In our technical landscape, security testing is not receiving the traction it deserves. For this reason, we have decided to discuss how to perform application security testing in this article.
With the growing incidence of cyberattacks, technical experts emphasize the need to integrate security into Continuous Integration and continuous delivery workflow. DevOps experts and security teams have different roles in an organization.
Unsurprisingly, security is laggard in the DevOps environment. A recent study revealed half of the DevOps team have not yet included security in their Ci/CD workflow.
Despite the increasing concern of security breaches, the DevOps team does ignore security as a whole.
Even though DevOps teams deliver software at an amazingly fast speed, they still do not have a clear strategy for integrating security.
In another survey that comprises 25,000 DevSecOps professionals, 72% of the participants view that security works as a "nag."
On the other hand, 48% of the study participants admitted that although security is crucial, they do not have enough resources to spend on it.
Being a team lead or project manager, you should give the utmost prominence to application security. Below are the best practices for testing applications for security vulnerabilities.
Harness Automated and Advance Threat Tools
Harness the power of automated application security testing tools that you can integrate directly into your Ci/CD workflow.
To make sure security issues do not affect development velocity and workflow, make sure you have a direct feedback loop in place. So, you can inform the developers what actionable steps they can take to mitigate the threat of security risks.
It is one of the best ways to ensure that all the security vulnerabilities have been identified during the development phase. Moreover, it won't only help in application testing but also allow the developers to take preventive measures beforehand.
Apart from that, one of the greatest hurdles for successful DevOps is the absence of integrated security testing tools. Furthermore, it is evident from the study mentioned above that security is missing in the DevOps software development methodology.
For this reason, there is a growing need for DevOps security automation tools as the businesses want to scan the vulnerability and Pentest their results. So, they can ensure the fast development of an application without compromising security.
The Shift from the Left to the Beginning
The traditional approach for application security testing is no longer viable now since the code is developed and tested faster than ever before.
Additionally, development teams are hiring more and more developers to expand their teams, but they do not take security experts on board. This imbalance raises the need for consultative application security practice.
Application security experts should provide the developers with the tools and processes for application security testing. Moreover, they have to participate in the governance and management process rather than just hands-on testing.
According to the security practitioners, it is not enough to implement security testing earlier in the development lifecycle so you can catch errors quickly.
Additionally, it is equally important for the developers to learn from the mistake they had made in the past to avoid that in the future.
However, if you want to significantly reduce the cost and improve the velocity of your development, consider leveraging the results from static application security testing. So, you can teach developers how to make your code more secure.
Monitor the Third-Party Code
With the aid of third-party components, you can assemble the code more at an incredibly fast speed that could be a great thing in a DevOps environment. However, a single flaw within an application can compromise its security.
In a recent study conducted by one of the well-known cyber tech firms, those applications that rely on third-party code have an average of 71 vulnerabilities.
As of today, only 23% of organizations using third-party injections had a process in place to check the code's security vulnerability. However, only 52% of them updated the content when the security vulnerability was identified.
According to security analysts, a single vulnerable code component in an application could cause a massive security breach. So keeping a cautiously-maintained code component coupled with frequent testing is the best way to prevent a hacker from exploiting the cracks of the code component.
Security analysts recommend using open-source tools for vulnerability scanning and application security testing to achieve this goal.
Include Abuse Cases in Your Testing
While performing application security testing, you should think like a hacker. Developers should consider different ways that an attacker might use to abuse their access to an app or system.
Developers can take better preventive measures by anticipating how malicious users can exploit the security flaws.
Fortunately, many abuse cases and test cases are readily available and can be integrated into QA testing with minimal effort.
In stark contrast to functional testing, the abuse case model defines how an application behaves under different misuse cases. So, the developers can adopt a defensive approach.
Integrating such test cases into the QA process could routinely run alongside other regression tests. Furthermore, leveraging the security features of your software framework could have many benefits.
Pay Close Attention to Static Testing
Today, many organizations prioritize penetration and dynamic application security testing (DAST) over static application security testing (SAST).
The biggest mistake developers usually make conducting tests during the unit testing phase rather than the development phase.
Including security testing in the DevOps and CI/CD workflow is paramount to the success of an organization. DAAST and pen testing are important techniques, but you cannot fully harness them unless you have a running application in place in the later phase of the SDLC.
As a security practitioner, you have to implement SAAST earlier in the development cycle. As a result, you can identify coding errors in real-time while your developer is coding and debugging.
Application Security Testing with Tools
security testing tools are generally employed in the development lifecycle. They help the developers to implement preventive measures in the code before the deployment. With these tools, we can considerably reduce the likelihood of cyberattacks.
External Resources
To learn more about security vulnerabilities, Visit our knowledge base.
Moreover, to widen your understanding of security testing, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_testing