What is an application security assessment ?

Application security assessment is a process to find and fix security risks in software. It will help organizations to spot issues like insecure code, misconfiguration, or other vulnerabilities before attackers do and break the security. This process will help the organization keep secure, compliant, and reliable.

Goals of Application Security Assessment

The main goals of an application security assessment are :

• Detecting vulnerabilities before exploited
• Validating existing application security
• Ensuring compliance with various frameworks like PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, etc
• Reducing business risk
• Protecting sensitive data

Components of Application Security Assessment

A good application security assessment uses a clear process. Many security teams rely on checklists to make sure everything is well. Here’s an example of what an application security assessment looks like :

1. Review code for checking insecure functions and logics.
2. Run SAST, DAST, and IAST tools on the application.
3. Validate the authentication and authorization mechanism.
4. Check common security issues, refer to OWASP top 10
5. Review vulnerabilities of dependency libraries.
6. Review cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Azure) and container platforms (e.g., Docker, Podman, etc) configuration.
7. Do manual penetration testing to validate automation findings
8. Prioritize risk based on business impact and create a remediation plan based on that.
9. Document findings and create actionable recommendations
10. Retesting after the fix to verify that the vulnerabilities have been solved.

Common Tools and Techniques

• Static Application Security Testing (SAST) : a testing methodology that analyzes source code to find vulnerabilities. SAST scan code before being compiled. It is also well known as white box testing.
• Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) : It is also called “black box testing,” where the security tester checks the application from outside without knowledge of the design system level or accessing source code. The tester checks its running state and observes the responses to simulate attacks made by the testing tool. An application response to these helps testers check whether the application has a vulnerability or not.
• Interaction Application Security Testing (IAST) : an application security testing method that tests an application while the app is run by a human tester, an automated test, or any activity that interacts with the application functionality
• Manual code review or penetration testing : an application security testing method that is done by an ethical hacker. Unlike automated security testing, this method uses real-world scenarios where open possibilities exist that applications have vulnerabilities that automated security tools miss.

Challenges in Application Security Assessment

• Managing false positives from automated tools
• Balance time and budget for testing the whole application
• Adapting to the rapid transformation of attack methods
• integrating assessment into a modern DevSecOps pipeline without slowing development

Application security assessment is a continuous process to secure modern applications from cybersecurity attacks. With an application security assessment, an organization can secure its application to protect both its business and its customers.