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APIs are the building blocks of modern applications. If the APIs aren’t secure, the system isn’t secure. However, having a consistent API testing strategy that spans from development through test to the AppSec team can be challenging.
Many developers don’t have the experience of writing code with security as a priority, and AppSec testers may not have sufficient knowledge of the API behavior. To bridge the gap, Parasoft SOAtest extends its API testing platform with a seamless integration of dynamic application security testing (DAST) to perform penetration testing as part of the development workflow.
Parasoft SOAtest helps you prevent security vulnerabilities through API penetration testing and execution of complex authentication, encryption, and access control test scenarios. This enables earlier identification and remediation of potential vulnerabilities that otherwise wouldn’t be caught until late in the cycle. Developers gain real-time awareness of the impact of API security issues to address them in-sprint, while QA increases coverage by incorporating API security testing and reducing the number of security issues that are found by the DevSecOps team.
Penetration testing is critical to uncover security holes in your application. With Parasoft SOAtest, you can efficiently take your existing API functional testing scenarios and create security penetration tests for your automated CI process. If you already use OWASP ZAP, you can also use those existing tests, configuration settings, and policies from existing deployments, even custom ones. By leveraging existing functional tests for security scenarios, teams can approach security testing earlier, and address critical security defects before they are buried deep in the release.
There are specific areas of your application that you want to attack but they are buried under multiple web or API steps. With SOAtest, you can define the steps needed to get your application in the the state where it could be penetrated and then launch your attack.
Parasoft SOAtest offers seamless dynamic application security testing (DAST) with OWASP ZAP. SOAtest users now have the choice to use this built-in DAST capability or the Parasoft Burp Suite extensions in their penetration testing arsenal. Both provide the ability to reuse functional testing scenarios in API security testing, to save critical time.
Pen testers can import their custom OWASP ZAP scan policies into SOAtest and pair them with existing API testing scenarios to automate API security testing as part of continuous monitoring activities. This provides complete visibility into emerging threats that can be leveraged back into developer functional testing.
Security tests can be run as part of an automated CI process through the command line or through integration with CI systems like Jenkins, Azure DevOps, TeamCity, Bamboo, and others. Most testing tools make penetration testing a process that must be initiated manually, while integration with SOAtest makes it possible to turn penetration tests into regression tests. This automation allows teams to discover vulnerabilities as soon as they are injected into the application – otherwise vulnerabilities may not be discovered until much later.
With Parasoft, you can make penetration testing easier and more effective with automation and CI integration.
Developers can integrate API security testing as part of their daily activities without sacrificing speed or innovation. This reduces friction that often exists in DevSecOps environments and allows AppSec teams to effectively collaborate with developers using a common tech stack where awareness of security threats to pinpoint security issues happens early in development.
If you’re stuck doing penetration testing at the end of the development cycle with specialized tools or manually, AppSec testers will expose security holes late, when the issues may be too costly or too complex to fix. Parasoft enables penetration test scenarios to be automated and seamlessly run within the CI process, so teams can catch and resolve problems sooner.
With Parasoft, you can collect code coverage as penetration tests are run, and aggregate that data with the overall code coverage data collected by all testing practices, such as unit and functional tests, in Parasoft’s centralized reporting server.
Extending API testing with penetration testing enables developers and QA testers to shift security testing to the left and to drive deeper test coverage to uncover vulnerabilities buried in complex API operations. This comprehensive approach identifies security threats beyond OWASP API Security Top 10 and allows pen testers to leverage context in their tool chain.
Security testing failures can be reported through Parasoft’s centralized reporting dashboard to make the results of security testing visible to stakeholders in the same ways that functional tests are displayed and reviewed. This complete view of testing is essential, especially in Agile, for stakeholders to make informed decisions that impact the business.
