SaaS Penetration Testing Services
Your SaaS solution offers a dynamic environment with flexibility for your customers. Our SaaS penetration testing helps you to assess, analyse and mitigate vulnerabilities in the context of your environment. It could be SaaS service, solution or products.
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Why is SaaS penetration testing assessment important for businesses?
Security has taken a hot seat of ‘strategic importance’ in board rooms compared to the traditional ‘cost center’. Increasing reliability on third-party cloud services has raised awareness around data security and privacy concerns.
Both the parties, SaaS solution and their customers, commonly provide their solutions for thorough SaaS penetration testing to determine the unknowns to assess and prepare for futuristic events.
Data breaches and compliance are the two most common reasons to justify SaaS penetration testing. Attacks targeting cloud-based infrastructure have been increasing by 50% year over year, as stated in Verizon Data Breach Report 2020.
Although some weaknesses may or may not be known to security teams, cyber assurance to validate your security controls offering peace of mind to customers in one fell swoop is seen as a critical step in SaaS software development services.
How to perform SaaS penetration testing?
Cyphere’s Software as a Service (SaaS) security testing takes a more comprehensive approach in showing you the unknowns where your blind spots are. Whether it is due to compliance, customer pressures or other reasons, SaaS assessments sometimes take the form of vulnerability assessments, mobile application penetration testing and application security testing.
SaaS penetration testing, also called “ethical hacking“, is conducted to identify, assess and exploit critical vulnerabilities to simulate a threat actor’s approach in real-time. It includes tailored advice on mitigating the identified risks with clear information about the likelihood and impact of successful attacks.
Cyphere’s security consultants agree on the white box, grey box or black box penetration test methodologies that define the threat scenarios to be simulated during the assessment in SaaS platform. Our assessment methodology is aligned with various standards such as OWASP, CIS and SANS control to provide clarity for customers.
To align with a proactive, secure SaaS software approach for a SaaS application, conducting penetration testing or one-component security assessment alone is insufficient to test an asset’s breadth and depth. It also involves architectural reviews, source code reviews, networks, management, and project-related processes.
Specifically, SaaS application security concerns in addition to penetration test checks, include business logic and workflow vulnerabilities, third-party integrations and modules security issues.
SaaS application security tools utilised during a security assessment are no different than SaaS penetration testing such as Burp web proxy suite, other web vulnerabilities, and network scanners, scripts, and WAF configuration checks. As a SaaS security company, the added expertise, understanding of SaaS applications, and business logic make the difference.
SaaS security vulnerabilities
Identity and Access Management (IAM) issues
IAM vulnerability issues found in SaaS penetration testing can include things such as weak passwords, users sharing passwords, and lack of two-factor authentication. Another common issue is when administrators have too much access. For example, they may be able to view or change customer data that they should not have access to. This can lead to a data confidentiality issue if the administrator’s credentials are compromised.
Password policies also play a role in IAM vulnerability. If passwords are not complex enough or if they are re-used across multiple accounts, they can be easily cracked by hackers.
Authentication vulnerabilities
There are three types of authentication vulnerabilities commonly found at SaaS platforms:
1. Credential stuffing: When attackers use stolen or easily guessed credentials to attempt to login to accounts on other websites.
2. Brute force attacks: Trying many different passwords or passphrases until the right one is found.
3. Impersonation attacks: Pretending to be someone else in order to gain access to their account.
Authorisation and Session Management
Authorization vulnerabilities are flaws in the process that determines which users are allowed to access specific resources. A session management vulnerability is a flaw in the way that a SaaS application maintains the security of a user’s session, allowing an attacker to hijack a user’s session and gain access to their account.
These types of vulnerabilities can be exploited by attackers to gain access to sensitive data, such as passwords or credit card numbers. They can also be used to take control of user accounts and carry out malicious activities, such as spamming or DDoS attacks.
Broken access controls
Broken access controls issues found in SaaS penetration testing are a type of security flaw that results when systems do not properly restrict user access to data or systems. These flaws can allow unauthorized users to view, alter, or delete data, or even take control of systems. They can be exploited by attackers to gain access to sensitive information or damage critical systems.
Broken access controls are one of the most common types of security flaws, and they can be very difficult to detect and fix.
Organisations need to put in place comprehensive security measures to protect against these flaws, including strong authentication and authorization controls, proper segregation of duties, and system monitoring and auditing.
Logging and monitoring concerns
Logging and monitoring concerns discovered commonly in SaaS pen testing are ones that can arise when organisations collect, process, store, or transmit logs and other electronic data. These security concerns can include unauthorized access to data, alteration of data, destruction of data, and leakage of confidential information.
Logs can provide a wealth of information about individuals and organizations, including login credentials, contact information, financial data, and more. As such, it is important for organizations to take steps to protect their logs from unauthorized access and use.
Protection measures may include encryption of log files and the use of strong passwords to access logs. Organisations should also carefully monitor their systems for signs of unauthorized activity.
Insecure password controls
Insecure password controls vulnerabilities are flaws in a website’s authentication system that allow attackers to bypass the standard authentication process and gain access to user accounts.
These vulnerabilities discovered in SaaS penetration testing can be exploited by tricks such as guessing common passwords, using brute-force methods to try different combinations of letters, numbers, and symbols until the right one is found, or exploiting security weaknesses in the password-reset process.
Once an attacker has access to a user account, they can potentially steal sensitive data, damage or delete data, or even take control of the entire website.
Insecure encryption configuration
Insecure encryption configuration vulnerabilities are weaknesses in the way that an encryption system is set up that can leave it open to attack. For example, if a system is not configured to use strong enough passwords or to use a key that is not long enough, it could be easily hacked.
Another common vulnerability found in SaaS penetration testing is when an encryption key is stored in plain text on a server. This means that anyone who can access the server can also see the key and use it to decrypt all the data that has been encrypted using that key.
To avoid this, keys should always be encrypted when they are stored and these encryption keys should only be decrypted when they are needed.
Privilege escalation attempts (SaaS application)
Privilege escalation attacks exploit vulnerabilities in SaaS applications that allow an attacker with a lower level of privilege to obtain elevated privileges and access sensitive data or systems.
Some common methods used to carry out privilege escalation attacks include exploiting buffer overflows, race conditions, and cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities.
Attackers may also use social engineering techniques, such as phishing or spearphishing, to trick users into revealing their login credentials or installing malicious software that gives the attacker access to the target system.
Web Services, SaaS API vulnerabilities
Web services, SaaS API vulnerabilities in infrastructure testing can include SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting (XSS), and denial of service (DoS) attacks. In a SQL injection attack, the attacker injects malicious SQL code into an entry field in order to steal data or modify data.
In a cross-site scripting attack, the attacker injects malicious code into web applications, which is then executed by a user who visits the page. A denial of service attack involves flooding a web server with requests so that it can’t respond to legitimate requests from users.
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Why choose Cyphere as SaaS Penetration Testing Company?
Benefits of CREST approved SaaS Penetration Testing
Visibility around concerns and priorities
Security is a top concern for all businesses, but it can be especially challenging for SaaS companies to ensure the security of their data. SaaS data security provides visibility into the concerns and priorities of other businesses. This helps businesses make informed decisions about the security of their own data.
Validation of SaaS solutions in use including third party integrations
Any software as a service solution needs to validate not only themselves but also any integrations that they might have with third-party SaaS solutions. This is for a few reasons – first, it ensures that there are no errors in the code that could lead to data breaches or other security issues.
Second, it helps to build confidence in the solution – if a company can see that the solution has been validated by an external party, they are more likely to trust it. Finally, validation can help to improve the reputation of the solution – if it is known to be reliable and secure, then more companies will be willing to use it.
Comply with regulatory requirements (GDPR, PCI DSS)
SaaS security solutions help to comply with regulatory requirements in a number of ways. They provide a central location for storing and managing data. This makes it easier to track who has access to what data and to ensure that only authorized users can view or make changes to sensitive information.
Also, SaaS security solutions often include built-in encryption capabilities. This helps to protect data in transit, as well as at rest. In addition, many SaaS security solutions offer comprehensive auditing and reporting features. This allows organizations to track which users are accessing which data, and to identify any potential compliance issues.
Controlled data access, stability and reliability
SaaS security solutions help to control data access, stability and reliability by providing a secure SaaS platform for businesses to store and share data. By using encryption and other security measures, SaaS security solutions make it difficult for unauthorized users to access data.
Secure authentication and authorisation
SaaS security solutions help to secure both authentication and authorization by providing features such as single sign-on and multi-factor authentication. Single sign-on allows users to authenticate with one set of credentials instead of multiple sets.
Multi-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security by requiring users to provide more than one piece of evidence to prove their identity.
Minimise costs and maximise your team efficiency with penetration test as a service
A SaaS security solution can help to protect your company’s data while also reducing costs and maximizing team efficiency. With a SaaS security solution, you can schedule regular penetration tests that will identify vulnerabilities in your system. These security tests can be conducted remotely, meaning that you won’t have to disrupt your team’s workflow.
Securing cloud hosted data is your responsibility.
SaaS Security Testing Methodology
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
This phase involves reviewing identity and access management-related controls. Generally, these include checks on the use of higher privilege accounts, use of MFA, password policy, IAM policies, access keys and credentials usage policies
SaaS Logging
This phase includes reviews around CloudTrail log settings, trail configuration and use of CloudWatch or similar setups. Configuration settings, storage access logging and encryption are also reviewed.
Network Security
This involves checks around the firewall/NSG, controls such as ingress, egress rulesets, flow logging, traffic restrictions, and least access privileges.
Monitoring
Cloud monitoring is one of the critical elements of security for SaaS applications. You must know what’s being accessed, attempted for access or has been granted access. Audit events help with internal improvements as well as record keeping in case of an incident.
These reviews include checks for real-time monitoring configuration, management sign-ins, unauthorised API calls, alarms for any changes made to access control lists, security policy/groups, routing tables, and related parameters.
Our Cyber Security Testing Services
Network & Infrastructure Penetration Testing
Data protection of your business against evolving network & infrastructure threats
Check services, patching, passwords, configurations & hardening issues
Internal, external, network segregation & device reviews
Compliance audit support
Helps shape IT strategy & investments
Web Application & API Pen Testing
Assess real-world threats to web applications
Validate secure design best practices against OWASP Top 10
Timely check to avoid common pitfalls during development
Ensure strong authentication, authorisation, encryption mechanisms
Find loopholes to avoid data leakage or theft
Mobile Penetration Testing
Assess real-world SaaS applications security vulnerabilities
Validate secure design & configuration best practices
Increased flexibility and productivity of users through secure mobile offerings
Ensure strong SaaS applications authentication, authorisation, and encryption mechanisms
Find a mobile app or device loopholes to avoid data leakage or theft
PCI DSS, ISO 27001, Compliance Support
Cloud Penetration Testing
Better visibility on cloud process aligning
Secure validation of internal and third party integrations
Support ever-changing regulatory/compliance requirements
Ensure strong authentication, authorisation, encryption mechanisms
Demonstrate data security commitment
Less is more – reduced costs, servers and staff
Digital Attack Surface Analysis
Attack surface analysis to identify high-risk areas and blind spots
Improve your security team’s efficiency
Streamline your IT spends
Lower security risks and the likelihood of data breaches
