Pentest Book

Pentesting Web checklist

Recon phase

Small scope

Identify web server, technologies and database (whatweb, webanalyze)

Try to locate /robots.txt /crossdomain.xml /clientaccesspolicy.xml /sitemap.xml and
/.well-known/
Review comments on source code (Burp Engagement Tools)
Directory enumeration
Find leaked ids, emails (pwndb)
Identify WAF (whatwaf, wafw00f)
Google dorking
GitHub dorking/Github tools (githound, git-search)
Get urls (gau , waybackurls, hakrawler)
Check potential vulnerable urls (gf-patterns)
Find hidden parameters (paramspider)
Automatic XSS finder (dalfox)
Check for backup files (bfac)
Locate admin and login panel
Broken link hijacking (blc)
Get all JS files (subjs, linkfinder)
JS hardcoded APIs and secrets (secretfinder)
JS analysis (JSParser, JSFScan, JSScanner, jshole)
Run automated scanner (nuclei)
Test CORS (CORScanner, corsy)

Medium scope

Enumerate subdomains (subfinder, assetfinder, amass, sudomy, crobat,

SubDomainizer)
Permute subdomains (dnsgen)
Subdomain bruteforce (shuffledns, subbrute)
Identify alive subdomains (httpx)
 Subdomain takeovers (SubOver)
Check for cloud assets (cloudenum, cloudscrapper, cloudlist)
Shodan
Transfer zone
Subdomains from subdomains (altdns, flydns, goaltdns)
Take screenshots (gowitness, webscreenshot, aquatone)

Large scope

Get ASN for IP ranges (amass, asnlookup, metabigor, bgp)

Review latest acquisitions

Network

Check ICMP packets allowed

Check DMARC/SPF policies (spoofcheck)
Open ports with Shodan
Port scan to all ports
Check UDP ports (udp-proto-scanner or nmap)
Test SSL (testssl)
If got creds, try password spraying for all the services discovered

Preparation

Study site structure

Make a list with all possible test cases
Understand the business area and what their customer needs
Get a list of every asset (all_subdomains.txt, live_subdomains.txt, waybackurls.txt,
hidden_directories.txt, nmap_results.txt, GitHub_search.txt, altdns_subdomain.txt,
vulnerable_links.txt, js_files.txt)

User management
Registration

Duplicate registration
Overwrite existing user (existing user takeover)
Username uniqueness
Weak password policy (user=password, password=123456,111111,abcabc,qwerty12)
Insufficient email verification process (also my%[email protected] for account tko)
Weak registration implementation or allows disposable email addresses
Fuzz after user creation to check if any folder have been overwritten or created with
your profile name
Add only spaces in password
Long password (>200) leads to DoS
Corrupt authentication and session defects: Sign up, don't verify, request change
password, change, check if account is active.
Try to re-register repeating same request with same password and different password
too
If JSON request, add comma
{“email”:“[email protected]”,”[email protected]”,“token”:”xxxxxxxxxx”}
Lack of confirmation -> try to register with company email.
Check OAuth with social media registration
Check state parameter on social media registration
Try to capture integration url leading integration takeover
Check redirections in register page after login

Authentication

Username enumeration
Resilience to password guessing
Account recovery function
"Remember me" function
Impersonation function
Unsafe distribution of credentials
Fail-open conditions
Multi-stage mechanisms
SQL Injections
Auto-complete testing
Lack of password confirmation on change email, password or 2FA (try change
 response)
Weak login function over HTTP and HTTPS if both are available
User account lockout mechanism on brute force attack
Check for password wordlist (cewl and burp-goldenNuggets)
Test 0auth login functionality for Open Redirection
Test response tampering in SAML authentication
In OTP check guessable codes and race conditions
OTP, check response manipulation for bypass
OTP, try bruteforce
If JWT, check common flaws
Browser cache weakness (eg Pragma, Expires, Max-age)
After register, logout, clean cache, go to home page and paste your profile url in
browser, check for "login?next=accounts/profile" for open redirect or XSS with "/login?
next=javascript:alert(1);//"
Try login with common credentials

Session

Session handling
Test tokens for meaning
Test tokens for predictability
Insecure transmission of tokens
Disclosure of tokens in logs
Mapping of tokens to sessions
Session termination
Session fixation
Cross-site request forgery
Cookie scope
Decode Cookie (Base64, hex, URL etc.)
Cookie expiration time
Check HTTPOnly and Secure flags
Use same cookie from a different effective IP address or system
Access controls
Effectiveness of controls using multiple accounts
Insecure access control methods (request parameters, Referer header, etc)
Check for concurrent login through different machine/IP
Bypass AntiCSRF tokens
 Weak generated security questions
Path traversal on cookies
Reuse cookie after session closed
Logout and click browser "go back" function (Alt + Left arrow)
2 instances open, 1st change or reset password, refresh 2nd instance
With privileged user perform privileged actions, try to repeat with unprivileged user
cookie.

Profile/Account details

Find parameter with user id and try to tamper in order to get the details of other users
Create a list of features that are pertaining to a user account only and try CSRF
Change email id and update with any existing email id. Check if its getting validated on
server or not.
Check any new email confirmation link and what if user doesn't confirm.
File upload: eicar, No Size Limit, File extension, Filter Bypass, burp extension, RCE
CSV import/export: Command Injection, XSS, macro injection
Check profile picture URL and find email id/user info or EXIF Geolocation Data
Imagetragick in picture profile upload
Metadata of all downloadable files (Geolocation, usernames)
Account deletion option and try to reactivate with "Forgot password" feature
Try bruteforce enumeration when change any user unique parameter.
Check application request re-authentication for sensitive operations
Try parameter pollution to add two values of same field
Check different roles policy

Forgot/reset password

Invalidate session on Logout and Password reset

Uniqueness of forget password reset link/code
Reset links expiration time
Find user id or other sensitive fields in reset link and tamper them
Request 2 reset passwords links and use the older
Check if many requests have sequential tokens
Use username@burp_collab.net and analyze the callback
Host header injection for token leakage
 Add X-Forwarded-Host: evil.com to receive the reset link with evil.com
Email crafting like [email protected]@target.com
IDOR in reset link
Capture reset token and use with other email/userID
No TLD in email parameter
User carbon copy [email protected]%0a%0dcc:[email protected]
Long password (>200) leads to DoS
No rate limit, capture request and send over 1000 times
Check encryption in reset password token
Token leak in referer header
Append second email param and value
Understand how token is generated (timestamp, username, birthdate,...)
Response manipulation

Input handling

Fuzz all request parameters (if got user, add headers to fuzzer)
Identify all reflected data
Reflected XSS
HTTP header injection in GET & POST (X Forwarded Host)
RCE via Referer Header
SQL injection via User-Agent Header
Arbitrary redirection
Stored attacks
OS command injection
Path traversal, LFI and RFI
Script injection
File inclusion
SMTP injection
Native software flaws (buffer overflow, integer bugs, format strings)
SOAP injection
LDAP injection
SSI Injection
XPath injection
XXE in any request, change content-type to text/xml
 Stored XSS
SQL injection with ' and '--+-
NoSQL injection
HTTP Request Smuggling
Open redirect
Code Injection (<h1>six2dez</h1> on stored param)
SSRF in previously discovered open ports
xmlrpc.php DOS and user enumeration
HTTP dangerous methods OPTIONS PUT DELETE
Try to discover hidden parameters (arjun or parameth)

Error handling

Access custom pages like /whatever_fake.php (.aspx,.html,.etc)

Add multiple parameters in GET and POST request using different values
Add "[]", "]]", and "[[" in cookie values and parameter values to create errors
Generate error by giving input as "/~randomthing/%s" at the end of URL
Use Burp Intruder "Fuzzing Full" List in input to generate error codes
Try different HTTP Verbs like PATCH, DEBUG or wrong like FAKE

Application Logic

Identify the logic attack surface

Test transmission of data via the client
Test for reliance on client-side input validation
Thick-client components (Java, ActiveX, Flash)
Multi-stage processes for logic flaws
Handling of incomplete input
Trust boundaries
Transaction logic
Implemented CAPTCHA in email forms to avoid flooding
Tamper product id, price or quantity value in any action (add, modify, delete, place,
pay...)
Tamper gift or discount codes
Reuse gift codes
 Try parameter pollution to use gift code two times in same request
Try stored XSS in non-limited fields like address
Check in payment form if CVV and card number is in clear text or masked
Check if is processed by the app itself or sent to 3rd parts
IDOR from other users details ticket/cart/shipment
Check for test credit card number allowed like 4111 1111 1111 1111 (sample1
sample2)
Check PRINT or PDF creation for IDOR
Check unsubscribe button with user enumeration
Parameter pollution on social media sharing links
Change POST sensitive requests to GET

Other checks

Infrastructure

Segregation in shared infrastructures

Segregation between ASP-hosted applications
Web server vulnerabilities
Dangerous HTTP methods
Proxy functionality
Virtual hosting misconfiguration (VHostScan)
Check for internal numeric IP's in request
Check for external numeric IP's and resolve it
Test cloud storage
Check the existence of alternative channels (www.web.com vs m.web.com)

CAPTCHA

Send old captcha value.

Send old captcha value with old session ID.
Request captcha absolute path like www.url.com/captcha/1.png
Remove captcha with any adblocker and request again
Bypass with OCR tool (easy one)
 Change from POST to GET
Remove captcha parameter
Convert JSON request to normal
Try header injections

Security Headers

X-XSS-Protection
Strict-Transport-Security
Content-Security-Policy
Public-Key-Pins
X-Frame-Options
X-Content-Type-Options
Referer-Policy
Cache-Control
Expires