Best Practices for Web Application Security Testing

Data Security

There are three primary methods for enforcing data protection in web applications. The first is to strictly enforce user roles and rights, ensuring that all users only access or use data that they are authorized to use. For example, the web app should provide a sales representative with access to available stock but should not allow them to see how much raw material was purchased for production.

Furthermore, the web application must ensure that all data is stored in a database and that sensitive data is encrypted. To prevent confidential data from falling into the hands of the wrong people, the web app must use strong encryption algorithms, particularly when storing data such as banking credentials, login passwords, and business-critical information.

Aside from secure data storage, the web app must ensure data security during data transfer, particularly if the data is confidential or business-critical. To ensure data security, testers must determine whether data flows between different applications or between different modules of a single web application.

As a result, it is critical to ensure that billing information, ‘passwords' related to user accounts, and other sensitive and business-critical information is stored after encryption.

Similarly, the tester may be required to confirm that data is transmitted between various forms and screens only after proper encryption has been implemented. Furthermore, the tester must concentrate on various ‘submit' actions and ensure that all encrypted data can be properly decrypted at the destination. As a result, testers must determine whether the database stores all sensitive data in encrypted form.

Cracking Passwords

Password cracking is a necessary step in ensuring your web application's security. To access unauthorized areas of the application, a hacker only needs to guess the user name and password or use a password cracker. Open source password crackers have a large database of common usernames and potential passwords.

Unless the web application requires its users to create passwords that include a mix of numbers, alphabets, and special characters, it won't take long for a hacker to crack any account's username or password.

SQL injection attacks are extremely dangerous because they allow hackers to access sensitive data stored in the server database. To test for SQL injection entry points within a web application, testers must locate the code that executes direct SQL queries on the database in response to certain inputs.

If the user input data is passed on as SQL queries, cybercriminals can inject SQL commands into the user inputs to gain access to critical database information. Even if the hacker successfully crashes the application by using the query error displayed on the browser, he or she can still gain access to the desired information. This is why it is critical to properly handle special characters in user inputs.

Injection of SQL (Structured Query Language)

SQL, pronounced "sequel" (or S-Q-L, if you prefer), is a vital tool for data analysts, data scientists, and a wide range of other professionals in marketing, finance, HR, sales, and a variety of other fields.

(SQL) is an acronym for Structured Query Language. SQL is a query language, which is a type of programming language designed to make it easier to retrieve specific information from databases. Simply put, SQL is the database programming language.

If a single quote (‘) appears in a textbox, an application should reject it. If the tester encounters a database error, the application is almost certainly executing user input in one or more of its queries. This indicates that SQL injection is a possibility for the web application.

This is significant because most businesses in Dubai keep their data in databases. While there are a variety of databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Microsoft SQL Server), the majority of them use SQL.

Recognizing the impact of an attack is also important for managing your company's risk, as the effects of a successful attack can be used to determine the severity of the vulnerability overall. If issues are discovered during a security test, determining their severity allows your company to prioritize remediation efforts more effectively. Start with critical severity issues and work towards lower impact issues to minimize risk to your firm.

Prior to identifying an issue, assessing the potential impact of each application in your company's application library can help you prioritize application security testing. Web security testing can be scheduled to target your firm's critical applications first, with more targeted testing to lower the risk against the business, if you have a list of high-profile applications.