Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing of Web Application
Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing of Web Application
Web Application
Abstract— As Internet usage is rising day by day security has loopholes and create an evidence of the test. It is also checked
become a vital facet to the Internet world. Security of the website if there are more underlying vulnerabilities which are exposed
in today’s world is very important. Vulnerability Assessment and as a side effect of the exploitation, and if those could further
Penetration Testing are two different vulnerability testing. These be exploited. Open Web Application Security Project
tests have different strengths and are frequently combined to get
(OWASP) Top 10 consists of various attacks to which web
a more complete vulnerability analysis. Penetration Testing and
Vulnerability Assessments execute two different tasks, usually applications are vulnerable [3]. The major impact of attacks is
with distinctive outcomes, within the same area of application. a data loss or financial loss or reputation loss.
For any organization, proper working of security arrangement is There are manual and automated methods to perform the
checked by Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing. security assessments of a web application. In automation
Web applications vulnerable to attacks like Session exploitation, method, there are lot of penetration testing tools, which are
Cross-Site Scripting, SQL injection, Cross Site Request Forgery, available either as open source or as a commercial product
Buffer over Flows, and Security Misconfiguration etc. are with different functionalities and applicability. Now the
described in Open Web Application Security Project Top 10. The problem is to choose one the best vulnerability assessment
manual penetration test or automatically penetration test can be
tool. The answer is none of the tools are entirely complete in
done, which depends upon vulnerabilities. Comparison is made
between these two tests. nature to identify the security risks in a web application [3].
In this paper, we provide a comparative and collective
Keywords— Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration testing analysis of the web application vulnerability assessment and
(VAPT), Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), SQL Injection (SQLi), Cross penetration testing methods. Section II provides the proposed
Site Request Forgery (CSRF), Open Web Application Security work associated with the web application vulnerability
Project (OWASP). assessments. Section III provides testing methods for
vulnerability assessment and penetration testing of a web
I. INTRODUCTION application. In section III, we also provide some of the
parameters, which can help a security tester to select a set of
In most recent years, web hacking activities have been appropriate vulnerability assessment tools, along with a
used excessively in internet applications. The main target of comparative analysis of the vulnerability assessment tools that
attackers would be web applications. Security of the website are available in the market. Section IV provides which testing
in recent years is very important because now all the events method is most appropriate to provide a comprehensive
like communication, sharing the resources, social networking, security analysis of a web application. Section V provides
e-governing, online banking, e-commerce, payment of utilities related work associated with the web application vulnerability
bills etc. through the Internet [1]. In web applications, security assessments and penetration testing. Finally, a section VI and
vulnerabilities may result in breach of data integrity, stealing VII concludes with an effective approach towards
of confidential data or affect web application availability. vulnerability assessment and penetration testing tests.
Thus the job of securing web applications is one of the most
crucial. II.WEB APPLICATION VULNERABILITIES
The security of web applications from cyber threats Vulnerability is a flaw which allows an attacker to
involves very substantial challenges since security issues decrease system's information guarantee. Vulnerability
cannot be compromised. Security loopholes are observed by Assessment is a method which tests the security of interactive
Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing techniques applications such as e-banking, news broadcast and e-
[2]. Vulnerability assessment is a method where penetration commerce web applications.
tester scans a website loophole. After scanning, the next step Web application penetration testing involves techniques
is to find vulnerabilities which are the inherent security leading to identification of potential vulnerabilities, which
loopholes within the web application. In Penetration testing, may compromise the web applications. Web Application
penetration tester actually performs actions to exploit those
2017 Third International Conference on Computing, Communication, Control And Automation (ICCUBEA)
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2. Horizontal Privilege Escalation: In Horizontal bypass an attacker can forge the request and response, and get
Privilege Escalation, normal user receives the privileges of in without knowing user id or password [6].
other normal user.
J. Cross Site Request Forgery:
E. Browser Replay Attack: Cross site request forgery is a fake request came from the
In web application, the websites usually generate a cross site. Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability is
session cookie and unique session ID for each valid session. possible as the attacker can mount any of the actions that can
These cookies contain sensitive data like username, password be done by the user such as creating user/entries, modifying /
etc. When the session is ended either by logout or browser deleting data. This is possible because there is no client level
closed shortly, these cookies should be invalidated. That components that can help server differentiate between a
means for each session there should be a new cookie. If the legitimate and illegitimate request.
cookies are not invalidated, the sensitive data will exist/stored
in the system. For example, to expose an attacker, a user will K. File Upload:
proceeds with a public computer (Cyber Cafe) and the cookies Vulnerable File upload functionality is found because file
of the vulnerable site sits on the system. An attacker customs extension is not being parsed for malicious intents on the
the similar public computer, after some time the sensitive data server's and client's side. Uploaded files represent a significant
is compromised. risk to applications. Any attacker wants to find a way to get a
code onto a target system, and then looks for a way to execute
F. Insufficient Session Expiration: that code. Unrestricted file upload vulnerabilities can allow
Insufficient session expiration consists of some weak missing proper validation of file name, file content and size.
point. It is a consequence of poorly implemented session
management. Due to this limitation attackers can stand up on L. Clickjacking:
design and implementation levels to gain unauthorized access Clickjacking is a vulnerability in which malicious code is
to the particular application. Web developers are generally hidden behind the legitimate button or other clickable content
depends on either on server tokens or generate session on a website. Consider example of Clickjacking as shown in
identifiers within the application, while handling sessions. Fig 2. A User can trick into clicking LIKE button, on
Each session should be expired, when user hits the log off attacker’s website when user visits attackers.com. Button
button or after a certain period of time. visual integrity is claim your free iPad instead of LIKE button
which is hidden behind claim your free iPad button. When
G. Session Fixation: user clicks on button, one LIKE is going on Facebook for
Session Fixation is an attack that allows an attacker to links or images.
hijack a valid user session. The attacker has to establish a
legitimate connection with the web server which issues a
session ID or, the attacker can create a new session with the
proposed session ID, then, the attacker has to send a link with
the established session ID to the victim, she has to click on the
link sent from the attacker accessing the site, the Web Server
saw that session was already established and a new one need
not to be created, the victim provides his credentials to the
Web Server, knowing the session ID, the attacker can access
the user's account. Fig. 2. Clickjacking
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A. Manual Testing: address "local host" and port "8080" by default, but this can be
Some vulnerability is difficult to find using automated improved via the "Options" screen within the program.
tools. That vulnerability can be identified by manual scan Secondly, configure the browser to use the Burp Proxy listener
only. Web applications based on, their skills and knowledge of as its HTTP proxy server. To use Burp proxy, change
system, so that penetration testers can perform better attacks browser's proxy settings by using the proxy host address (by
for it. Only humans can perform these methods like social default, 127.0.0.1) and port (by default, 8080) for both HTTP
engineering. Manual testing includes design, business logic as and HTTPS protocols, with no exceptions.
well as code verification. This technique is used by hackers to Burp Scanner is used to find the security vulnerabilities
hack website or web application so that access can be gained automatically in web applications. Passive scanning mode
[6, 8]. analyzes the contents of existing requests and responses, and
deduces vulnerabilities from those. In active scanning mode,
B. Automation Testing: burpsuit sends various created requests to the application, and
There are a wide variety of tools that are used in analyzes the responses to collect the proof of vulnerabilities
vulnerability assessment and penetration testing. Web [9].
applications are scanned by various softwares such as
Acunetix, OWASP ZAP, Burpsuit, etc. Many companies used 3. OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP):
these tools to scan their products. It automatically shows The OWASP Zed Attack Proxy Tool (or ZAP) is a pen
various weaknesses. testing and proxy tool. ZAP needs to setup the browser's proxy
Automated testing is the technique which uses the manually. The purpose of this tool is to allow developers to
software that scans each page of web application. After this test the steadiness and security of their website or application.
scanning a report is generated containing risks and methods to ZAP has a functionality to quickly attack a website with just a
resolve them [6]. click of a button. Once the URL is entered and the user clicks
on "Attack" button, the program will actively attack the
1. Acunetix: website and report a list of problems that the website has.
Any of the web applications must be secured. In any OWASP ZAP allows generating the reports of scan results in a
technology based organization, their priority is highest. All the HTML, XML format. ZAP uses the address "local host" and
vulnerabilities for web application are discovered by port "8080" by default, but this can be changed via the
Acunetix. In order to work any application accurately, it must "Options Local Proxy" screen within the program. Check the
be highly secured. Hence Acunetix helps in security of any browser’s proxy settings, and ZAP’s proxy settings [10].
web application. “Acunetix web vulnerability scanner” is one
of the highly secured testing tools which find all the Comparative analysis of different Automation Tools as shown
vulnerabilities of the system. Different types of vulnerabilities in TABLE I:
are varieties SQL injections and cross site scripting which can
be found in a system. TABLE I. COMPARISON BETWEEN AUTOMATION TOOLS
FeaturesÈ/ OWASP
Following are the steps for “Acunetix web vulnerability ToolsÆ Burpsuit Acunetix ZAP
scanner”: Vulnerability
• Analysis of website: Acunetix Deep Scan scanner scans Assessment 9 9 9
website which displays website related links and pages. All
Penetration Testing 9
the information is obtained about the web application.
Manual Testing 9 9
• Enabling the sensor called Acunetix Acu in scanner Passive Scan 9 9
provides directories and files of the web application. Active Scan 9 9 9
• Displaying the possible vulnerabilities of web application. Login Sequence 9
• After the completion of the scan, the results of scan are Availability Free/Paid Paid Free/Paid
saved in a document. The Reporter allows generating reports
of scan results in a printable format [6]. IV.MANUAL VS AUTOMATION TESTING
There are multiple tools available in market, to make
2. Burp Suit: tester's life easy. While these automations are an important,
Burp suite is a grouping of various tools that place there are few holes that a tester should be aware of, and this is
together to work in an passive/active mode, this support the especially true in case cyber security vulnerability assessment
penetration tester in the whole testing process, from the and penetration testing.
planning phase to identifying vulnerabilities and exploiting
these vulnerabilities [9]. Burp-Proxy can work like the man- Vulnerability assessment is a method where an ethical
in-the-middle attack vector due to interruption in the traffic hacker scans website loopholes. After scanning, the next step
is to find vulnerabilities which are the integral security
among the browser and target application. Burp-suit needs to
loopholes within the website or application. Penetration
be manually setup as the browser's proxy. Burp-suit uses the
testing is a process in which the ethical hacker actually
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performs actions to exploit those loopholes and create an can be low, medium, and high depending upon how deep to
evidence of the test. It is also tested if there are more manipulate the parameter of the web application. In the second
underlying vulnerabilities which are exposed as a side effect phase, web application securities issues can be analyzed using
of the exploitation, and if those could further be exploited [3]. backtrack. Backtrack is an adaptable functional system that
derives with number of security assessment and penetration
It becomes very clear that Vulnerability assessment can be testing tools.
automated but the Penetration testing cannot. The subtle
reason behind this is based on how human mind works in each In 2015, Rohan Vibhandik, Arijit Kumar Bose [3] have
case. To exploit vulnerability, there is need of cascaded proposed a new testing approach for vulnerability assessment
intelligence to perform an action. Penetration tester need to of web applications by means of analyzing and using a
take next steps based on the results of the first action. Then combined set of tools to address a wide range of security
each and every application or website is different so need to issues. Their Technique demonstrates the vulnerability
use different tools which do perform these tests to some assessment tests of a web application by using combination of
extent. W3AF and Nikto tools. It shows how with a combination of
tools, one can increase the vulnerability testing coverage for
In example of net banking website with a page where user web applications, considering the OWASP Top 10 [1] based
transfers money to another’s account. This page can be
threat modeling of web applications.
vulnerable to Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack.
Attacker can create a fake request and submit the form on In 2015, Insha Altaf, Jawad Ahmad Da [6] studied the
behalf of the user. One of the techniques to fix this problem is possible vulnerabilities for any web application and suggested
to have a CSRF token as a hidden factor on the page. Now the the removing techniques. Instead of using manual testing
problem is vulnerability assessment tool can only check the automated testing were used so that correctness and exactness
presence of this token and if present, it can pass that test can be improved. In addition to this, they also tried SQL
successfully. Regrettably this is not true. The actual test is not injection methods. “Acunetix web vulnerability scanner” is
only check the presence of token but also performs series of used to carry all the vulnerabilities. While testing, an attempt
intellectual tests to validate the token at properly on the server is made by programmers or hackers to find vulnerabilities of
side. Thus it can prevent fake submissions. the system. The vulnerable site is patched by using different
injection techniques such as union based injection,
authentication bypass and blind SQL techniques.
In 2016, Prashant S. Shinde, Shrikant B. Ardhapurkar [2]
have proposed a Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration
Testing (VAPT) techniques which helps to assess the
usefulness and uselessness of the security measures of web
application to stay protected against the rising Cyber threats.
For any organization, proper working of security arrangement
is checked by VAPT. VAPT exploits the number of
vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attack, cross site request
forgery attack, Cross Site Scripting attack, input validation
URL (Uniform Resource Allocator) etc., in web application.
Fig. 3. Manual vs. Automation Testing
In 2016, Tanjila Farah, et.al [5] proposed the black-box
Fig.3 shows the analysis of net banking application. As testing methodology to implement and test XSS and CSRF
shown in Fig.3 there are lots of attacks like Authentication attacks. This methodology gets nearly 30% of the web
bypass, Cross Site Request Forgery, Session exploitation etc., applications are vulnerable to XSS and CSRF attacks. While
proved that automated vulnerability assessment is like using black-box testing approach, executing XSS and CSRF
swimming and being afloat, while manual vulnerability attacks takes time. This is an on-going assessment. Since
assessment is analogues to scuba diving, where different world decade they have assessed the XSS and CSRF vulnerability of
500 web applications in Bangladesh. All testing are done
altogether. Automated testing couldn’t find these
manually. Their focus would be on XSS and CSRF
vulnerabilities in net banking application. Manual
vulnerabilities due to their high ranking on the OWASP list.
vulnerability assessment finds all possible vulnerabilities
present in the web application but automated vulnerability
assessment tools fail to find all vulnerabilities. VI.RESULT
We performed manual penetration testing and automation
V.RELATED WORK penetration testing on two web applications.
In 2014, Khushal Singh, Vikas [1] have assisted the 1. E-Commerce Application
technique which detect all session checks and itemized 2. Cloud Application
number of analyses to evaluate performances of these session
exploitation detection techniques. They considered the session During our penetration testing we used open source and
exploitation mechanism in detail along with the prevention commercial Web penetration tools to test known number of
tactics and risk factor. The risk of web application checkpoint vulnerabilities in Web applications.
2017 Third International Conference on Computing, Communication, Control And Automation (ICCUBEA)
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We used the following tools in automated penetration testing, is 100%. Automated VAPT tools do not provide 100%
as shown in TABLE II: accuracy.
2017 Third International Conference on Computing, Communication, Control And Automation (ICCUBEA)
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