Best Practice Call for Web Application Penetration Testing

Whether you own an eCommerce app, which handles the user’s payment details, or a healthcare app, which maintains and transfers patient data, pen-testing might be an important step to ensure your application’s security.

Today, most business owners and security authorities are under pressure to show ROI for their investment in security programs and to get more from their budget. From our experience in offering web application penetration testing services to a wide range of clients, companies could often obtain get better value from the web app penetration testing budget.

We have assembled penetration testing best practices, which can help you demonstrate value for your money.

Web Application Penetration Testing Best Practices

1. Prepare the Pen testing Environment

Web application pen testing should be performed on the production environment. While conducting the test directly on production, you should set certain limits for the pen testers. Also, schedule the test in a way that is not slowing down the network response time for your organization and your clients.

The most important restriction is not to run DoS attacks on production. If your pen test can’t be conducted on the production environment, prepare an environment, which is identical to production, and generate user accounts for the pen testers.

2. Build Attackers Personas

For better results, web-based penetration testing must be enacted realistically. While doing testing, you should put yourself in the shoes of the attackers’ persona. You must think and act like a real cyber attacker, equipped with an advanced set of a motive, goal, and skills. The motive is a vital element in structuring hacker personas.

Business or money advantage, revenge by an ex-business partner, culture or religious ideology, and peer recognition are few possible motives. Rank the personas based on which personas you should be concerned about. Sketching attackers this way aids you to narrow down your concentration and helps you to be prepared for the real attacks.

3. Set Testing Boundaries Clearly

One thing everyone should remember is that web app penetration testing is just a simulation, not an actual attack. Hence, the testing boundaries should be outlined as to..

• Who will perform the test?
• When to conduct the test
• What is permissible and what can’t be done
• Whom to send all reports and communications

4. Define Web Penetration Testing Methodology

When it comes to penetration testing best practices, pen test methodology is such an imperative step that applies for both external and internal pen testers. The testing methodology is a set of security guidelines, on which your web penetration testing should be conducted. Make sure the testing is aligned with industry-standard security frameworks and comprised of both automatic and manual advanced testing.

Some of the important security testing methodologies & standards:

• Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)
• Penetration Testing Framework (PTF)
• Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM)
• Information Systems Security Assessment Framework (ISSAF)
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI_DSS)

5. Launch Security Monitors Before

If you really don’t want to waste your valuable pen-testing time, it is best practice to implement a security scanner or monitor. If you have the web application monitoring in place to detect your basic issues and vulnerabilities, the pen testers no need to spend their energy in uncovering those issues.

You can use Indusface WAS to scan vulnerabilities, stop business logic attacks, protect your clients, and get complete visibility on your security posture.

6. Freeze Development in Penetration Testing Environment

The best practice of penetration testing is to test the application as a whole, not individual pieces of it. Pen testing will detect the vulnerabilities within the given settings. If you change that setting by adding new patches or packages or modifying hardware components, you won’t be able to get the valid pen testing results.

Similarly, it is not advisable to fix the issue while testing though this is vital for some occasions. You will get a more authoritative result when a stable application is tested and get more value for your money.

7. Choose the Right Penetration Testing Tools

There are plenty of pen-testing tools available in the market – some are free to download and use and some are vendors supplied. Selecting the right tool(s) depends mainly on the pen-testing environment you’re using.

If you’re confused about what makes the best penetration testing tool, here is our guide.

8. Decide Between In-house Testers and External Pen-Testing Services

You can get a lot of advantages from in-house pen testers if they have the skillset. Apart from cost saving, the in-house team is more familiar with your application.

However, it is better to opt for specialized external web app penetration testing professionals to leverage more expertise and an out-of-box point of view. It also ensures organizational independence for web-based penetration testing that not only ensure best practice to the difference of opinion, but also a need by PCI compliance.

Hire a penetration testing consultant from Indusface whose skill set, expertise, and quality of the results are generally greater than you imagined. This reduces your internal costs too.

The Closure

Web application penetration testing strengthens your security stance by offering you valuable insights into what hackers can see. It is imperative for your business to perform web penetration testing at once or twice a year and whenever major changes occur.

By following these web penetration testing best practices, you’re more likely to use the opportunity to shine in the right direction!

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