Security Testing
Security Testing encompasses all measures taken throughout the code’s life-cycle, to prevent gaps in the security policy of your software or any underlying system vulnerabilities.
These may have come about through flaws in the design, development, deployment, upgrade, or maintenance of the application. They are incredibly easy to overlook through internal or inexperienced eyes. Thus, independent and external Security Testing is vitally important before the release of any software.
Some common security threats are:
| Category | Threats/Attacks |
|---|---|
| Input Validation | Buffer overflow; cross-site scripting; SQL injection; canonicalization |
| Software Tampering | Attacker modifies an existing application’s runtime behaviour to perform unauthorized actions; exploited via binary patching, code substitution, or code extension |
| Authentication | Network eavesdropping ; Brute force attack; dictionary attacks; cookie replay; credential theft |
| Authorization | Elevation of privilege; disclosure of confidential data; data tampering; luring attacks |
| Configuration Management | Unauthorized access to administration interfaces; unauthorized access to configuration stores; retrieval of clear text configuration data; lack of individual accountability; over-privileged process and service accounts |
| Sensitive Information | Access sensitive code or data in storage; network eavesdropping; code/data tampering |
| Session Management | Session hijacking; session replay; man in the middle |
| Cryptography | Poor key generation or key management; weak or custom encryption |
| Parameter Manipulation | Query string manipulation; form field manipulation; cookie manipulation; HTTP header manipulation |
| Exception Management | Information disclosure; denial of service |
| Auditing and Logging | User denies performing an operation; attacker exploits an application without trace; attacker covers his or her tracks |