Security testing in Software testing

Security testing involves testing the system in order to make sure that unauthorized personnel or other systems cannot gain access to the system and information or resources within it. Programs that check for access to the system via passwords are tested along with any organizational security procedures established


Security testing can be performed in many ways like,
1.    Black Box Testing
2.    White Box Testing
3.    Database Testing

1. Black Box Testing
a. Session Hijacking
Session Hijacking commonly called as "IP Spoofing" where a user session will be attacked on a protected network.
b. Session Prediction
Session prediction is a method of obtaining data or a session ID of an authorized user and gets access to the application. In a web application the session ID can be retrieved from cookies or URL.
The session prediction happening can be predicted when a website is not responding normally or stops responding for an unknown reason.

c. Email Spoofing
Email Spoofing is duplicating the email header ("From" address) to look like originated from actual source and if the email is replied it will land in the spammers inbox. By inserting commands in the header the message information can be altered. It is possible to send a spoofed email with information you didn't write.
d. Content Spoofing
Content spoofing is a technique to develop a fake website and make the user believe that the information and website is genuine. When the user enters his Credit Card Number, Password, SSN and other important details the hacker can get the data and use if for fraud purposes.

e. Phishing
Phishing is similar to Email Spoofing where the hacker sends a genuine look like mail attempting to get the personal and financial information of the user. The emails will appear to have come from well known websites.

f. Password Cracking
Password Cracking is used to identify an unknown password or to identify a forgotten password

Password cracking can be done through two ways,
1.    Brute Force â€" The hacker tries with a combination of characters within a length and tries until it is getting accepted.
2.    Password Dictionary â€" The hacker uses the Password dictionary where it is available on various topics.
2. White Box level
a. Malicious Code Injection
SQL Injection is most popular in Code Injection Attack, the hacker attach the malicious code into the good code by inserting the field in the application. The motive behind the injection is to steal the secured information which was intended to be used by a set of users.

Apart from SQL Injection, the other types of malicious code injection are XPath Injection, LDAP Injection, and Command Execution Injection. Similar to SQL Injection the XPath Injection deals with XML document.

b. Penetration Testing:
Penetration Testing is used to check the security of a computer or a network. The test process explores all the security aspects of the system and tries to penetrate the system.

c. Input validation:
Input validation is used to defend the applications from hackers. If the input is not validated mostly in web applications it could lead to system crashes, database manipulation and corruption.

d. Variable Manipulation
Variable manipulation is used as a method for specifying or editing the variables in a program. It is mostly used to alter the data sent to web server.

3. Database Level
a. SQL Injection
SQL Injection is used to hack the websites by changing the backend SQL statements, using this technique the hacker can steal the data from database and also delete and modify it.