How to Conduct Penetration Testing For Web Applications?

Security is one of the major concerns these days when accessing a website or a web application online. According to some research, it has been discovered that almost 86 percent of companies all around the world experienced phishing attempts in 2019.

These days, businesses of all types and sizes have been launching their web applications to compete with their competitors. With the advancement of internet technology, developing such appliances are great for revenue. However, hackers are also getting advanced and this has become a serious security threat in the past few years.

Safeguarding web applications from existing threats and malicious activities is pivotal. Even a single flow in the app design and security can cause a huge loss. Various NGOs encouraged web users to use HTTPS when entering the URL to keep their system or data safe. In fact, certification authorities started providing free SSL certificate variations to website owners. These are some initial steps taken to avoid unwanted penetration.

Unfortunately, vulnerabilities do happen and this has increased the demand for penetration tests. This is executed to know how a hacker can penetrate their highly-secured web applications. So, here are four major stages of the penetration testing process to help you prevent any security threat untreated.

Step 1: Observation & Scanning

Getting into the shoes of a potential hacker and thinking the way he thinks is one of the initial step of the web application penetration testing process. Identifying the targets and focusing on the same track is crucial.

So, gather detailed information about the web application from search engines like Google. Explore subdomains and other pages related to the app. This simply provides a clear vision or map of the potential attack layout that a hacker may use it.

The next step is to arrange data specifically using a network scanner such as Nmap. Do this to find out how much data or information about the app or service is accessible to the world.

After that, a thorough scan using security testing tools will help you discover the latest version of the software.

Step 2: Web Application Exposure Research & Attack

In this step, you need to utilise the collected data and shortlist the vulnerabilities to exploit. This is one of the critical processes because if you have found that a hacker can identify that you are using PHP version or Apache, you should look for known exposures within those versions that try to become a threat.

Well, you can use reliable open-source penetration testing tools that can make things easy via automation. You can select the most suitable one depending on the vulnerabilities you are checking for. Some of the options are

• W3af
• SQL Map
• Hydra
• Metasploit

The sole objective is to discover the potential threat and categorize them.

Step 3: Categorizing & Reporting

The third step in the process is to prepare a complete report that includes everything explored in the last two steps. The purpose is to develop a central knowledge area that the whole development team can use to identify and fix potential issues.

Make sure you catalog vulnerabilities depending on their threats. You can also use sample penetration testing reports available in the public domain so that you can get an idea.

Step 4: Patch & Report

In the final step, you need to cross-check the web application penetration testing report and find out potential vulnerabilities. This way, you can add security to the application depending on the hacks and prevent your product. These may include upgrading website access rules in your web app firewall, etc.

Fixing the issues and checking the report twice or thrice make your job a bit easier. You should do the second round of testing if you have detected too many vulnerabilities.

Endnote

Web developers and the testing team should work together to upgrade the security feature of your web application. You can repeat the process until there are no potential threats found. However, stay updated with the latest web security tools and rules because they keep changing from time to time. The four steps of web application penetration testing can make things super easy for you in the long run.