Application Security Testing: API, Web, and Mobile App Vulnerability Detection

What is Application Security Testing?

The process of making an application more resistant to vulnerabilities and security threats is known as application security testing. While earlier it was done manually, nowadays, with the increasing popularity of enterprise software, all the open-source components, known threats, and vulnerabilities are automated. Below are some of the widely known combinations of tools used for application security:

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

In Static Application Security Testing, the backend and inside functions of the applications are checked. It uses the white box testing approach and reports security weaknesses by inspecting the source code. The static application security testing tools can help identify math errors, input verification issues, syntax errors, and insecure references. These tools can use binary and byte-code analyzers to run on compiled mode.

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

Dynamic Application Security Testing executes the code and detects issues in the code as well as any security vulnerability covers during the runtime. It takes the black box testing approach and covers issues present in the query string, requests, and responses. This can include cookies, session handling, third-party components, DOM injection the use of scripts, and data injection.

The tools used for Dynamic Application Security Testing run scans to simulate malicious or unexpected test cases and report the response of the application.

Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)

Interactive Application Security Testing combines SAST and DAST approaches while detecting a wide range of security weaknesses. Similar to DAST, in IAST, the tools detect the vulnerability in the code in run time. However, the tools are used in the application server that allows them to inspect the compiled source code.

Interactive Application Security Testing can detect the root cause of the security issues and underlying vulnerabilities while identifying which part of the code is affected, making the remediation easy and quick. It verifies the configuration, third-party library data, and source code.

Mobile Application Security Testing (MAST)

Mobile Application Security Testing combines both static and dynamic analysis and verifies the data generated by the mobile application. It tests the security vulnerabilities for mobile applications covering SAST, IAST, and DAST. Additionally, it identifies data leakage, risky Wi-Fi connection, and jailbreaking from mobile devices.

Software Composition Analysis (SCA)

Most enterprise applications have third-party commercial components that are vulnerable to security threats. Software Composition Analysis uses the inventory of open-source components used in the software and identifies the security vulnerability present/affecting those components and helps in eliminating them.

Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP)

Runtime Application Self-Protection is a step ahead of SAST, DAST, and IAST. It identifies security threats runtime by analyzing traffic and user behavior and prevents cyber threats. Similar to SAST, DAST, and IAST, RASP has visibility into the source code to identify vulnerabilities in the code. But the added advantage that RASP offers is by protecting by terminating the session or raising an alert. The RASP tools analyze the application traffic and user behavior in runtime while making it possible to detect and prevent the attack without expensive development efforts.

One of our clients who is a well-recognized global pharmaceutical company producing generic, branded, and biosimilar drugs, wanted to secure their mobile application. The mobile application was used by the patients and had the details regarding recommended medicine routine, prescription reminders, and usage reports. Leveraging expertise in the mobility space, the eInfochips team helped them with native iOS and Android mobile application development and security testing that helped the client to enhance patient experience and treatment monitoring for better clinical outcomes. Read the full case study.

Final Thoughts

The extensive growth and use of online applications have made them vulnerable to security threats. Organizations need to use multiple methodologies and tools to secure the applications and minimize the chances of attack as there are no tools available that can do all. By using the combination of the tools, the overall risk can be reduced.

eInfochips provides security testing services covering all aspects of a connected ecosystem including hardware, device, OS, firmware, network, data, cloud, stand-alone enterprise web, and mobile applications. Our team of certified cybersecurity professionals take a ‘Evaluate, Remediate, and Maintain’ approach aligned to global standards on cyber security like OWASP, NIST while combining industry-leading tools and technologies for Threat modeling, Vulnerability Assessment, and Penetrating Testing.  To know more about our security testing services, talk to our experts today.