Now and then, there is always some news regarding a website being hacked or a data breach. Just like the digital universe, hacking tactic and tools have also become more advanced and also threatening.
Better late than sorry! It’s essential to keep your website or web applications foolproof against malicious activities. It would help if you used some security testing tools to measure and identify the extent of all kind of security issues with your web application(s).
The essential function of penetration testing is to perform functional security testing of a web application under observance and find as many security issues as possible that could potentially lead to hacking. Everything is done without accessing the source code.
Before delving into some of the best open-source security testing tools to test your web application, let’s first acquaint ourselves with the definition, intent, and need for security testing.
Security Testing
The Definition: To assure that data within some information system stays secure, safe and not accessible by unapproved users, we use security testing (Penetration test). Successful penetration testing protects web applications against severe malware and other malicious threats that might lead them to crash or give out unexpected behaviour.
Penetration test helps in figuring out various loopholes and flaws of a web application in the initial stage. Additionally, it also helps in testing whether an application has successfully encoded security code or not. Primary areas covered by security testing are:
- Authentication
- Authorisation
- Availability
- Confidentiality
- Integrity
- Non-repudiation
Intent: Organisations and professionals use security testing throughout the world to ensure their software, web applications, and information systems remain fully secure. The primary purposes of deploying penetration testing are:
- To help improve the security and life-span of a product
- To rate the stability in the present state
- To identify as well as fix numerous security issues in the initial stage of development
The Need: Why do we need security testing? There are several reasons, ranging from analysing the degree of security to preventing unexpected breakdowns in the future. Some of the fundamental reasons are:
- Avert inconsistent performance
- Avoid losing customer trust
- Save extra costs required for fixing security issues
- Prevent information theft by unidentified users
- Avoid losing essential data in the form of security leaks
- Save from unexpected breakdown
There are various free, open-source, and paid tools available to check the vulnerabilities and flaws in your web applications. The best thing about open-source tools, free, is that you can customise them to match your particular requirements.
So, here is the list of 10 open source security testing tools for checking how secure your website or web application is:
Top 10 Open Source Security Testing Tools
1. Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP)
Developed by OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project), ZAP or Zed Attack Proxy is a multi-platform, open-source web application security testing tool. ZAP is used for finding a number of security vulnerabilities in a web app during the development as well as the testing phase.
Thanks to its intuitive GUI, Zed Attach Proxy can be used with equal ease by newbies as that by experts. The security testing tool supports command-line access for advanced users. In addition to being one of the most famous OWASP projects, it is awarded the flagship status. ZAP is written in Java.
Other than its use as a scanner, ZAP can also be used to intercept a proxy for manually testing a webpage. ZAP exposes:
- Cookie not HttpOnly flag
- Application error disclosure
- Private IP disclosure
- Missing anti-CSRF tokens and security headers
- Session ID in URL rewrite
- XSS injection
- SQL injection
Key highlights:
- Easy to use
- Automatic scanning
- Rest-based API
- Multi-platform
- Uses traditional and powerful AJAX spiders
- Support for authentication
Download the Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) source code.
2. Wfuzz
Developed in Python, Wfuzz is popularly used for brute-forcing web applications. The open-source security testing tool has no GUI interface and is usable only via command line. Vulnerabilities exposed by Wfuzz are:
- XSS injection
- LDAP injection
- SQL injection
Key highlights:
- Multi-threading
- Authentication support
- Cookies fuzzing
- Support for proxy and SOCK
- Multiple injection points
Download Wfuzz source code.
3. Wapiti
One of the leading web application security testing tools, Wapiti is a free of cost, open source project from SourceForge and devloop. In order to check web applications for security vulnerabilities, Wapiti performs black box testing.
As it is a command-line application, it is important to have a knowledge of various commands used by Wapiti. Wapiti is easy to use for the seasoned but testing for newcomers. But don’t worry, you can find all the Wapiti instructions on the official documentation.
For checking whether a script is vulnerable or not, Wapiti injects payloads. The open source security testing tool provides support for both GET and POSTHTTP attack methods. Vulnerabilities exposed by Wapiti are:
- CRLF injection
- Database injection
- Command Execution detection
- File disclosure
- Shellshock or Bash bug
- SSRF (Server Side Request Forgery)
- Weak .htaccess configurations that can be bypassed
- XXE injection
- XSS injection
Key highlights:
- Allows authentication via different methods, including Kerberos and NTLM
- Comes with a buster module, allowing brute force directories and files names on the targeted web server
- Operates like a fuzzer
- Supports both GET and POSTHTTP methods for attacks
Download Wapiti source code.
4. W3af
One of the most popular web application security testing frameworks that are also developed using Python is W3af. The tool allows testers to find over 200 types of security issues in web applications, including:
- Blind SQL injection
- Buffer overflow
- Cross-site scripting
- CSRF
- Insecure DAV configurations
Key highlights:
- Authentication support
- Easy to get started with
- Offers intuitive GUI interface
- Output can be logged into a console, a file or email
Download W3af source code.
5. SQLMap
Allowing automating the process of detecting and utilizing SQL injection vulnerability in a website’s database, SQLMap is entirely free to use. The security testing tool comes with a powerful testing engine, capable of supporting 6 types of SQL injection techniques:
- Boolean-based blind
- Error-based
- Out-of-band
- Stacked queries
- Time-based blind
- UNION query
Key highlights:
- Automates the process of finding SQL injection vulnerabilities
- Can also be used for security testing a website
- Robust detection engine
- Supports a range of databases, including MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL
Download SQLMap source code.
6. SonarQube
Another opportune open source security testing tool is SonarQube. In addition to exposing vulnerabilities, it is used to measure the source code quality of a web application. Despite being written in Java, SonarQube is able to carry out analysis of over 20 programming languages.
Furthermore, it gets easily integrated with continuous integration tools to the likes of Jenkins. Issues found by SonarQube are highlighted in either green or red light. While the former represent low-risk vulnerabilities and issues, the latter corresponds to severe ones.
For advanced users, access via command prompt is available. An interactive GUI is in place for those relatively new to testing. Some of the vulnerabilities exposed by SonarQube include:
- Cross-site scripting
- Denial of Service (DoS) attacks
- HTTP response splitting
- Memory corruption
- SQL injection
Key highlights:
- Detects tricky issues
- DevOps integration
- Set up analysis of pull requests
- Supports quality tracking of both short-lived and long-lived code branches
- Offers Quality Gate
- Visualize history of a project
Download SonarQube source code.
7. Nogotofail
A network traffic security testing tool from Google, Nogotofail is a lightweight application that is able to detect TLS/SSL vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. Vulnerabilities exposed by Nogotofail are:
- MiTM attacks
- SSL certificate verification issues
- SSL injection
- TLS injection
Key highlights:
- Easy to use
- Lightweight
- Readily deployable
- Supports setting up as a router, proxy or VPN server
Download Nogotofail source code.
8. Iron Wasp
An open-source, powerful scanning tool, Iron Wasp is able to uncover over 25 types of web application vulnerabilities. Additionally, it can also detect false positives and false negatives. Iron Wasp assists in exposing a wide variety of vulnerabilities, including:
- Broken authentication
- Cross-site scripting
- CSRF
- Hidden parameters
- Privilege escalation
Key highlights:
- Extensible via plugins or modules are written in C#, Python, Ruby, or VB.NET
- GUI-based
- Report generation in HTML and RTF formats
Download Iron Wasp source code.
9. Grabber
The portable Grabber is designed to scan small web applications, including forums and personal websites. The lightweight security testing tool has no GUI interface and is written in Python. Vulnerabilities uncovered by Grabber includes:
- Backup files verification
- Cross-site scripting
- File inclusion
- Simple AJAX verification
- SQL injection
Key highlights:
- Generates a stats analysis file
- Simple and portable
- Supports JS code analysis
Download Grabber source code.
10. Arachni
Apt for both penetration testers and admins, Arachni is designed to identify security issues within a web application. The open-source security testing tool is capable of uncovering a number of vulnerabilities, including:
- Invalidated redirect
- Local and remote file inclusion
- SQL injection
- XSS injection
Key highlights:
- Instantly deployable
- Modular, high-performance Ruby framework
- Multi-platform support
Download Arachni source code.
Conclusion
This sums up the list of top 10 open source testing tools for web applications. Which is your favourite application security testing tool?
Tell us in the comments. All the best for your Ethical Hacking journey!
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