Security testing evaluates an information system to determine how safe the data within it is. The process aims to identify weaknesses in the system that are exploitable for unauthorized access or cause denial of service to authorized users.
It aims to prevent data breaches that, according to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, cost businesses an average of $4.88 million globally. Automated security testing tools make this process much more thorough and convenient.
A third-party vendor or internal security team often performs security testing. However, independent security testing is often required by law to ensure that systems meet the security requirements of the regulatory bodies.
The two primary goals of security testing are:
- To find security weaknesses in the system before an attacker does.
- To determine if changes to the system have inadvertently created new weaknesses.
Deep Dive into Automated Security Testing Tools
Security testing of an application is a must these days. The applications are developed with many security vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit, resulting in significant loss of information, money, or both.
The purpose of automation is to reduce the amount of time required to test an application by performing repetitive tasks, overcome the limitations of manual testing, and provide consistent test results.
Automated testing has become more critical in recent years because it is more cost-effective than manual testing. Tools are used to test any applications for security vulnerabilities. These tools perform several security checks and run various tests to ensure the software is secure and free from any vulnerabilities.
Why are Automated Security Testing Tools Widely Used?
1. Easy Integration
Automated security testing tools are widely used because they can be integrated with the existing workflow. They handle a lot of the tedious work and can even be scheduled to run overnight or while the developers are on a break.
2. Saves Time
Automated security testing tools are used widely because they can run tests on large numbers of applications simultaneously. This allows security professionals to save time and resources.
3. Better Usability and Efficiency
Automated security testing tools can also run tests on applications written in various programming languages, increasing the tool’s usability. They also help save time by running tests on the application’s functions, allowing the testing team to concentrate on other functions.
3 Things to Check Before Choosing An Automated Security Testing Tool
1. Easy to Use
Today’s enterprises are adopting security testing tools to secure their applications. The problem is that many tools are too complex and challenging to work with. Ease of use is an essential criterion for easy tool adoption across departments.
2. Updated With the Latest Vulnerabilities
No automated security testing tool is perfect. Hackers are constantly finding and exploiting vulnerabilities. An automated security testing tool should have a regularly updated list of security vulnerabilities so no vulnerability goes unnoticed.
3. ROI vs. Cost of Tool
The cost of automated security testing tools is one of the main reasons organizations avoid using them. There’s a consensus that automated security testing tools are expensive and unaffordable. However, this is not the reality, as the cost of automated security testing tools is not as high as many IT professionals think.
Penetration Testing vs. Security Testing
In some organizations, security testing is part of a more extensive process known as penetration testing, a more formalized and structured approach to security testing. It involves a team of security experts who attempt to identify an application’s security flaws.
Security testing, on the other hand, is often used to supplement other information security activities, such as penetration and vulnerability assessments, and is frequently conducted by a specialized security team or third-party consultants.
| Feature | Penetration Testing | Security Testing |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | More focused and in-depth, often targeting specific vulnerabilities or attack vectors. | Broader in scope, covering a wide range of security issues. |
| Approach | Simulates real-world attacks to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities. | Uses a variety of techniques to assess the security posture of an application or system. |
| Team | Typically conducted by a specialized security team or third-party consultants. | Developers, testers, or security specialists can perform it. |
| Level of Detail | Provides detailed reports on vulnerabilities, including exploitability and potential impact. | Offers a more general overview of security risks and recommendations. |
| Frequency | Often conducted less frequently, as it is a more resource-intensive process. | It can be performed more regularly as part of the development and testing process. |
Understanding DAST and SAST
1. Dynamic Application Security Testing
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) is a method to find security vulnerabilities in an application while in production. DAST is conducted the same way as traditional application security testing, but the significant difference is that the application is tested in real-time and production.
The testing is conducted using application source code the same way the application is developed. The application will be tested in the same way that customers or users use it.
Need for DAST
The purpose of DAST is to find security vulnerabilities before the application is released to the public so that the application can be fixed before anyone else can get their hands on it, and it usually uses automated security testing tools.
DAST is a testing tool and a process that uses the results of automated or manual tests to fix security vulnerabilities, which is why it’s sometimes also called “Dynamic Application Security Fixing” (DASF).
2. Static Application Security Testing
Static application security testing (SAST) is one of the most critical security practices a software company can adopt. It uses a source code analyzer to look for common patterns in the application source code.
The term “static” indicates that SAST does not require executing the software’s code to detect vulnerabilities. This is in contrast to dynamic application security testing (DAST), which requires the actual execution of the code to detect vulnerabilities.
Need for SAST
Static Application Security Testing (SAST) helps manage security risks by using source code analyzers to identify security vulnerabilities in the source code before the software is executed and without executing the program.
For example, an analyzer can look for common patterns such as cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL Injection vulnerabilities. Other common patterns include Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF).
| Feature | Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) | Static Application Security Testing (SAST) |
|---|---|---|
| Testing Phase | Production | Development |
| Testing Method | Simulates real-world attacks on a running application | Analyzes source code without executing it |
| Vulnerability Detection | Identifies vulnerabilities like SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and insecure direct object references | Detects vulnerabilities like buffer overflows, memory leaks, and insecure coding practices |
| Pros | Finds vulnerabilities that may not be detected by SAST, such as misconfigurations and runtime errors | Detects vulnerabilities early in the development cycle |
| Cons | It can be slower and more resource-intensive | May not detect vulnerabilities that only manifest during runtime |
Types of Security Testing: Manual Vs. automated
Manual Security Testing
Manual Security Testing is where a human being (security tester) manually evaluates the system’s security. The tester will manually try to find vulnerabilities in the application or system.
This is often used as an additional step to automated security testing. The tester will use his skills and experience to find the vulnerabilities in the application.
Automated Security Testing
Automated security testing scans the application for vulnerabilities using automated tools. It is the practice of using automated security testing tools to test a system for security vulnerabilities. They can be run against any application (e.g., a web app) and create a report listing the vulnerabilities found.
With the help of automation scripts or applications, a programmer analyzes the application for potential security holes and fixes these holes automatically. The developers and administrators also use them to test applications before release.
Top 3 Automated Security Testing Tools
Evaluation Criteria: Our selection criteria for these top automated security testing tools prioritized accuracy and comprehensiveness of vulnerability detection, balancing the need for in-depth scanning with minimal false positives. We evaluated each tool’s ability to cover various vulnerabilities and application types, including web applications and APIs and considered its integration capabilities with existing workflows.
We checked for the compliance requirements theat each tool follows. Finally, we included both commercial and open-source options to cater to varying budgets and organizational needs, ensuring accessibility for different user profiles.
1. Astra Pentest
Key Features:
- Platform: SaaS
- Pentest Capabilities: Continuous automated scans with 10,000+ tests and manual pentests
- Accuracy: Zero false positives (with vetted scans)
- Scan Behind Logins: Yes
- Compliance Scanning: OWASP, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, ISO27001, and SOC2
- Publicly Verifiable Pentest Certification: Yes
- Workflow Integration: Slack, JIRA, GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, and more
- Price: Starting at $1999/yr
Astra Security provides comprehensive security audits with the assurance of zero false positives in vetted scans to find all vulnerabilities across your systems—networks, web applications, mobile applications, and APIs.
Our vulnerability scanner can find system loopholes using NIST and OWASP methodologies, testing for 10,000+ test cases. The list of tests is updated fortnightly to include emerging vulnerabilities, known CVEs, OWASP Top 10, and SANS 25.
The user-friendly dashboard displays the vulnerabilities found in real-time with the severity scores and allows collaboration with the target’s development team. We help you comply with specific scans for regulatory standards like PCI-DSS, SOC 2, GDPR, ISO 27001, and HIPAA.
Experts Review
What our Customers Have to Say
“The Astra dashboard provided a fantastic experience for tracking the progress of testing, viewing the breakdown of vulnerabilities, and digging into the details of each vulnerability. Astra has provided a way to provide excellent feedback during a penetration testing exercise through their dashboard that benefited us by giving us a better way to track and remediate discovered vulnerabilities.” – Dave P. (Source: G2)
2. OWASP ZAP
- Scanner Capabilities: Web application scanning
- Manual pentest: No
- Accuracy: Some false positives are possible
- Scan Behind Logins: Yes
- Compliance: No specific compliance reports
- Expert Remediation: No
- Pricing: Open-Source
OWASP ZAP is an easy-to-use integrated automated security testing tool for finding vulnerabilities in web applications. It is designed to be used by people with a wide range of security experiences. It is ideal for developers and functional testers new to penetration testing.
OWASP ZAP is an open-source tool that acts as a proxy to intercept requests. It supports automated and manual security testing and integrates well with CI/CD pipelines. It comes with a large community for support.
However, the learning curve can be steep for beginners and may produce false positives.
Experts Review
What our Customers Have to Say
“We use the OWASP ZAP tool for security testing for our project. it is easy to use the tool to find the security risk level in the application like ( Cross Site Scripting , External redirect ) This provide HTML reports along with parameter details.” – (Source: Gartner)
3. SQLmap
Features:
- Platform: Windows, Linux
- Scanner Capacity: Web applications
- Manual pentest: No
- Accuracy: False positives possible
- Vulnerability management: No
- Compliance: No
- Price: Open source
SQLmap is an open-source automated security testing tool that automates the process of detecting and exploiting SQL injection flaws and taking over databases. SQLmap has a powerful testing engine and multiple injection attacks and supports servers like MySQL, Microsoft Access, IBM DB2, and SQLite.
Internally, it uses the same engine as the commercial tool SQLninja, but its features and syntax differ slightly.
This tool supports direct connection to the database and also supports adding custom headers to requests, making its integration into the CI/CD pipeline easier.
Experts Review
What our Customers Have to Say
“SQLmap automates the process of finding SQL injections in web applications, It performs advanced queries and supports different types of injections; it also has WAF bypass inbuilt. In some cases, it fails to detect injections, such as custom injections, but nothing else to dislike.” – Priyanshu K. (Source: G2)
Final Thoughts
Security testing has become indispensable to application development and maintenance. By proactively finding and addressing vulnerabilities, organizations can safeguard their systems, protect sensitive data, and mitigate the risk of costly data breaches.
Automated security testing tools have revolutionized how security testing is conducted by significantly enhancing efficiency and effectiveness by automating repetitive tasks and providing accurate, consistent results.
Organizations can implement a complete security strategy by understanding the details of penetration testing, security testing, DAST, and SAST. By leveraging the power of automated security testing tools, businesses can proactively defend against cyber threats and build a more secure digital future.
FAQ’s
1. Why do companies prefer to use automated security testing tools?
Automated testing tools help businesses speed up the testing process and provide them with accurate and confirmable results. Automated security testing tools are widely used in penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, and compliance testing. The automated security testing tools provide effective and efficient methods to test the application, servers, and other systems.
2. What is the average cost of automated security testing tools?
Automated security tools can cost from $500 to $10000+ per scan. The cost depends on the type of scan and the number of hosts and services you want to scan.
3. Why is Astra’s automated security testing tool a must?
Astra’s automated security testing tool offers more than 2600+ tests with pocket-friendly pricing. To ensure your website is secure and safe, you must have a reliable security testing tool. Astra’s automated security testing tool is a must-have for every website owner.
Additional Resources on Security Testing
This post is part of a series on Security Testing. You can
also check out other articles below.
- Chapter 1: What is Security Testing and Why is it Important?
- Chapter 2: Security Testing Methodologies
- Chapter 3: What is Web Application Security Testing?
- Chapter 4: How to Perform Mobile Application Security Testing
- Chapter 5: What is Cloud Security Testing?
- Chapter 6: What is API Security Testing?
- Chapter 7: What is Network Security Testing?
- Chapter 8: A Complete Guide to OWASP Security Testing?
- Chapter 9: What is DAST?
- Chapter 10: What is SAST?
