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> Why Is Penetration Testing Required?
When we talk about security, the most common word we hear is vulnerability.
So, what is Vulnerability? Vulnerability is a terminology used to identify flaws in the system which can expose the system to security threats.
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^Vulnerability Scanning or Pen Testing?
Vulnerability Scanning lets the user find out the known weaknesses in the application and defines methods to fix and improve the overall security of the application. It basically finds out if security patches are installed, whether the systems are properly configured to make attacks difficult.
Pen Tests mainly simulate real-time systems and help the user find out if the system can be accessed by unauthorized users, if yes then what damage can be caused and to which data etc.
Hence, Vulnerability Scanning is a detective control method that suggests ways to improve security programs and ensure known weaknesses do not resurface, whereas a pen test is a preventive control method that gives an overall view of the system’s existing security layer.
Though both methods have their importance, it will depend on what really is expected as part of the testing.
As testers, it is imperative to be clear on the purpose of the testing before we jump into testing. If you are clear on the objective, you can very well define if you need to do a vulnerability scan or pen-testing.
^Importance and the need for Web App Pen Testing:
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Pentest Helps in identifying unknown vulnerabilities.
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Helps in checking the effectiveness of the overall security policies.
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Help in testing the components exposed publicly like firewalls, routers, and DNS.
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Let users find the most vulnerable route through which an attack can be made.
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Helps in finding loopholes that can lead to the theft of sensitive data.
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If you look at the current market demand, there has been a sharp increase in mobile usage, which is becoming a major potential for attacks. Accessing websites through mobile phones is prone to more frequent attacks and hence compromising data.
Penetration Testing thus becomes very important in ensuring we build a secure system that can be used by users without any worries of hacking or data loss.
^Web Penetration Testing Methodology_
The methodology is nothing but a set of security industry guidelines on how the testing should be conducted. There are some well-established and famous methodologies and standards that can be used for testing, but since each web application demands different types of tests to be performed, testers can create their own methodologies by referring to the standards available in the market.
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Some of the Security Testing Methodologies and standards are:
^Test Scenarios:_
Listed below are some of the test scenarios which can be tested as part of Web Application Penetration Testing (WAPT):
1
Cross-Site Scripting
2
SQL Injection
3
Broken authentication and session management
4
File Upload flaws
5
Caching Servers Attacks
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Security Misconfigurations
7
Cross-Site Request Forgery
8
Password Cracking
^Types of Web Penetration Testing_
1) Internal Penetration Testing
As the name suggests, internal pen testing is done within the organization over LAN, hence it includes testing web applications hosted on the intranet.
This helps in finding out if there could be vulnerabilities that exist within the corporate firewall.
We always believe attacks can happen only externally and many a time’s internal Pentest is overlooked or not given much importance.
Basically, it includes Malicious Employee Attacks by disgruntled employees or contractors who would have resigned but are aware of internal security policies and passwords, Social Engineering Attacks, Simulation of Phishing Attacks, and Attacks using User Privileges or misuse of an unlocked terminal.
Testing is mainly done by accessing the environment without proper credentials and identifying if an
2) External Penetration Testing
These are attacks done externally from outside the organization and include testing web applications hosted on the internet.
Testers behave like hackers who aren’t much aware of the internal system.
To simulate such attacks, testers are given the IP of the target system and do not provide any other information. They are required to search and scan public web pages and find our information about target hosts and then compromise the found hosts.
Basically, it includes testing servers, firewalls, and IDS.
^Web Pen Testing Approach:
It can be conducted in 3 phases:
Web Application Penetration Testing Phases
Planning
Phase
Attacks /
Execution
Phase
Post /
Execution
Phase
1) Planning Phase (Before Testing)
Before testing starts, it is advisable to plan what types of testing will be performed, how the testing will be performed, determine if QA needs any additional access to tools, etc.
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Scope definition – This is the same as our functional testing where we define the scope of our testing before starting our test efforts.
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Availability of Documentation to Testers – Ensure Testers have all the required documents like documents detailing the web architecture, integration points, web services integration, etc. The tester should be aware of the HTTP/HTTPS protocol basics and know about the Web Application Architecture and traffic interception methods.
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Determining the Success Criteria – Unlike our functional test cases, where we can derive expected results from user requirements/functional requirements, pen-testing works on a different model. Success criteria or test case passing criteria need to be defined and approved.
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Reviewing the test results from the Previous Testing – If prior testing was ever done, it is good to review the test results to understand what vulnerabilities existed in the past and what remediation was taken to resolve. This always gives a better picture of the testers.​
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Understanding the environment – Testers should gain knowledge about the environment before starting testing. This step should ensure to give them an understanding of firewalls, or other security protocols which would be required to be disabled to perform the testing. Browsers to be tested should be converted into an attack platform, usually done by changing proxies.
2) Attacks/Execution Phase (During Testing):
Web Penetration testing can be done from any location, given the fact that there shouldn’t be restrictions on ports and services by the internet provider.
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Ensure to run a test with different user roles – Testers should ensure to run tests with users having different roles since the system may behave differently with respect to users having different privileges.
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Awareness on how to handle Post-Exploitation – Testers must follow the Success Criteria defined as part of Phase 1 to report any exploitation. They should also follow the defined process of reporting vulnerabilities found during testing. This step mainly involves the tester finding out what needs to be done after they have found that the system has been compromised.
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Generation of Test Reports – Any Testing done without proper reporting doesn’t help the organization much, same is the case with penetration testing of web applications. To ensure test results are properly shared with all stakeholders, testers should create proper reports with details on vulnerabilities found, the methodology used for testing, severity, and the location of the problem found.
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3) Post Execution Phase (After Testing):
Once the testing is complete and the test reports are shared with all concerned teams, the following list should be worked upon by all –
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Suggest remediation – Pen Testing shouldn’t just end by identifying vulnerabilities. The concerned team including a QA member should review the findings reported by Testers and then discuss the remediation.
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Retest Vulnerabilities – After the remediation is taken and implemented, testers should retest to ensure that the fixed vulnerabilities did not appear as part of their retesting.
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Cleanup – As part of the Pentest, testers make changes to the proxy settings, so clean-up should be done and all changes reverted back.
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