Re: Experiences with Web application vulnerability assessment (1) software (2) companies

[Darwin Macatiag <DMacatiag () MTSAC EDU>]

I've been involved in the development process in the form of security
design reviews and code reviews as well as the manual and automatic webapp
pentests in the private sector.  A lot of times it turned out the most
productive use of time is spent during the design reviews.  The major
security issues are found during this time and the amount of time spent is
pretty small (second only to an automated pentest).  The code review will
tend to locate the most security issues however it tends to be extremely
time consuming but some of the automated tools such as Fortify
(commercial) and PMD (open source) help.  Pentests in QA and production
were used as the last stopgap since things always fall through the cracks
in large projects.

Darwin




"curtw () siu edu" <curtw () SIU EDU>
Sent by: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
<SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
02/27/2008 09:09 PM
Please respond to
The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
<SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>


To
SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
cc

Subject
Re: [SECURITY] Experiences with Web application vulnerability assessment
(1) software (2) companies






I've used various webapp assessment scanners over the years and
have found value in them, especially for the bruteforce-try-out-
many-directories-and-filename issues and generic SQL injection
indicators, but they only go so far. Manual assessment has been
of more value to me, however it usually takes a long time. Using
Paros, webscarab or other proxy (I'm wanting to try out Burp but
haven't had the opportunity yet) and carefully analyzing how
things are being processed has been very useful.

I'm curious to know others experiences with consultants and
vendors when webapp assessment is not performed in-house. I'm
sure I'm not the only one who struggles to keep up with this
fast moving area while keeping up with many other fast-moving
areas at the same time (and trying to keep some sanity!)

cw


---------Included Message----------
> Date: 27-feb-2008 16:59:16 -0600
> From: "Halliday,Paul" <Paul.Halliday () NSCC CA>
> Reply-To: "The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group
Listserv" <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
> To: <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
> Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Experiences with Web application
vulnerability assessment (1) software (2) companies
> Seconded.
>
> Automated tools are great for quickly identifying potential
problem areas or to satiate your resident auditor with a pretty
graph. If this is where the assessment stops however, you are
doing yourself a disservice. The Achilles heel in most well
designed web applications is likely to be missed by all but the
most persistent, thorough and oftentimes unorthodox eye. It is
here that these solutions usually outlive their usefulness. Save
your money and invest in skilled people.
> That said, has anyone played with CDC'c  Goolag Scanner yet? ;)
>
> -p
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv on
behalf of Hull, Dave
> Sent: Wed 2/27/2008 4:41 PM
> To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
> Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Experiences with Web application
vulnerability assessment (1) software (2) companies
> I have used Web Inspect, but it's been a year and a half. My
experience
> was that it was decent, but like many similar products had a
high number
> of false positives nor does it catch everything.
>
> For really critical web applications nothing beats a well
trained Q&A
> team with time, tools and access to the source code. Again it's
been a
> year and half since I have done line-by-line code review
professionally,
> but at that time it was more effective at finding flaws than
any of the
> automated tools I tried. Obviously it's not as fast to do it by
hand.
> It's that old trade off between fast, cheap and accurate. Pick
two.
> --
> Dave Hull, CISSP, GCIH, GREM, SSP-MPA, CHFI
> Director of Technology
> KU School of Architecture & Urban Planning
> Tel. 785.864.2629
> Fax  785.864.5393
>
> "The free world says that software is the embodiment of
knowledge about
> technology, which needs to be free in the same way that
mathematics is
> free."
> -- Eben Moglen, Software Freedom Law Center
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
> [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Morrow Long
> Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 11:51 AM
> To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
> Subject: [SECURITY] Experiences with Web application
vulnerability
> assessment (1) software (2) companies
>
> Have any schools had an experiences with Web application
security
> vulnerability assessment
>
> (1) software -- (nstalker, appscan, etc.)
>
> (2) companies / consultants who perform such services
>
> Post to the list or to me.  I'll summarize.
>
> H. Morrow Long
> University Information Security Officer
> Director -  Information Security Office
---------End of Included Message----------