Nice question!
Before discussing the tools that are used for software security testing, Donāt you think!!!.. Firstly, we should know āWhat exactly the Software Security Testing is and why we need to do it?ā Right!
So, letās start!!!
Software security testing is performed in software testing services company to ensure that software systems and applications are free from any vulnerabilities, threats, and risks that may cause these tremendous losses.
Security testing of any system is about finding all possible loopholes and weaknesses of the system which might result in a loss of information, revenue, and reputation caused by employees or malicious external hackers.
With the information provided from testing, development teams can fix any vulnerabilities before malicious hackers exploit them.
The following are the critical areas that are covered by Security testing:-
- Confidentiality
- Authentication
- Authorization
- Integrity
- Non-repudiation
- Availability
Now, our next question is "Why we need to do Software Security Testing?"
Here, is an answer to your question:
-The primary purpose of security testing is to identify the security leakage and fix it in the initial stage itself. This helps to rate the stability of the current system and also helps to stand in the market for a longer time.
Security testing helps to avoid the following:
- Loss of important information.
- Loss of customerās trust.
- Inconsistent website performance.
- Unexpected breakdown.
- Additional costs required for repairing websites after an attack.
- Information theft by an unauthorized user.
Finally, we have reached the last and the most important question " Which tools are used for software security testing?"
The following are some widely recommended tools used for software security testing:
1. SonarQube
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It is an open-source tool that is used to measure the quality of source code.
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Though written in Java, it can analyze over twenty different programming languages. It can easily integrate with continuous integration tools like Jenkins server, etc. The results will be populated to the SonarQube server with āgreenā and āred lightsā.
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Nice charts and project level issue lists can be viewed. We can invoke it from the GUI as well as the command prompt.
2. Klocwork
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It is a code analysis tool that is used to identify a security, safety, and reliability issues of the programming languages like C, C++, Java, and C#.
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We can easily integrate it with continuous integration tools like Jenkins and can also raise bugs in Jira upon encountering new issues.
3. NetSparker
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Netsparker has out-of-the-box support for several popular issue tracking, CI/CD, and other services used in development environments. Though if you use a system for which Netsparker does not have out of the box support you can always use the REST API.
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It works with Proof-Based Scanning, an exclusive technology that automatically verifies identified vulnerabilities, proving they are and not false positives.
4. Nmap
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In addition to the classic command-line Nmap executable, the Nmap suite includes an advanced GUI and results in the viewer (Zenmap), a flexible data transfer, redirection, and debugging tool (Ncat), a utility for comparing scan results (Ndiff), and a packet generation and response analysis tool (Nping).
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Nmap has been used to scan huge networks of hundreds of thousands of machines.
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Significant effort has been put into comprehensive resources for it such as whitepapers, tutorials, and even a book. You can find them in multiple languages.
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Itās well supported by a vibrant community of developers and users. Most of this interaction occurs on the Nmap mailing lists. You can also find Nmap on Facebook and Twitter.
5. OWASP Zed Attack Proxy
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Itās designed to be used by both beginners and professionals.
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Cross-platform ā works across all OS (Linux, Mac, Windows).
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ZAP provides automated scanners as well as a set of tools that allow you to find security vulnerabilities manually.
6. Sboxr
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Sboxr finds issues by just browsing through your site, thereās almost no learning curve.
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The creators of Sboxr will help you in understanding, validating or remediating issues through its professional support.
7. VAddy
8. Burp Suite
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The decoder tool in Burp Suite does the job of encoding and decoding data. A web application penetration tester needs to be able to understand the type of encoding that has been applied and then successfully decode the piece of data.
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Comparer tool: Useful for when you want to see how different values for parameters and headers enable subtle changes in the responses that you receive. It allows you to see how the application reacts to a valid user, invalid password combination compared to an invalid user, and invalid password combination.
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When you might be working on multiple projects for a client, the ability to Save State and Restore State comes in handy.
9. Acunetix
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With this tool, itās possible to easily find and report many types of web weaknesses such as SQL injection, blind SQL injection, cross-site scripting, CRLF injection, code execution, directory traversal, file inclusion, and authentication bypass.
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Detailed penetration scenarios can be performed with Acunetixās HTTP Editor, HTTP Sniffer, HTTP Fuzzer, WVS Scripting Tool, and Blind SQL Injector tools for advanced penetration testing processes.
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With the support of captcha, single sign-on and two-factor authentication, Acunetix can adapt to any kind of Web application.
Conclusion:
Software testing tools are pivotal in a software testing services companyās business strategy. To overlook system and information security is akin to business suicide. As crucial as software testing is, and as useful as software testing tools are, the implementation process is highly customized to suit the need of the business.
For this reason, it is important to have a trusted software security testing vendor.