Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

Getting Started With DAST: A Beginners Guide To Dynamic App Security Testing

By Read Dive 15 mins ago
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Dynamic application security testing is the practice of testing a web application from the front end in order to find vulnerabilities through simulated attacks. This method, by attacking an application like a malicious user would, tests the program from the “outside in.” After the attacks are performed, a DAST scanner looks for results not found in the expected result set and finds security weaknesses.

Benefits of DAST

 It can identify vulnerabilities that might be exploited instantly and doesn’t require access to the source code, regardless of the application.

Drawbacks of DAST

  • Requires security expertise to comprehend findings;
    • Does not pinpoint the precise position of a code vulnerability;
     • Tests can take a long time.

What is The Significance of DAST?

This is important because, with DAST, developers are in a position to create applications without relying on their own skills. Vulnerabilities can be found in an application before it hits the marketplace during the SDLC by doing DAST. The app is released as is if those vulnerabilities are not attended to, and there might be a data breach that may cause severe financial loss and reputational damage to your company. At some stage in the software development life cycle, human error will occur. The earlier a vulnerability is discovered during the SDLC the less expensive it is to fix.

The terms “Secure DevOps” or “DevSecOps” have recently gained usage in relation to DAST’s integration into the CI/CD pipeline.

How Does DAST Operate?

Whenever it finds vulnerabilities with an application already running, the DAST scanner automatically alerts the user regarding any that might lead to attacks including SQL injections and cross-site Scripting (XSS), amongst others. Runtime issues that cannot be detected by SAST are discovered by DAST tools since they are designed in a dynamic environment.

A DAST scanner is like a security guard of a building. This security guard, however, goes one step ahead of the security guard in that he literally tries to break the building physically rather than ensuring that the doors and windows are locked. He may try to shatter windows or pick the locks on the doors. He can return from the building management after conducting this test and give them a detailed account of how he was able to access the building. Similarly, a DAST scanner actively searches for vulnerabilities in an operational environment so that the DevOps team is aware of where and how they need to remediate them.

How To Differentiate Between SAST and DAST?

DAST attacks a program from the “outside-in” by simulating an attack against an application as a malicious user would. An attacker conducts various attacks and then a DAST scanner scans the output that is found not to belong in the expected result set to identify security flaws.

While SAST monitors static environments like source code, it hunts for code flaws from the “inside out” by inspecting the application.

It’s always a best practice to use SAST along with DAST for an even stronger security posture. This unifying taxonomy in testing techniques gives you a comprehensive picture of vulnerabilities.

Conclusion

A good security application solution that can help identify specific vulnerabilities in web applications while they are running in production would be a dynamic analysis security testing tool, otherwise known as a DAST test.

Because such a test is done without access to the internal source code or application architecture, a DAST test is often simply known as a “black box” test. It’s actually using exactly the same techniques an attacker would to find potential vulnerabilities.

It can detect so many vulnerabilities like input/output validation problems capable of exposing an application to SQL injection or cross-site scripting. It can facilitate the identification of configuration faults or blunders and other particular application issues.

Though the DAST test is a crucial part of application security testing, it is incapable of giving a holistic view of the applications’ vulnerabilities. To produce holistic application security, black box testing needs to be used along with white box testing and other state-of-the-art methods.

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