Regular web application penetration testing is a fundamental part of meeting your organisation’s security compliance goals
Regular web application penetration testing ensures that any weaknesses are identified so you can address them promptly and protect your organisation from cyber-attacks
Regular web application penetration testing provides assurance to stakeholders that your web applications are secure
Blackfoot’s web application penetration testing service makes finding and fixing security weaknesses in web applications simple, no matter how complex they might be.
Web application penetration testing is a critical process for ensuring the functionality, usability and security of web applications.
It involves the systematic evaluation of various aspects of the application, including user interface, functionality, performance, compatibility and security.
Through comprehensive testing, potential issues such as broken links, form validations, cross-browser compatibility, database integration and security vulnerabilities can be identified and addressed.
Web application penetration testing helps organisations deliver a seamless user experience, ensure the application performs optimally under different conditions while maintaining data integrity and safeguarding against potential security threats.
Blackfoot’s manual penetration testing, or exploit testing, builds on vulnerability assessment results to simulate real-world attack methods.
Unlike automated vulnerability scanning, our manual penetration testing is delivered by our highly skilled testers who actively seek to progress vulnerabilities through the cyber kill-chain. They will assess the security of your environment by employing a combination of tools, techniques and, most importantly, creativity. As a CREST-certified organisation, Blackfoot web application penetration tests follow an approved, structured methodology.
Our expert testers first establish a deep understanding of the web application, its operation and configuration, and the associated operator roles and access permissions.
Our testers will then seek to discover any potentially exploitable vulnerabilities in the application, before testing their exploitability. They’ll also validate whether successful exploitation exposes other areas or provides potential threat routes to other business systems.
Based on clearly defined test objectives, this involves exploring compromised systems to determine whether they host sensitive files or information, allow privilege escalation or permit access to password information which could be used to compromise other systems or internal applications.
Blackfoot reports its findings along with clear recommendations for prioritised remediation activities.
Q: What is web application penetration testing?
A: Web application penetration testing is a security assessment of a web-based application, examining the application’s logic, functionality and underlying infrastructure for vulnerabilities that could be exploited by an attacker. Common targets include authentication mechanisms, session management, input validation, access controls, and API endpoints. Testing follows recognised methodologies such as the OWASP Testing Guide to ensure comprehensive coverage.
Q: Which web application vulnerabilities does Blackfoot test for?
A: Our web application penetration tests cover a broad range of vulnerability classes, including injection flaws such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS), broken authentication and session management, insecure direct object references, security misconfigurations, sensitive data exposure, and insufficient access controls. We use the OWASP Top 10 as a reference point alongside our own testing methodology to ensure thorough coverage.
Q: Do we need to provide Blackfoot with access to the application for testing?
A: Web application penetration testing can be conducted in authenticated or unauthenticated modes depending on the threat scenarios you want to test. Authenticated testing, in which testers are provided with user credentials, provides the most thorough assessment of application logic and access controls. We typically recommend including both authenticated and unauthenticated testing phases to assess the full attack surface. We will agree the access requirements and test accounts with you before the engagement begins.
Q: What is the difference between web application penetration testing and a vulnerability scan?
A: An automated vulnerability scan will identify known weaknesses in web application frameworks and configurations but cannot replicate the business logic flaws, chained vulnerabilities and context-specific issues that a skilled manual tester will find. Web application penetration testing involves significant manual effort to understand how the application works and to test the logic of its functions, providing a level of assurance that automated scanning cannot match.
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