Web Application Security Testing Services

Overview

Exploiting website vulnerabilities is Number One problem in the world. This is solely because website are open to internet and hence can potentially expose sensitive data which interests the evil hackers. Thats the reason web security testing services are so important for organizations

Websites are typically vulnerable to code based or network based attacks. This enables hackers to take over and control system components such as routers, firewalls, switches and servers and in worst cases, the website code. Even though the website is plain simple and static html based, it needs detailed pen-testing (VAPT testing), and is often forgotten by IT management. Thus security testing of websites or web portals or web applications is highly required. It must be carried out by certified best penetration testing (pentest) companies who follow security testing methodologies based on OWASP Top-10 model.

Some Facts

Web application vulnerability assessment and penetration testing is a type of security testing. Vulnerability Assessment involves finding security holes i.e. vulnerabilities in the web application. Penetration Testing involves exploiting the found vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to the data or the system itself or making the data unavailable to access or making changes to the data compromising its integrity. Web VAPT helps find out weaknesses before they are exploited making web applications secure.
More info can be found on:
Web App VAPT
Web Application Security Testing Services

Web VAPT can be either be done manually or with the use of automated tools. There are multiple diverse automated tools available in the market. Automated tools reduce the time and effort required for testing. Also, with wide range of features that these tools offer, it becomes easy to find out the loopholes in the application.
Few of pen-tester's favorite tools are mentioned below:

• Burp Suite:

  
  Out of all the tools, Burp suite tops the list. Developed by Portswigger, it is one of the most popular proxy tool used to find out web based vulnerabilities in the application.



• Metasploit:

  
  Metasploit is widely famous tool among security professionals. From identifying the weaknesses in the application and network and exploiting it to gain further access to the host, Metasploit does it all. With extensive and advanced range of exploits for every vulnerability, it has become every pentester's paradise and for all the right reasons.



• SQLmap:

  
  It is an open source tool. It automated the entire process of finding out SQL injection weaknesses and exploiting it to see the extent to which damage can be done.



• Nikto:

  
  IT a web server scanner which is responsible for scanning severs against potentially threatening vulnerabilities. According to Nikto's official website, web servers are scanned for multiple items such as 6700 dangerous files/programs, outdated versions of servers and version specific problems.

With easy access to internet and its growing popularity, every small and big business is vying to make its mark on the web. Web has proved to be a boon for the mankind but it has also become hacker's favorite place to exploit the innocent.
There has been rise in the number of web application attack lately. Web application attack is nothing but exploiting the unattended and unpatched vulnerabilities in an application to either steal the data, alter the data or making the data or website unavailable to the people in need. Such attacks are proven to be really costly for the businesses and often they were shut completely because of the inability to contain such incidents.
Listed below are some popular attacks down below that are more deadly.

• Cross Site Scripting:

  
  It is all about injecting specially crafted payloads in the URL or unsanitized input fields to steal user's session and gain their privileges to cause further damage.



• SQL injection:

  
  Since database has its own language, this attack makes use of carefully crafted SLQ injection queries to interact with backend database and fetch data from it.



• Denial of Service/Distributed Denial of Service:

  
  This attack attempts to overwhelm the target with constant requests either from one source or from different sources. The end goal is to make target slow or unavailable to people using it.



• Cross Site Request Forgery:

  
  CSRF is tricking a user into submitting requests to a Web application. Web application being oblivious of the scenario executes the request thinking it came from the legitimate user.

Web vulnerability scanner is an automated tool that scans web applications to find out vulnerabilities such as poorly configured server designs, injection attacks and more. There are 2 types of scanners available.

• Dynamic Application Security Testing(DAST):

  
  It is a type of security testing that involves testing an application from the outside while it is running with little to no knowledge of that application.



• Static Application Security Testing(SAST):

  
  It is a type of security testing that involves testing an application from within meaning testing the code itself to find out flaws such as usage of wrong functions, buffer overflow, error handling and more.

Website hacking is becoming a serious issue day by day. Attackers are becoming very advanced and tactical with their modus operandi and hence it becomes vital to safeguard your websites and detect any malicious activity in time.
Every activity leaves a trail and it is important to look for the right signs. If you see following signs it is time you take a hard look at your website.

• Your website becomes very slow and starts popping error messages.

• Browser warns user of malicious activity before redirecting to your website.

• Web site disappears from Google.

• Google search console informs you of malware or malicious activity on your website.

• Your website might redirect user to another website.

With growing attacks on websites, it is really important to browse the applications safely. Malicious websites may look like legitimate ones but have the potential to do a lot damage to the user. Malicious website may redirect an user to some different website and can trick them into giving them their username and password.
A malicious website can also download malware on user's machine without him knowing and do further damage to the machine. It is really important to become vigilant while surfing on the web. If you have any doubt about the website you are visiting then get the URL tested for its authenticity. There are multiple online tools available which will scan the URL and give you the results. One of the famous ones is VirusTotal which not only scans the URL but also has the feature of testing attachments for its contents.
You can also turn on Google's safe browsing feature from Settings in Chrome Browser. Google will notify you of any suspicious activity on the website.
You can also opt for WebofTrust extension. It will let you know which site is trustworthy and which is not.
Also, make sure that you do not submit any personal or banking information on the sites which are HTTP. HTTP does not encrypt the communication between you and the server and hence anyone with the wrong intent can sniff the traffic and ultimately your data.

Web security ultimately means implementing measures and strategies to keep websites secure from malicious attackers. The one way to achieve the security is by timely scanning the websites while they are in development stage and later when they are up and running. This helps capturing both coding flaws in the software code and run time errors by keeping it guarded.
More information can be found on:
Top 5 Reasons To Perform VAPT Of Your Web Application

Web server in simplest terms is a physical machine or a virtual machine that hosts a website which is then accessed by user over World Wide Web.
Web server security is tightening the measures taken to protect a web server itself along with the database it is connected to, the network it is placed in.

Web server security is as vital as securing your web applications. Poorly configured web server can pose a huge risk to the business. The few measures you can take to protect your web server are mentioned below.

• Hardening of server: :

  
  It simply means deploying recommended protection mechanism to boost your server's security.



• Patching of server software:

  
  Patching and updating software is an extremely important step if you do not want attackers taking advantage of loopholes. Always keep an eye for vendor approved patches and deploy them diligently.



• Logging and Monitoring:

  
  The audit logs become the most crucial piece of evidence when your server starts behaving abnormally. Hence, always monitor the logs periodically for any traces of wrongdoings.



• HTTP Headers:

  
  Hide server info such as name and version from the headers.



• User Access:

  
  Restrict access to server by creating user groups.

With growing number and varieties of applications in the market, attackers have also become smart and are continuously finding brand new ways of exploiting the applications for their benefit. Hence, it becomes absolutely necessary to protect the application and implement security strategies that will secure the application from inside out.
With the application security assessment it becomes easy to test the application architecture, software code for underlying weaknesses and fix those before anyone else can take advantage of it.
Timely assessment of application can also help us make the application comply with current and applicable compliance standards so as to avoid any legal disputes later.

Web servers and the application code running on those as a simple website or web portal, are vulnerable to various attacks. In one type of attack, the hacker can simply deface the pages, while in other serious types, the attacker can potentially steal data and disrupt website operations.

Web security testing is especially important in case of e-commerce based portals, wherein the entire business relies on website and its data contents. In case of recent trend the websites cater to mobile based applications which demands for an end to end testing for total app security. Its important to understand that merely having firewalls and Layer-7 devices are not enough because those cannot detect code level vulnerabilities, and hence a detailed website VAPT along with code security review is highly recommended.