How to Test Your Website Security Online

According to the Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), exploitation of vulnerabilities saw a sharp 34% increase as an initial access vector compared to the previous year. This places it among the top methods attackers use to infiltrate organizations, alongside phishing and credential theft.

The message is clear: even one unpatched vulnerability on your website can lead to data breaches, service downtime, and long-term reputational damage.

The good news? These threats are preventable.

You don’t need on-premise tools or heavy security investments to test your site. Today, you can scan, assess, and monitor your website’s security online without writing a line of code.

In this guide, we will walk you through how to test your website security online, step by step.

What Is Website Security Testing?

Website security testing is the process of identifying, analyzing, and fixing vulnerabilities in your web applications and infrastructure. It includes:

• Website vulnerability scans: Automated checks for known security flaws
• Website penetration testing: Simulated attacks to uncover deeper, logic-based vulnerabilities
• Security assessments: Comprehensive reviews of your security posture, including configuration and code analysis
• Website malware scans: Detection of malicious code, backdoors, and suspicious scripts
• SSL certificate checks: Validation of encryption and secure connections

By combining these methods, you can uncover both common and advanced threats before attackers do.

Why Test Website Security Online?

Testing website security online has several benefits:

• No software installation or agent setup
• Faster scanning and instant reporting
• Works across any domain or public IP
• Ideal for continuous or scheduled scans
• Useful for both dev and production environments

Whether you manage a small business website or a large e-commerce platform, regular online testing can help uncover hidden security flaws before attackers exploit them.

Common Website Vulnerabilities You Should Test For

Understanding what you are testing for is crucial. The OWASP Top 10 lists the most critical web application security risks:

• SQL Injection: Attackers inject malicious SQL queries to access or modify your database.
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): Attackers exploit inject malicious scripts into web pages, tricking users and stealing sensitive data like cookies or credentials.
• Broken Authentication: Flaws allow attackers to hijack user accounts or sessions.
• Sensitive Data Exposure: Sensitive information (like passwords, credit cards) is improperly protected and easily accessible.
• Security Misconfiguration: Poorly configured servers, databases, or apps expose vulnerabilities.
• Brute Force Attacks: Attackers repeatedly guess passwords or keys to gain unauthorized access.
• Insecure Deserialization: Malicious or manipulated data objects are processed, leading to remote code execution.
• Insufficient Logging and Monitoring: Lack of proper logs and monitoring allows attacks to go undetected.

These vulnerabilities can lead to data breaches, website defacement, malware distribution, and more. Regular website security checks help you identify and fix these issues early.

How to Perform a Website Security Check Online: Step-by-Step

1. Start with an Online Vulnerability Scanner

The easiest way to kick off your security audit is to use an online scanner. These cloud-based tools run external tests on your website and detect a wide range of vulnerabilities from outdated software to injection flaws.

Look for a scanner that can:

• Detect OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities
• Scan for malware or suspicious code
• Identify exposed admin panels and outdated plugins
• Provide detailed remediation guidance

Indusface WAS is one such website security scanner highlights vulnerabilities, malware infections, and other misconfigurations.

2. Test SSL/TLS Configuration

Ensure your site uses a valid SSL certificate and enforces HTTPS. A weak SSL setup can leave data in transit vulnerable to interception. Some scanners also highlight protocol-level issues like weak ciphers or missing HSTS headers.

3. Scan for Malware Infections

Cybercriminals often inject malware to redirect users, steal data, or deface your site. Malware can remain hidden for weeks before being detected by search engines or visitors.

Use an online scanner that checks for:

• Known malware signatures
• Suspicious scripts or payloads
• Blacklist status across major security engines

Indusface WAS’s malware detection feature helps identify these threats early and guides you in cleaning your site before reputational damage occurs.

4. Analyze HTTP Security Headers

Security headers instruct browsers on how to handle your content securely. Missing or misconfigured headers can leave your site vulnerable to attacks like clickjacking, XSS, or MIME sniffing.

Look for these headers:

• Content-Security-Policy
• X-Frame-Options
• X-Content-Type-Options
• Strict-Transport-Security

Vulnerability scanners like Indusface WAS automatically flag missing or weak headers in their reports.

5. Test for Exposure of Sensitive Interfaces

Many websites unintentionally expose administrative panels, debug paths, backups, staging environments, or API endpoints that were never meant to be public.

What to verify:

• Public access to /admin, /login, or /phpmyadmin
• Accessible dev or test environments
• Backup files exposed via URL (.bak, .zip, .sql)
• API endpoints lacking authentication

6. Identify Business Logic Vulnerabilities

Automated tools can find most technical vulnerabilities, but business logic vulnerabilitiesand chained exploits require manual penetration testing. These involve testing workflows based on how your app processes transactions or enforces rules.

Examples:

• Applying multiple discount codes
• Changing user IDs in URLs to access others’ data
• Completing a purchase without payment
• Modifying request payloads to escalate privileges

Indusface WAS combines automated scan with manual pen-testing to identify logic vulnerabilities missed by automation, especially critical for fintech, SaaS, and e-commerce platforms.

7. Test Third-Party Integrations and Open-Source Components

A large portion of website risk comes from external libraries, CMS plugins, and third-party scripts. Even one outdated WordPress plugin or JavaScript dependency can introduce a critical vulnerability.

What to do:

• Audit all third-party software and scripts
• Update CMS themes and plugins regularly
• Use scanners (like Indusface WAS) that map vulnerabilities to CVEs and known exploit databases

8. Review All Third-Party Integrations

Most websites rely on third-party components think payment gateways, chat widgets, analytics scripts, or social media plugins.

But if these third parties are insecure, your site is at risk too. Always check:

• Are they from a trusted, reputable source?
• Are they regularly updated?
• Do they expose or mishandle user data?

If an attacker compromises a third-party script, they could inject malicious code into your website without touching your server.

9. Simulate Brute-Force and Bot Attacks

Security isn’t just about code. It is also about user behavior. Attackers often use bots to try thousands of login attempts or abuse signup and contact forms.

You should test whether your site:

• Limits login attempts after multiple failures
• Uses CAPTCHA or similar bot protection
• Requires re-authentication for sensitive actions like password changes

Without these controls, attackers can easily automate attacks to gain access or overload your system.

Online security testing tools simulate bot-driven behaviors to check if your site has adequate safeguards against abuse.

For example, Indusface WAS tests for repeated login attempts and evaluates whether the application blocks further attempt, applies timeouts, or allows unlimited brute-force tries.

10. Analyze the Results and Prioritize Fixes

After testing, you will likely find a range of software vulnerabilities. It is important to sort and act on these based on:

• How easy the issue is to exploit
• What kind of damage it can cause
• How visible or accessible the vulnerable component is

Start by fixing high-risk vulnerabilities, especially those with known exploits or those that expose sensitive data. Use the rest of the results to guide future development and testing practices.

For environments that demand instant action, solutions like SwyftComply offer autonomous, real-time patching for open vulnerabilities. It detects and virtually patches exploitable flaws automatically reducing exposure time to near zero. While prioritisation is a much talked about best-practice, SwyftComply eliminate the need to prioritize by virtually patching all open vulnerabilities instantly.

11. Remediation and Patch Management

Discovering vulnerabilities is only half the job. The real value comes from fixing them quickly and correctly.

Once issues are identified:

1. Remediate at the source: Fix vulnerabilities in your application code, server configuration, or exposed endpoints. Avoid relying on workarounds that only hide the problem.
2. Patch third-party components: Plugins, libraries, and CMS platforms should be updated regularly. Check changelogs for security patches and apply them promptly.
3. Re-scan to validate: After applying a fix or patch, re-test the affected area to confirm that the issue is resolved and no new problems were introduced.
4. Automate patch cycles: Set up alerts for newly disclosed vulnerabilities and schedule periodic reviews of all your systems and third-party dependencies.

Effective remediation isn’t just about applying patches. It is about managing risk. Having a clear remediation workflow helps you stay ahead of attackers and reduces your security debt over time. The most important metric is mean time to remediate vulnerabilities (MTTR), SwyftComply helps you remediate near real-time.

12. Use Virtual Patching for Immediate Protection

In some cases, applying a traditional patch may take time especially when regression testing or third-party vendor coordination is involved. That’s where virtual patching comes in.

Virtual patching offers a security layer (typically via a Web Application Firewall or Runtime Application Self-Protection system) that blocks exploitation attempts in real time before the vulnerability is patched at the code level. It’s especially useful for:

• Legacy systems that can’t be easily updated
• Zero-day vulnerabilities
• Emergency risk mitigation while working on permanent fixes

Best Online Website Security Tools for Vulnerability Assessment

How to Secure Your Website from Hackers: Actionable Best Practices

• Enforce HTTPS everywhere with strong SSL/TLS certificates
• Keep all software, CMS, plugins, and server components updated
• Use strong authentication, including multi-factor authentication and robust password policies
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to filter malicious traffic
• Limit user privileges by applying the principle of least privilege
• Monitor and log website activity for suspicious behavior
• Backup your website regularly and store backups securely offsite
• Educate your team on security best practices

Download the Indusface Website Security Checklist here

Next Steps: Take Proactive Action on Website Security

Website security testing is not a one-time task. It is an ongoing process of scanning, identifying, and remediating vulnerabilities from malware detection to misconfigurations and business logic flaws, every layer of your website must be tested regularly to ensure resilience.

Start your free website security scan today with Indusface WAS and fix vulnerabilities before attackers find them.

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