The rapid rate of software development requires a continuous cycle of testing during every stage of the development life cycle. Web application security testing is vital in the software build and release process. According to a 2020 Verizon report, 43% of data breaches were attacks on web applications. Building safe and secure applications require regular testing and patching of known vulnerabilities.
With the OWASP top ten release for 2021, the need for more significant interactive application testing continues to be critical to organizations. Many of the top ten exploits are challenging to detect with legacy App sec methods, including DAST (dynamic application security testing) and SAST(static application security testing). The OWASP top ten reports continue to show the complexity of detection of application vulnerabilities across all platforms.
- A01:2021-Broken Access Control moves up from the fifth position; 94% of applications were tested for broken access control.
- A02:2021-Cryptographic Failures shift up to #2, previously known as Sensitive Data Exposure, which was a broad symptom rather than a root cause. The renewed focus here is on failures related to cryptography which often leads to sensitive data exposure or system compromise.
- A03:2021-Injection slides down to the third position. 94% of the applications were tested for some form of injection, and the 33 CWEs mapped into this category have the second most occurrences in applications. Cross-site Scripting is now part of this category in this edition.
- A04:2021-Insecure Design is a new category for 2021, focusing on risks related to design flaws.
- A05:2021-Security Misconfiguration moves up from #6 in the previous edition; 90% of applications were tested for misconfiguration. The former category for XML External Entities (XXE) is now part of this category.
- A06:2021-Vulnerable and Outdated Components was previously titled Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities and are #2 in the Top 10 community survey. Still, it also had enough data to make the Top 10 via data analysis. This category moves up from #9 in 2017 and is a known issue that we struggle to test and assess risk.
- A07:2021-Identification and Authentication Failures were previously Broken Authentication and are sliding down from the second position and now include CWEs that are more related to identification failures.
- A08:2021-Software and Data Integrity Failures is a new category for 2021, focusing on making assumptions related to software updates, critical data, and CI/CD pipelines without verifying integrity. One of the highest weighted impacts from Common Vulnerability and Exposures/Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVE/CVSS) data mapped to the 10 CWEs in this category.
- A09:2021-Security Logging and Monitoring Failures were previously Insufficient Logging & Monitoring and are added from the industry survey (#3), moving up from #10 once.
- A10:2021-Server-Side Request Forgery is added to the Top 10 community survey (#1). The data shows a relatively low incidence rate with above-average testing coverage and above-average ratings for Exploit and Impact potential.
More DevOps teams have deployed more interactive application security testing within the source code to help identify and expedite remediation. DevOps environments, cloud applications, and mobile applications all show extensive risk with dependencies on open-source components.
These libraries frequently are known to be exploited by hackers. The various application testing tools will help identify these vulnerabilities; however, many of these exploits go undetected. Many of these libraries are tightly integrated into the product’s source code. SCA (Software composition analysis) tools operate within the source code to help detect exploits.
What Is IAST? Interactive Application Security Testing
Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) analyzes code for potential security vulnerabilities during execution. IAST combines the best elements from DAST, SAST, SCA, and RASP to provide real-time vulnerability detection for the DevOps team. It does so by interacting with the application functionality.
Adding IAST To The CI/CD DevOps Cycle For Development
Continuous testing in every stage of the development life cycle is crucial. These additional real-time testing tools can help developers secure their applications at all times. It’s important to note that this technology doesn’t add extra time to the CI/CD pipeline. However, it does report vulnerabilities in real-time.
Integration With SDLC And DevOps
Issue tracking solutions can automatically create new tasks for security issues, so developers don’t have to leave their usual tools. The tools allow seamless Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery environments. If the number of security bugs exceeds a threshold, then IAST integration stops the pipeline. IAST tools align with DevOps practices. They help teams adopt DevOps and DevSecops.
- Identify business-critical systems:
- Frequent testing is essential for all your business-critical systems and may even be required by regulations.
- Test all components early:
- The earlier your team starts the testing process, the less likely you will encounter critical security issues and vulnerabilities in the future, and the more secure the application will be.
- Knowing about a vulnerability isn’t enough; teams need to work to fix them as soon as they arise.
- Prioritize remediation and fixes:
What Is The Main Benefit Of An IAST Tool?
One of the main advantages of IAST includes the ability to detect many existing risks while at the same time not identifying unexploitable points as exploitable.
Value Of IAST For QA Environments
IST tools are not limited to a specific phase of the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). The tools are very helpful when the system is in active use because operations and App security teams can benefit from the increased visibility into risks, without any performance impact and with little chance of false positives.
Better Time-To-Market Without Compromising On Security
With IAST, you can detect vulnerabilities in real-time. You don’t have to wait until the scan is done before you get feedback. The input is extremely detailed and actionable, providing both the type of vulnerability and its exact location in the application’s source code.
For developers, this means that IASTs’ live feedback teaches them secure coding practices in the long term. Anyone can do security tests with minimal training because the result is highly reliable and specific. This saves time during the testing stage.
Finally, application security professionals can spend less time chasing down vulnerabilities and false alerts and focus on strategic security initiatives, such as securing privileged accounts or using the least privilege access controls.
IAST vs. SAST
Early in the SDLC, static application security testing (SAST) tools examine source code in an environment that doesn’t run the application. They look for suspicious patterns of code that might indicate security risks. Even though they are relatively easy to deploy, SAST tools repor too many false positives for two reasons. First, SAST tools do not consider the presence of other security measures, and second, they lack visibility during runtime, making them less effective than SAST.
SAST tools typically occur during the development cycle’s compilation phase and introduce delays as they take time to complete. Because IASTs are more versatile than SASTs, they’re applicable in production runtime environments.
IAST vs. DAST
A dynamic application security testing tool is a black box scanner that executes requests against an application to find security issues, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and XSS. DASTs look for security issues by examining the application’s response to a battery of tests.
However, DASTs have no access to the internal workings of the application. Additionally, DAST tests are difficult to automate because they require an experienced app security team to operate them. IAST( Interactive application security testing), a relatively new capability, tests the source code with a real-time view.
OWASP estimates that the duration of a DAST scan can take around 5 to 7 days, while testing with IAST is real-time.
Pros For Leveraging IAST
Running an interactive application security test can be very beneficial.
- IAST produces a low false-positive rate, unlike SAST, which is known for high false-positive rates.
- IAST is highly scalable and can be deployed for every developer in the organization.
- IAST provides scan results directly to the developers in real-time and integrates well with CI/CD tools.
Cons For Leveraging IAST
- IAST is language-specific and supports specific languages and modern technology frameworks.
- The test environment must be matured and well-defined to reap maximum benefit from IAST.
- IAST has been in the market for years but has not been well adopted and doesn’t have a stronghold.
The Need To Pen Test IAST Tools
NIST has officially added IAST to its Security and Privacy Framework.
The value of IAST is well documented and includes being added to the NIST SP800-53 Revision 5, including runtime application self-protection (RASP). IAST operates within the code and helps developers quickly find exploitable vulnerabilities in real-time. Is IAST as a tool exploitble? Like any tools within the confines of the source code, these tools are highly suspectable to external and internal cyber-attacks.
While reporting real-time vulnerabilities to the developers, if the IAST tools become compromised by the hacker, the developer may not know if an essential component of the source code is vulnerable.
Pen Testing Application Testing Tools
Testing the test tools may become a required workflow before any DAST, SAST, IAST, or RASP utlization occurs. Often many of the tools are derived from open source libraries with very little embedded security prevention. These purpose-built tools are developed with a specific mission; to detect vulnerabilities within the application. SAST and DAST are prone to false positives, while IAST is noted as reported the least.
Yet, how will a DevOps or SecOps engineer know-how proper these tools are? Even with run-time application security protection (RASP) as a security tool, are the testing tools still safe to operate at the source code layer?
Application Penetration Testing Services From Cybri
Application Penetration Testing Services
Cyber attacks on applications have spiked dramatically. Hackers target applications with the specific goal of stealing sensitive information and disrupting business operations.
Automating application creation, connection to APIs, and ongoing patching of systems all evolved the strategy for cloud deployments. The cloud ushered in several new capabilities, including remote monitoring, database replication, and containerization.
These innovations lead to more significant time-to-market rapid deployment, greater global access for clients, and local, regional, and GEO requirements complaints. With the value gained by these new enablements, comprehensive security management and control framework lagged.
Rapid deployment and time to market outweigh the need for security control. Only after newly deployed systems became compromised during the initial launch did the security control mandate become a top-line priority.
CYBRI’s application penetration testing services cover web, mobile, static apps or desktop clients, APIs, and Cloud infrastructure. We ensure that each new feature release maintains a strong cybersecurity posture by scheduling your monthly and quarterly pen tests with our easy-to-use BlueBox platform.
What makes CYBRI one of the Premier penetration testing companies?
Our outstanding penetration testing company services have attracted several clients that range from small startups to huge multinational companies. We are dedicated to improving cybersecurity across the board, so our services to your organization continue even after delivering the pen test report.
No matter the size of your organization, we will assess your cybersecurity needs from scratch to provide security measures tailored to your business needs. Our experts are always available to all of our clients in an advisory capacity should you wish to contact us.
Headquartered in New York, CYBRI is a US-leading cybersecurity and penetration testing company that protects your organization from cyber threats.
Our penetration testing firm delivers elite penetration testing services and solutions to help our customers become more protected in the ever-growing cyber threat world. We help identify and remediate mission-critical vulnerabilities that might otherwise cost your company millions of dollars if exposed by hackers.
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