Security testing

Security Testing

Table of Contents

• Overview
• When to Use
• Quick Start
• Reference Guides
• Best Practices

Overview

Security testing identifies vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and threats in applications to ensure data protection, prevent unauthorized access, and maintain system integrity. It combines automated scanning (SAST, DAST) with manual penetration testing and code review.

When to Use

• Testing for OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities
• Scanning dependencies for known vulnerabilities
• Testing authentication and authorization
• Validating input sanitization
• Testing API security
• Checking for sensitive data exposure
• Validating security headers
• Testing session management

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

# security_scan.py
from zapv2 import ZAPv2
import time

class SecurityScanner:
    def __init__(self, target_url, api_key=None):
        self.zap = ZAPv2(apikey=api_key, proxies={
            'http': 'http://localhost:8080',
            'https': 'http://localhost:8080'
        })
        self.target = target_url

    def scan(self):
        """Run full security scan."""
        print(f"Scanning {self.target}...")

        # Spider the application
        print("Spidering...")
        scan_id = self.zap.spider.scan(self.target)
        while int(self.zap.spider.status(scan_id)) < 100:
            time.sleep(2)
            print(f"Spider progress: {self.zap.spider.status(scan_id)}%")

        # Active scan
        print("Running active scan...")
// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:

Guide	Contents
OWASP ZAP (DAST)	OWASP ZAP (DAST)
SQL Injection Testing	SQL Injection Testing
XSS Testing	XSS Testing
Authentication & Authorization Testing	Authentication & Authorization Testing
CSRF Protection Testing	CSRF Protection Testing
Dependency Vulnerability Scanning	Dependency Vulnerability Scanning
Security Headers Testing	Security Headers Testing
Secrets Detection	Secrets Detection

Best Practices

✅ DO

• Run security scans in CI/CD
• Test with real attack vectors
• Scan dependencies regularly
• Use security headers
• Implement rate limiting
• Validate and sanitize all input
• Use parameterized queries
• Test authentication/authorization thoroughly

❌ DON'T

• Store secrets in code
• Trust user input
• Expose detailed error messages
• Skip dependency updates
• Use default credentials
• Ignore security warnings
• Test only happy paths
• Commit sensitive data