Umbraco Pentesting: How to Secure Your CMS Against Threats?

If you ask a security team if they run pentests on their web applications or APIs, the answer is always a strong “Yes”. But if you ask if they pentested their Umbraco setup, you will get a more hesitant, “I thought Umbraco is secure by default”.

Umbraco is a powerful CMS, but assuming it is secure by default is a mistake. Just like other web applications, it is vulnerable to misconfigurations, weak authentication, and unpatched flaws that could give the attackers a chance to gain an entry point to the application.

If you are not performing a regular Umbraco pentest on your setup, you might leave a critical blind spot in your overall security posture. Let’s talk about why that needs to change.

Why Does Your Umbraco Setup Need a Pentest?

Proactive Security

Attackers are constantly looking for loopholes and gaps in the security and generally, vulnerabilities are always present in the applications. A pentest helps identify the weak points in your Umbraco setup before the attackers can detect and exploit them. Detecting such vulnerabilities allows you to adopt a proactive approach towards security, reducing exposure.

Prevent Data Breaches

Security misconfigurations and weak security policies are a major cause of data breaches in web applications. An Umbraco pentest allows you to uncover the weaknesses that can lead to unauthorized data access or sensitive data exposure and help implement stronger security measures and protect user data.

Ensure Compliance

Organizations working in various fields have to meet industry regulatory standards like GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, ISO27001, or SOC 2, depending on the industries they serve. A pentest helps you ensure that your Umbraco setup is compliant with these standards and protects user data and the organization from hefty legal fines.

How To Perform an Umbraco Pentest?

1. Define Scope & Objectives

Before beginning a pentest, establish the aspects of your Umbraco setup that need testing. Define a proper scope of your application to help avoid missing critical vulnerabilities and ensure regulatory compliance.

• Identify key assets like the website, admin panel, APIs, database, etc.
• Define the testing scope from authentication to configurations and/or plugins.
• List compliance requirements (GDPR, PCI-DSS, ISO27001, etc)
• Prepare proper documentation for all stakeholders before starting.

2. Information Gathering & Recon

Scan and collect information about the target system, like domain information, version details, and other publicly available information. Identifying such information helps map the target, look for know vulnerabilities, and figure out potential attack vectors.

• Identify the Umbraco version and installed plugins
• Collection of details about the domain, subdomain, and other public assets
• Test for exposed directories, API endpoints, and misconfigurations
• Look for known vulnerabilities in Umbraco and third-party dependencies

3. Vulnerability Scanning

Use automated tools and scanners to look for low-hanging vulnerabilities that can be used as stepping stones to escalate to more severe issues. Instead of traditional scanners, you should use a mix of open-source and commercial tools to get specific results according to the scope of testing.

• Run automated scans using tools like Burp Suite, nmap and ZAP.
• Test the application for misconfigurations, missing patches or outdated software
• Identify vulnerabilities like SQLi, XSS or broken authentication.
• Validate all findings to detect false positives.

4. Exploitation & Penetration Testing

After scanning for vulnerabilities, attempt to exploit them to assess how severely they affect your setup. Performing manual testing allows identifying the more severe vulnerabilities like business logic flaws, broken authentication,and some other vulnerabilities that the automated scans might miss.

• Exploit vulnerabilities and assess their impact on the application
• Test for privilege escalation and unauthorized access to data
• Assess business logic vulnerabilities that automated tools miss
• Document all findings with proof-of-concept

5. Reporting & Remediation

Document all the vulnerabilities you find from the automated and manual testing with Proof-of-Concept evidence of the findings. Ensure the document provides details of the vulnerabilities, their severities, impact on the application, steps to reproduce ,and actionable mitigation suggestions. Once all the findings are fixed by developers, perform a retest of all the vulnerabilities to ensure they are fixed.

• Document all vulnerabilities with risk severity levels
• Provide detailed remediation steps for each issue
• Retest after fixes are implemented to confirm resolution
• Generate a final security assessment report for stakeholders

Best Tools for Umbraco Pentest

1. Astra Security

Key Features:

• Platform: Cloud-based
• Pentest Capability: Continuous scanning with manual testing by security experts
• Accuracy: Low false positives
• Compliance: GDPR, ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOC2
• Expert Remediation: Yes
• Integration: Jira, Slack, GitHub
• Price: Starts at $1,999/year
• Best Suited For: Businesses needing automated and manual security assessments

Astra Security is a cloud-based penetration testing solution that combines automated scanning with expert-led manual testing. It helps businesses identify vulnerabilities and provides detailed remediation guidance. With support for compliance requirements like GDPR and HIPAA, Astra is a great choice for organizations handling sensitive data.

Pros:

• A user-friendly interface simplifies vulnerability management.
• Provides detailed compliance scans and reports.
• Guarantees zero false positives with vetted scans.

Limitations:

• Astra offers a $7 one-week trial instead of a free trial.

2. OWASP ZAP

Key Features:

• Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux
• Pentest Capability: Automated and manual vulnerability testing
• Accuracy: Medium (some false positives)
• Compliance: OWASP Top 10
• Expert Remediation: No
• Integration: Jenkins, Docker
• Price: Free
• Best Suited For: Developers and security teams testing web applications

OWASP ZAP is a free, open-source security tool designed for web application testing. It provides automated and manual vulnerability scanning, making it ideal for developers and security teams. While it’s a great starting point for pentesting Umbraco, it may require fine-tuning to reduce false positives.

Pros:

• User-friendly interface, especially for beginners
• Community-developed plugins help enhance functionality

Limitations:

• Can generate false positives necessitating manual vetting

3. Burp Suite

Key Features:

• Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux
• Pentest Capability: Advanced web vulnerability scanning and manual pentesting
• Accuracy: High
• Compliance: OWASP, PCI-DSS
• Expert Remediation: No
• Integration: Jira, GitHub
• Price: $399/year (Pro version)
• Best Suited For: Security professionals performing deep application testing

Burp Suite is one of the most widely used security tools for web application pentesting. It offers advanced features like intercepting proxy, scanning, and manual exploitation. Security professionals prefer Burp Suite for its high accuracy in detecting vulnerabilities and deep testing capabilities.

Pros:

• Offers a variety of extensions to enhance performance
• Automates routine testing processes

Limitations:

• Crashes and socket connection errors have been reported

4. Nikto

Key Features:

• Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux
• Pentest Capability: Web server scanning
• Accuracy: High
• Compliance: OWASP
• Expert Remediation: No
• Integration: None
• Price: Free
• Best Suited For: Quick scans of web servers and configurations

Nikto is an open-source web server scanner that tests for dangerous configurations, outdated software, and known vulnerabilities. It is useful for quickly assessing a web server’s security posture but does not provide in-depth application-level testing.

Pros:

• Scans for over 6700+ vulnerabilities
• Highly customizable as it is open-source

Limitations:

• May generate false positives that require manual vetting
• Does not provide an in-depth analysis of vulnerability exploit and impact

5. Metasploit

Key Features:

• Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux
• Pentest Capability: Exploitation framework
• Accuracy: High
• Compliance: OWASP, PCI-DSS
• Expert Remediation: No
• Integration: Various security tools
• Price: Free (Community Edition)
• Best Suited For: Advanced security testing and exploit research

Metasploit is a powerful penetration testing framework that enables security professionals to simulate real-world attacks. It offers a large database of exploits, making it an essential tool for identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in Umbraco setups.

Pros:

• Facilitates repetitive tasks with automation.
• Supports multiple operating systems.

Limitations:

• Requires frequent updates to stay effective.

Best Practices for Umbraco Pentest

1. Keep Your Umbraco CMS Updated

Running outdated versions of Umbraco CMS can lead to security risks and the exploitation of known vulnerabilities. Regular updates allow you to have the latest security patches and vulnerability fixes, reducing the likelihood of exploitation from attackers.

2. Use Strong Authentication & Access Control

Implementing multi-factor authentication mechanisms and strong password policies go a long way in ensuring additional security controls over existing authentication steps. Implement strong RBV policies to limit the user permissions according to their roles and minimize the chances of privilege escalation.

3. Secure Database & Configuration Settings

Encrypt the sensitive user information stored in databases and compartmentalize sensitive data as much as you can. In addition to that, review and disable default configurations that expose the database to attacks. Restrict database access to necessary users to avoid excessive endpoints and reduce the attack surface.

4. Regularly Test Third-Party Plugins & Extensions

Always verify the security of third-party plugins and extensions before installing and ensuring that the source is a trusted one. Plugins and extensions can introduce vulnerabilities into your web applications that attackers can exploit. Regularly testing and updating these dependencies can help avoid exploits.

5. Conduct Periodic Pentest & Security Audits

Security threats keep getting complicated and evolve as the technologies upgrade. Conducting regular pentests allows you to adopt a proactive approach towards security, stay ahead of emerging vulnerabilities, and keep your Umbraco setup secure.

Final Thoughts

Umbraco CMS, like other web applications, is a prime target for the attackers to exploit vulnerabilities in. A pentest is not just a one-time check for security, it is a continuous process to detect and mitigate the vulnerabilities in your setup before they are exploited.

By taking security seriously and performing structured pentests yourself or with the help of pentesting services like Astra. A detailed pentest report can go a long way in helping you make your Umbraco pentest a success and your setup secure. By following best practices like keeping your setup updated, securing authentication, and regularly testing the third-party dependencies, you can keep your setup secure always.