Even if the development team follows secure coding standards and maintains dependencies up to date, they are still able to release software that is vulnerable. It’s as simple as that: real-world attacks are rarely based on an outline. An attacker could use an untrue authorization rule along with an unprotected API endpoint, abuse an automated process to reset passwords or find out that a customer account can access the data of another tenant.
Security assurance Brisbane companies use penetration testing to examine systems from an adversarial angle. Testers who are experienced don’t inquire if security controls are in place, but determine if they can be manipulated.
This difference is important in Australian companies which handle sensitive information, like customer information as well as financial records, health records, or any other assets.
The automated scanning is just part of the story.
Vulnerability scanners are very useful. They can quickly spot outdated code as well as insecure headers (CVEs) that are known to be CVEs, and even obvious configuration errors. They cannot know how an application must behave.
Imagine a website for customers who want to access invoices of a different company and change their account numbers. Automated scanners will not detect anything unusual if a server is providing fully valid responses. A human tester can spot the authorization failure immediately.
Quality web penetration testing combines automation with manual investigation. Testers look for flaws in authentication, session, API behavior and configuration, and access control and injection risk API behavior.
SaaS environments pose their own security risks
Multi-tenant cloud apps require extra caution when testing, as a single mistake can be devastating to multiple users at the same time.
Saas penetration tests should include tenant isolation as well as privileged functions. It also includes API authorization, role changes accounts recovery, role change leakage, and integrations to external services. The tester needs to not just know if the feature is functioning, but also whether it can be modified to a degree the team behind the development didn’t intend to.
A user, for instance, given a role of a minimum level may not find an administrative task in the interface. However, this does not mean that they cannot call directly. Finding out the difference requires active testing instead of simply looking at what is displayed on the screen.
Modern web-based applications have greater attack surface
Applications today incorporate JavaScript front-ends APIs, cloud services, and APIs. Additionally, they include microservices and integrations from third party vendors. There can be weaknesses in any component as well depending on the trust that exists between the two.
The connections are then monitored by a thorough application penetration test. Testing could involve examining how tokens are generated, whether secure endpoints require authentication consistently, or how the data managed by the user is transferred between the various services.
Siege Cyber specializes in this type of application testing and works with modern frameworks, APIs, cloud-hosted systems, and complex application architectures instead of treating every website as a set of URLs that need to be scanned.
The report will assist developers in fixing the issue.
The process of identifying vulnerabilities is only half of the task. When security experts are able to reproduce an issue, identify the risks involved and confidently rectify it, security testing is the most beneficial.
Siege Cyber’s reports contain data on evidence, reproducible steps, risk assessments, assessment of the impact and practical solutions. The business stakeholders receive an executive explanation of the vulnerability and technical teams receive the details needed to address it. Rather than waiting until the report’s final version, critical conclusions can be passed on to the business partners during the process.
The process of retesting the system following remediation gives an additional level of security, as it confirms that the initial issue has been fixed without having to design a new one.
For organizations seeking independent validation, compliance evidence or greater security prior to a major release the penetration test offers something tools and policies cannot provide offer: a chance to determine how a skilled attacker might actually get into the system. It is vital to identify the solution before the attacker.
