Attributes and Types of Security Testing

What is Security Testing?

Security testing aims to find vulnerabilities and security weaknesses in the software/ application. By subjecting the software or application to controlled security scenarios, cyber security testing ensures that the system is adequately prepared to withstand attacks and unforeseen failures.

Security experts and testers use different types of security testing to identify potential threats, measure the probability of exploitation of vulnerabilities, and gauge the overall risks facing the software/ app.

The actionable insights from these tests are utilized to fix the gaps and minimize security risks.

What are the Different Types of Security Testing?

Vulnerability Scanning

Vulnerability scanning employs specialized tools to scan a system or application for known vulnerabilities, such as outdated versions or misconfigured settings. This type of security testing helps organizations quickly identify potential weaknesses that attackers might exploit.

Vulnerability scanning can be categorized further based on the scope of the scan and the level of intrusion into the system.

External Vulnerability Scan – It aims to identify vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit from outside the organization’s network.

Internal Vulnerability Scan – It helps to identify vulnerabilities that could potentially be exploited by attackers who have already gained internal access, such as employees or contractors.

Non-Intrusive Vulnerability Scan – Non-intrusive vulnerability scanning, or passive scanning, involves assessing a system’s security without interacting. This type of scan relies on observing network traffic, analyzing configurations, and examining publicly available information to identify potential vulnerabilities.

Intrusive Vulnerability Scan – Intrusive vulnerability scanning, on the other hand, involves actively interacting with the target system to identify vulnerabilities. This can include sending specific packets, attempting to exploit vulnerabilities, and interacting with applications to simulate real-world attack scenarios.

Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing (Pen-Testing) stimulates a real-time cyberattack against an app/ software, system, or network under secure conditions. It is (and must be) performed manually by a trusted, certified security expert to understand the strength of the security measures against attacks in real-time.

Most importantly, unknown vulnerabilities (including zero-day threats and business logic flaws) are exposed through Pen-Testing.

Here’s an overview of how penetration testing is conducted:

1. Scope and Planning: Define the scope of the penetration test, including the systems, applications, and networks to be tested.
2. Reconnaissance: Gather information about the target systems, such as IP addresses, domain names, and publicly available information.
3. Vulnerability Analysis: Scan the target systems using automated vulnerability scanning tools to identify known vulnerabilities in the software and services running on them.
4. Threat Modeling: Develop attack scenarios and threat models based on the identified vulnerabilities and their potential impact on the organization.
5. Exploitation: Attempt to exploit the identified vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access, escalate privileges, or manipulate the target systems.
6. Data Collection: Collect data on the vulnerabilities exploited, the paths taken during the penetration test, and any sensitive information accessed.
7. Analysis and Reporting: Document the findings, including the vulnerabilities exploited, the methods used, and the potential impact. Assess the risks associated with the identified vulnerabilities and provide recommendations for remediation.

Security Code Review 

Security code review is a critical component of secure software development, making it one of the essential types of security testing. This testing aims to identify and rectify security vulnerabilities in an application’s source code. This proactive approach helps ensure the software is built with security in mind, reducing the risk of security breaches and data breaches.

During a security code review, a trained security analyst or developer examines the source code line by line to identify potential security flaws, coding errors, and vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers.

Security code reviews should be integrated into the software development lifecycle, conducted regularly, and tailored to the application’s specific technology stack and threat landscape.

SAST (Static Application Security Testing)

SAST also known as code scanning, is the automated analysis of an application’s source code, bytecode, or binary code for security vulnerabilities and coding errors without executing the application.

SAST tools break down your code into manageable pieces, enabling them to probe deep into functions and subroutines for hidden vulnerabilities.

SAST tools possess the capability to delve far deeper into code than the human mind, separating layers of recursion to uncover a wide range of vulnerabilities that might escape manual inspection.

Despite being slower and occasionally producing false positives, these tools are adept at uncovering a wide array of potential threats, such as memory leaks, infinite loops, unhandled errors, and more.

DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing)

DAST, known as black-box testing, is a method for evaluating the security of an application while it’s running without any knowledge of its internal code or structure. This approach simulates real-world attack scenarios and provides valuable insights into potential vulnerabilities from an external perspective.

Key Features of DAST:

• Runtime Testing: DAST scanners interact with the application in real-time, sending various inputs and requests to assess how the application responds.
• External Assessment: DAST scanners examine the application from an outsider’s perspective, just like a malicious attacker would.
• Realistic Attack Scenarios: DAST tools simulate various attack vectors, such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and cross-site request forgery (CSRF), to identify vulnerabilities that could compromise the application’s security.
• Efficiency in Scanning Large Applications: DAST tools are particularly efficient when scanning large and complex applications because they do not require access to the source code.
• Authentication Testing: DAST tools can assess how well authentication and access controls are implemented by trying to bypass them through various means.

Ethical Hacking

Ethical hacking involves employing skilled security professionals to attempt to breach a system’s defenses in a controlled and authorized manner. This practice allows organizations to identify vulnerabilities and weak points from the perspective of a potential attacker. Ethical hackers use the same techniques malicious hackers might use to improve security.

Ethical hacking can be further categorized into specific areas of focus. Here are some types of ethical hacking:

Web Application Hacking – Ethical hackers specializing in web application hacking focus on identifying vulnerabilities and weaknesses in web applications.

System Hacking – System hacking involves ethical hackers attempting to identify vulnerabilities within operating systems, software, and hardware components of computer systems.

Web Server Hacking – Web server hacking focuses on assessing web server security. Ethical hackers evaluate server configurations, access controls, and vulnerabilities that might allow attackers to compromise the server’s functionality or gain unauthorized access.

Database Hacking – Database hacking involves identifying vulnerabilities within databases and their management systems. Ethical hackers aim to uncover issues such as SQL injection, insecure database configurations, and unauthorized data access.

Risk Assessment  

Through risk assessments, the security risks facing the app/ software/ network are identified, analyzed, and classified (as Critical, High, Medium, or Low). Mitigation measures and controls are recommended thereon, based on the priority.  Understanding how these risks align with industry standards, such as the OWASP Top 10 Risk Score, can provide valuable insights into prioritizing security efforts.

Risk assessment can be divided into four fundamental steps:

1. Risk Identification: Recognize potential risks and threats
2. Risk Analysis: Evaluate their likelihood and impact
3. Risk Prioritization: Rank risks by severity
4. Risk Mitigation: Develop strategies to manage high-priority risks

Security Posture Assessment

The organization’s overall security posture is assessed through posture assessment using a combination of security scanning, ethical hacking, and risk assessment.

A posture assessment often includes elements from other types of security testing, helping organizations develop a comprehensive security strategy.

When should your organization consider a cybersecurity posture assessment?

• When you want to assess your current cybersecurity status comprehensively
• When you want to ensure the proper implementation of mandatory cybersecurity measures
• When you seek a detailed vulnerability analysis
• When your company’s defense against cyberattacks is inadequate
• When you want to ensure a return on investment in your cybersecurity efforts
• When there are ongoing integration projects or changes in your technology stack

What are the Security Testing Attributes?

Security testing must encompass several attributes to comprehensively assess an organization’s systems, applications, and processes. These attributes help identify vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and potential entry points for attackers. The seven key attributes that security testing must include are:

1. Confidentiality

Confidentiality ensures that sensitive information remains protected from unauthorized access. Security testing must verify that data, such as personal, financial, and proprietary information, is properly encrypted, access-controlled, and shielded from unauthorized users.

Example: Imagine an online banking application. Confidentiality protects a user’s account information and transaction history from unauthorized access.

2. Integrity

Integrity ensures that data remains accurate and unaltered. Security testing should validate that there are mechanisms to prevent unauthorized modification or data tampering during storage, transmission, and processing.

Example: Consider an e-commerce website. Integrity ensures that the product prices and order quantities remain accurate and unaltered during the ordering process.

3. Authentication

Authentication confirms the identity of users and entities accessing systems and applications. Security testing should evaluate the strength of authentication mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access, including checking for weak passwords, insecure authentication methods, and proper session management.

Example: In a corporate email system, authentication ensures that only authorized employees can access their email accounts.

4. Authorization

Authorization defines what actions users or entities are permitted to perform once authenticated. Security testing needs to assess the effectiveness of access controls, ensuring that users have appropriate permissions and can’t perform actions beyond their roles.

Example: Within a medical records system, authorization ensures that only healthcare professionals can access patient medical histories. 

5. Availability

Availability ensures that systems and applications are operational and accessible when needed. Security testing should verify that defenses are in place to prevent downtime due to attacks like DDoS attacks or resource exhaustion.

Example: A cloud-based customer support platform must always be available to handle customer inquiries.

6. Non-Repudiation

Non-repudiation ensures that actions taken by users or entities cannot be denied later. Security testing should evaluate the accuracy and strength of audit logs and digital signatures to prevent disputes and verify the authenticity of transactions.

Example: A digital contract signing platform ensures non-repudiation by using digital signatures.

7. Resilience

Resilience ensures that systems can withstand and recover from security incidents and attacks. Security testing should assess the organization’s ability to detect and respond to breaches, minimize the impact of attacks, and restore normal operations promptly. 

Example: An e-commerce website must remain operational during peak shopping seasons.

By considering these seven attributes in security testing, organizations can bolster their defenses, mitigate risks, and ensure the robustness of their cybersecurity measures.

Security Testing Metrics: Evaluating Effectiveness

What metrics are crucial for evaluating security testing effectiveness? Here are some essential metrics that carry significant weight:

Vulnerability Count: The total number of vulnerabilities discovered during testing. This metric provides a high-level view of the application’s security status.

Vulnerability Severity: Categorize vulnerabilities based on their severity, such as critical, high, medium, and low. This helps prioritize fixing the most critical issues first.

False Positive Rate: The percentage of reported vulnerabilities that turn out to be false alarms. Reducing false positives is crucial to avoid wasting time on non-existent issues.

Exploitable Vulnerabilities: Identify how many of the discovered vulnerabilities are exploitable and could potentially lead to a security breach.

Time to Remediate: Measure the time it takes to fix identified vulnerabilities from the moment they are reported. A shorter time to remediate indicates a more responsive security team.

Reoccurrence Rate: Track how often the same vulnerabilities resurface in subsequent testing cycles, indicating if past issues were effectively addressed.

Code Coverage: Measure the percentage of the codebase that has been tested for security vulnerabilities. Higher code coverage typically results in better security.

Patch Latency: Determine how quickly security patches are applied after they are released by software vendors. Delays in patching can leave systems vulnerable to known exploits.

Open Vulnerabilities: Keep track of vulnerabilities that have been identified but not yet fixed. This metric helps prioritize which vulnerabilities need immediate attention.

For example, during Q2, 2023, AppTrana analyzed over 1400 sites, uncovering 34,000 critical, high, and medium vulnerabilities. Approximately 31% of the critical and high vulnerabilities have remained unaddressed for more than 180 days.

Explore our comprehensive State of Application Security Report for Q2, 2023, for a detailed breakdown of these identified vulnerabilities.

Conclusion

Successful cyber-attacks and breaches erode trust, reputation, and financial resources. Conducting security tests is a critical step in winning stakeholder trust.

There is no single best way to conduct a security test. It must be highly tailored, and the choice of the security test must be based on the organization’s needs, context, and specifications.

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