The Complete WebApp Pentesting Checklist

2 min Read

Proper planning is one of the most important aspects of ensuring the best value for your company's web app penetration testing. Creating a plan to achieve those goals becomes easier when you can articulate exactly what you want to gain from your penetration testing. This method is commonly referred to as the 'Outcome-Based Approach.'

WebApp pentesting checklist

 

Whatever your organization's goal is for planning a Web Application Pentest, following this checklist of questions that must be answered before beginning can help alleviate some of the difficulties involved.

 

What is your organization’s objective of getting a PenTest done?

  • Gaining customers' trust by implementing proactive security measures based on an assessment of the organization's current situation.
  • Administrative or industry-level standards
  • Security posture evaluation and management
  • Management of the Attack Surface
  • DevSecOps

 

What is the Scope?

  • Which environment will the pentest take place in, staging or production?
  • Are you looking for WhiteBox, GreyBox, or BlackBox testing?

 

What is the best time to schedule your pentest?

  • How frequently should I perform a Pentest?

  • What sets off a pentesting activity?

 

 

What is your organization’s objective of getting a PenTest done?

A thorough understanding of what is expected from the pentest will put you on the right track to moving deeper into the planning phase.

There are numerous reasons why organizations consider Web Application Pentesting, such as a proactive security posture or when it is required for vendor assessments or client requests.

 

What is the Scope?

There are several things to consider when planning a Web Application Penetration test. The first step is to agree on what needs to be tested; it is common for businesses to struggle with identifying the scope of testing due to the numerous variables involved. However, the scope should be determined by the pentest's objective.

For example, if you've made significant changes to an application, it's best if the company tests those changes or additions to see if they've introduced any vulnerabilities.

Another decision on the scope is whether to conduct a White Box, Grey Box, or Black Box pentest. Giving your testers the correct information is critical to ensuring that the pentest results meet the objectives and requirements.

 

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What is the best time to schedule your pentest?

Every application will experience peak business times with increased traffic. It goes without saying that peak business hours are not the best times to plan a pentest.

The best way to work around those times is to monitor traffic trends over time to ensure that pen-testers can work at the least busy and disturbing times to avoid any temporary adverse effects.

Plan your pentests after any major updates or changes to the code or structure to get the best results from your web app pentest. It is also critical to conduct periodic assessments in order to maximize the value of your pentest.

 

What is your remediation plan?

After receiving your Web App Penetration Test results and having a thorough understanding of the vulnerabilities discovered —particularly any critical, high, and medium ones— after talking to the Siemba team,  you should immediately begin working on your remediation plan and efforts.

Depending on the goal of the pentest, it may be beneficial to concentrate on specific types of vulnerabilities that are closely related to the individual functions or bits of information that aid in achieving that goal.

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Nithin Thomas

Head of Strategic Initiatives

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