As software is an integral part of everyone’s daily tasks, attackers tend to target renowned software for data breaches, so safeguarding them is the priority of every software development team. The foremost step in protecting a program from such attacks is rigorously testing it. Penetration testing is a traditional process to diagnose any underlying security vulnerabilities in software.
Facing a cyberattack is a terrible situation, yet a lot more common than most people think. As per the 2021 Thales Data Threat Report, nearly forty-five percent of companies in the United States faced some data breach in the previous year. It is worth noting that this number exceeds those the organizations report. Several data breaches may have happened but remained unnoticed or unreported.
In the traditional process, penetration testing is mainly the task of the testing team. However, many developers tend to question whether they should care about penetration testing or not. This article will answer that question along with detailed information on penetration testing.
What is Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing is a way of testing where the tester tries to break into the security firewalls and layers to penetrate the system, allowing them to understand any existing security vulnerability. The goal of penetration testing is to identify the weaknesses in the system that attackers can exploit.
Once identifying the security gaps, the desired team will analyze the existing scenario and build a roadmap to resolve the issues. Such issues can occur due to human errors, design flaws, user input, improper system configurations, etc.
Who Performs Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing is also a way of hacking into the system’s security, so professionals performing this testing are called ethical hackers. In most cases, these hackers have a negligible understanding of the existing security layers of the software on which they will perform testing. This is because having no prior system security information will allow them to test every aspect rigorously.
Typical Penetration Testing Process
Before moving forward on what aspects of penetration testing developers should know, it is necessary to dig into the penetration testing process. A typical pen test process involves five stages: Planning, Scanning, Accessing, Maintaining Access, and Analyzing.
- Planning is the foremost step, where the tester defines the testing scope and attains information about the security.
- Scanning is when the tester scans the entire network to identify the software’s behavior toward specific actions or threats.
- The third step is accessing, where the tester uses several pen-testing strategies to identify software security issues.
- In the maintaining access step, the tester identifies the possibilities to gain in-depth access to the software.
- Analyzing is the final step in the process where the test result report is created. This report contains information including the exploited issues, data accesses, the time consumed to break through security, and many others.
Even though penetration testing ends at this stage, it is still necessary to fix the security vulnerabilities. This is the part where developers come into play.
What do Developers think While Developing?
The commencement of the actual software development is done at the developer’s end. Even though the developers and testing team has one ultimatum; to release the software quicker, their thinking and methodologies vary.
Testers prioritize safety and code security while accomplishing their goals. On the other hand, the developers’ prime concern is creating and adding features to the application.
As the program should be ready as quickly as possible, secure coding is often left behind. In that case, developers leave the security for testers, especially penetration testers.
Developers may not know it, but they are introducing features to the application and bugs and issues. Common issues are fine as they require little time to remediate. However, such issues may become the entry point for the attackers to execute their plans.
1. Aftermath of Reporting:
The penetration testing process may end with analyzing and creating a report of the identified issues. Most pen testing teams believe their job is to identify and report the issues to the development team rather than fix them, which is mostly true.
For the developers, this report is more like telling them about their poor job while building the application. The priority is to have as many functional features as possible, and most developers are excellent at their job.
For the uninitiated developers, the penetration testing report may seem like a report card with negative grades which can be highly demotivating. Such stances may not help fix the issues and can even impact the overall issue fixing and building of apps in the future.
Experienced developers know that pen testing is focused on the security of the application rather than functionality, while development is its obverse. Developers understand their goal is to create stable and feature-rich software, leaving security to the other teams.
Once the development is complete, it is sent for testing. While the software is tested, the developers may move toward other projects. Sometimes, the report may include issues they cannot fix, which can be a problem for the developers.
2.Issue with Scanners:
Using static analysis scanning tools (SAST) is the primary action in testing the application’s security. Though they are mostly accurate in finding issues, there are stances of false reporting. Reporting issues that do not even exist will consume more time and effort.
Testing is a sluggish process, and false positives may require manual code review, requiring even more time to complete.
Testers follow specific custom rules depending on the project to ensure that the pen testing report is free from any false positives. Even after all the efforts, false positives can still slide into the final report, which may become additional work for the developer to fix.
3.Developer’s Philosophy about Pen Testers:
Often when a pen testing report is handed to the development team, they believe they are criticizing their development work. Furthermore, they can also think that pen testers may be mad at their unsafe coding practices.
Sometimes, the team may also think that testers are over-testing the application or nitpicking the issues to create additional work for the developers.
The reality of pen testing teams is that neither they are nitpickers nor want to criticize the development team\’s work. They are here to do their job: test prioritized areas. These areas are decided either by the entire team or by senior leaders.
With that in mind, instead of thinking about the former, the development teams should focus on fixing the issues, even if any other team caused it, so the software can be pushed to release quickly.
Best Development Practices for Penetration Testing
Without a doubt, penetration testing is the developer’s job, but they are the ones causing the issues in the first place. Considering that fact, taking certain measures by the developers to help penetration testing can be the right way. Here are the best practices that developers should follow.
1. Remain on the Same Page as Testing Team:
Many developments and penetration testing teams think they should focus on their individual priorities, adding features and security. This approach will not help them in penetration testing or issue fixing. Instead, both teams should remain on the same page while working so that development, testing, and issue fixing can be done smoothly.
2. Implement Security Practices:
While building software, developers tend to ignore certain security practices to build software quickly. Due to this, the testing team may find some common issues. Fixing such issues is easy, but they consume additional time and effort. With that in mind, ignoring security practices initially will require more time. The best practice here is to implement some security in the development process, like using secure code, reviewing code in every development phase, having a secure development policy, and following the right SOPs.
3. Think Security from the Beginning:
Developers may think that security is not their task, but it makes the job of other teams easier. One of the best practices that developers can adopt while building an application is to think about security from the beginning. The key is integrating security into every development phase to get embedded in the development culture.
4. Collaboration:
Secure software is only possible when different teams come together and accomplish their tasks. When it comes to assisting in penetration testing, the development managers, penetration testers, and security professionals should collaborate to ensure that they focus on building secure software. Furthermore, the seniors should mentor the teams regarding the right practices and tools so that they can integrate security into the development process.
Penetration Testing by ThinkSys
As a significant testing type, organizations should focus on penetration testing. Having professional assistance will allow organizations to enhance security.
If you want the most reliable penetration testing service, you can always trust ThinkSys Inc. We have a dedicated team of skilled professionals who can implement the right practices for the best pen testing.
Our team will evaluate the program for any existing vulnerabilities and loopholes. Furthermore, a detailed report will be created to make issue-fixing easier. With our penetration testing, you are sure to keep your data secure.
Conclusion
Penetration testing is crucial for preventing security breaches after its release. Once testing is done, the development team spends additional time fixing the vulnerabilities so that the software can become secure.
Knowing about penetration testing allows a developer to think about it while developing.
Once they know this testing, they can use the right practices so that the software can remain secure from the beginning and fewer issues can be reported after penetration testing.
There is no denying that developers and penetration testers always remain on the same track. However, when the organization prioritizes enhancing security, they should come together and use their gained skills and knowledge to create a secure development culture.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What is the need for penetration testing?
Though there are plenty of reasons to perform penetration testing, the foremost reason is to keep the software secure from malicious attacks.
Testers try to breach the security layers of the software so that they can strengthen the program with better security.
Apart from that, other reasons for penetration testing are meeting necessary compliances, data protection, and boosting customer trust.
Q2: When to perform a Penetration Test?
A penetration test should be performed on every new software before its release. However, there are other times this test should be performed.
Penetration testing should be a periodic exercise on software that handles sensitive data. Furthermore, the program should be tested for the best security after every release.
Q3: Can Penetration Testing be Outsourced?
Yes, penetration testing can be outsourced, which benefits an organization. Outsourcing penetration testing will allow you to have an experienced team’s service without long-term commitments (unlike an in-house team).
Apart from that, you do not have to train the team and will also get excellent support whenever you want.