OWASP Security Testing Checklist

OWASP Web Application Security Testing Checklist

This checklist is used by WP STAGING development team to harden the application against any malicious attacks.

Information Gathering

  •  Manually explore the site
  •  Spider/crawl for missed or hidden content
  •  Check for files that expose content, such as robots.txt, sitemap.xml, .DS_Store
  •  Check the caches of major search engines for publicly accessible sites
  •  Check for differences in content based on User Agent (eg, Mobile sites, access as a Search engine Crawler)
  •  Perform Web Application Fingerprinting
  •  Identify technologies used
  •  Identify user roles
  •  Identify application entry points
  •  Identify client-side code
  •  Identify multiple versions/channels (e.g. web, mobile web, mobile app, web services)
  •  Identify co-hosted and related applications
  •  Identify all hostnames and ports
  •  Identify third-party hosted content

Configuration Management

  •  Check for commonly used application and administrative URLs
  •  Check for old, backup and unreferenced files
  •  Check HTTP methods supported and Cross Site Tracing (XST)
  •  Test file extensions handling
  •  Test for security HTTP headers (e.g. CSP, X-Frame-Options, HSTS)
  •  Test for policies (e.g. Flash, Silverlight, robots)
  •  Test for non-production data in live environment, and vice-versa
  •  Check for sensitive data in client-side code (e.g. API keys, credentials)

Secure Transmission

  •  Check SSL Version, Algorithms, Key length
  •  Check for Digital Certificate Validity (Duration, Signature and CN)
  •  Check credentials only delivered over HTTPS
  •  Check that the login form is delivered over HTTPS
  •  Check session tokens only delivered over HTTPS
  •  Check if HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) in use

Authentication

  •  Test for user enumeration
  •  Test for authentication bypass
  •  Test for bruteforce protection
  •  Test password quality rules
  •  Test remember me functionality
  •  Test for autocomplete on password forms/input
  •  Test password reset and/or recovery
  •  Test password change process
  •  Test CAPTCHA
  •  Test multi factor authentication
  •  Test for logout functionality presence
  •  Test for cache management on HTTP (eg Pragma, Expires, Max-age)
  •  Test for default logins
  •  Test for user-accessible authentication history
  •  Test for out-of channel notification of account lockouts and successful password changes
  •  Test for consistent authentication across applications with shared authentication schema / SSO

Session Management

  •  Establish how session management is handled in the application (eg, tokens in cookies, token in URL)
  •  Check session tokens for cookie flags (httpOnly and secure)
  •  Check session cookie scope (path and domain)
  •  Check session cookie duration (expires and max-age)
  •  Check session termination after a maximum lifetime
  •  Check session termination after relative timeout
  •  Check session termination after logout
  •  Test to see if users can have multiple simultaneous sessions
  •  Test session cookies for randomness
  •  Confirm that new session tokens are issued on login, role change and logout
  •  Test for consistent session management across applications with shared session management
  •  Test for session puzzling
  •  Test for CSRF and clickjacking

Authorization

  •  Test for path traversal
  •  Test for bypassing authorization schema
  •  Test for vertical Access control problems (a.k.a. Privilege Escalation)
  •  Test for horizontal Access control problems (between two users at the same privilege level)
  •  Test for missing authorization

Data Validation

  •  Test for Reflected Cross Site Scripting
  •  Test for Stored Cross Site Scripting
  •  Test for DOM based Cross Site Scripting
  •  Test for Cross Site Flashing
  •  Test for HTML Injection
  •  Test for SQL Injection
  •  Test for LDAP Injection
  •  Test for ORM Injection
  •  Test for XML Injection
  •  Test for XXE Injection
  •  Test for SSI Injection
  •  Test for XPath Injection
  •  Test for XQuery Injection
  •  Test for IMAP/SMTP Injection
  •  Test for Code Injection
  •  Test for Expression Language Injection
  •  Test for Command Injection
  •  Test for Overflow (Stack, Heap and Integer)
  •  Test for Format String
  •  Test for incubated vulnerabilities
  •  Test for HTTP Splitting/Smuggling
  •  Test for HTTP Verb Tampering
  •  Test for Open Redirection
  •  Test for Local File Inclusion
  •  Test for Remote File Inclusion
  •  Compare client-side and server-side validation rules
  •  Test for NoSQL injection
  •  Test for HTTP parameter pollution
  •  Test for auto-binding
  •  Test for Mass Assignment
  •  Test for NULL/Invalid Session Cookie

Denial of Service

  •  Test for anti-automation
  •  Test for account lockout
  •  Test for HTTP protocol DoS
  •  Test for SQL wildcard DoS

Business Logic

  •  Test for feature misuse
  •  Test for lack of non-repudiation
  •  Test for trust relationships
  •  Test for integrity of data
  •  Test segregation of duties

Cryptography

  •  Check if data which should be encrypted is not
  •  Check for wrong algorithms usage depending on context
  •  Check for weak algorithms usage
  •  Check for proper use of salting
  •  Check for randomness functions

Risky Functionality – File Uploads

  •  Test that acceptable file types are whitelisted
  •  Test that file size limits, upload frequency and total file counts are defined and are enforced
  •  Test that file contents match the defined file type
  •  Test that all file uploads have Anti-Virus scanning in-place.
  •  Test that unsafe filenames are sanitised
  •  Test that uploaded files are not directly accessible within the web root
  •  Test that uploaded files are not served on the same hostname/port
  •  Test that files and other media are integrated with the authentication and authorisation schemas

Risky Functionality – Card Payment

  •  Test for known vulnerabilities and configuration issues on Web Server and Web Application
  •  Test for default or guessable password
  •  Test for non-production data in live environment, and vice-versa
  •  Test for Injection vulnerabilities
  •  Test for Buffer Overflows
  •  Test for Insecure Cryptographic Storage
  •  Test for Insufficient Transport Layer Protection
  •  Test for Improper Error Handling
  •  Test for all vulnerabilities with a CVSS v2 score > 4.0
  •  Test for Authentication and Authorization issues
  •  Test for CSRF

HTML 5

  •  Test Web Messaging
  •  Test for Web Storage SQL injection
  •  Check CORS implementation
  •  Check Offline Web Application