025.
For web applications, penetration testing is done by simulating attacks from inside and outside the system in order to get to sensitive data.
A pen test lets us find any security holes in the source code, database, backend network, and the entire web application as a whole. This helps the developer put web app vulnerabilities and threats in order of importance (and develop ways to protect against them).
Types of Penetration Testing for Web Applications
Web application pentesting can be done in two ways: by simulating an attack from the inside or the outside. Let’s look at how each type of attack is planned and carried out:
Method 1: Internal Pentesting
As the name suggests, internal penetration testing is done within the organization through the LAN. Web applications hosted on the internet are also tested as part of this process.
This makes it easier to find any weaknesses in the corporate firewall which might be there. One of the biggest myths is that attacks can only come from the outside – thus, developers often ignore or don’t put much stock in internal pentesting.
Some types of attacks that can happen from the inside are:
- Attacks by disgruntled former employees, contractors, or other parties who still have access to the company’s internal security policies and passwords
- Attacks on social engineering
- Phishing attacks
- Attacks that use the user’s rights
This pentest is done by trying to get into the environment without the right credentials and figuring out how an attack could happen.
Method 2: External Pentesting
External pentesting is different from internal pentesting in that it tests web applications hosted on the internet by using attacks which come from outside the organization.
Testers, also called “ethical hackers“, don’t know anything about the organization’s internal system or the security layers it has put in place. To simulate an attack from the outside, they are given only the IP address of the target system. Since there is no other information, it is up to the testers to look through public web pages to find out more about the target host; get inside it; and break it. External pentesting checks the organization’s firewalls, servers and intrusion detection systems (IDS).
How Is Penetration Testing for Web Apps Done?
Instead of testing the app itself, pentesting for web apps looks at the environment and how the app is set up. This means obtaining information about the target web app, making a map of the network that hosts it, and looking for places where injection or tampering attacks could happen.
These are the steps involved in web app penetration testing:
Step 1: Active and Passive Reconnaissance
The survey or information-gathering phase is the first step in web app pentesting. This step gives the tester information which can be used to find flaws in the web app (and take advantage of them).
Passive reconnaissance means gathering information that’s easy to find on the internet without directly interacting with the target system. Most of this is done through Google, starting with subdomains, links, older versions, etc.
On the other hand, active reconnaissance means directly probing the target system to get a response.
Step 2: Attacks / Execution Phase
The actual exploitation is the next step. You use the information you collected during the reconnaissance stage to plan and carry out your attacks during this stage.
There are many tools you can use to create an attack, so gathering information is important. Based on the research you’ve already done, the information you’ve gathered will help you narrow down the tools you need.
Step 3: Reporting and Recommendations
The next step is to write the web application pentesting report; this is done after the data gathering and exploitation processes. Make your report’s structure clear and ensure all of your conclusions are backed up by data. Keep to what worked and explain the process in detail.
In addition to writing down the successful exploits, you need to put these into groups based on how serious they are. This will help developers focus on the most serious exploits first.
Specialized Cybersecurity Consulting Services
CyberHunter is a top website security company that helps stop cyberattacks by doing penetration testing, network vulnerability assessments and cybersecurity consulting. Since 2016, we have been helping businesses and organizations in Canada, the US and the Caribbean.
To learn more about web application penetration testing, visit CyberHunter online or call us at (833) 292-4868 today.
