Why software testing is important in SDLC

Software testing is an indispensable part of software quality. It is crucial to support the SDLC, the abbreviation for Software Development Life Cycle. SDLC is a procedure to develop the application, with the right research, execution, planning and maintenance.

Quality Assurance (QA) is a vital part of SDLC. QA is performed to evaluate different aspects of an app and validate the behavior of the software in various configurations of the software system.

Software testing companies help business organizations conduct software's comprehensive assessment. It is also beneficial to them in accomplishing different requirements of the client.

As the tester performs software development cycle or SDLC, they will be capable of identifying different errors and bugs present in the software before starting the implementation process. If the team fails to solve the software bugs before the deployment process, there are risks that they might have an adverse impact on the requirements of the clients.

If the bugs are not resolved at an earlier phase, it might result in substantial costs. If the detection of such problems is delayed, you are likely to incur more expenses later.

Software Development Life Cycle

SDLC is a methodology used for the development of software. This process includes a series of steps, which is necessary to replace, alter, maintain, build and enhance the different components of the software.

Software Development Lifecycle acts as the pipeline for the implementation of different software projects in the right structure. So, the QA organizations can make the proper use of this process for bringing an improvement in the software quality. It is also helpful in optimizing the software development process.

Importance of software testing in the Software Development Life Cycle

Software testing is an integral part of the software development cycle. Testing is beneficial in bringing an improvement in the performance, reliability and quality of the system. By testing the software, you will be capable of checking if different parts of the software are working in the desired way.

It is essential to opt for testing in the earlier phase of the Software Development Life Cycle. This process is effective in identifying different defects and bugs, which are present in the earlier phase. As the process is performed at the early stage, the testers do not need to carry the hassles of resolving the bugs during the last critical stage.

In today’s competitive market, you need to develop a product so that the quality can remain for a prolonged time. So, you should ensure to develop a high quality product and perform testing as an integral part of SDLC.

Software testing is useful in verifying and validating that all the software requirements are implemented properly. Through software testing, you can identify different bugs and defects. It also helps in addressing and recognizing the bugs before the occurrence of software development. Through software testing, you can ensure that the software is operating as per the specifications.

You can check if the specific product has met the requirements of the customers and the business. Suppose you intend to verify the interaction and integration of every component in the system. In that case, you should make sure to conduct software testing in SDLC without giving it a second thought.

Software testing companies offering Software testing services start testing at the earlier phase for removing different complexities, which are performed at the final stage. As the software firm introduces QA at each stage of SDLC, it provides the options to validate and verify the modules of the app for the precision.

This process is useful in identifying different defects and errors of the app in its initial stage. It is essential to program and develop the app in a way that it can provide seamless performance in different crucial circumstances.

It is essential to run and conduct the rigorous testing of different application at different phases of SDLC as it offers assistance in creating software of high quality. As you develop product software of high excellence, you need to ensure that it can showcase optimum performance in different situations.

Implementation of different QA activities in SDLC or software development life cycle is useful in increasing the performance, reliability, functionality and different vital attributes of the app.

QA companies conducting software testing need to keep in mind that testing should not be conducted to find the bugs and errors in the market. Instead, it is performed for the evaluation of the competence of the application and check if it is functioning, according to the purpose, for which it is made.

Testing phases of software development life cycle

Testing phases happen to be an integral part of the SDLC or software development life cycle. It is essential to execute such processes in the methodological approach to ensure that all the requirements have been accomplished successfully. Software testers break down software testing in the main phases, which include Integration Testing, System Testing, Unit Testing, and Acceptance testing.

According to researches, you should make sure to plan and conduct software testing during software development life cycle to achieve best and effective results. It is useful to keep the costs of fixing the errors and bugs minimal. It would be best if you remember that if you deploy QA at the later part of the software development life cycle, there are risks that the costs for fixing the bugs will be extremely high.

Summary

You can ensure the growth of the business and satisfy the customers successfully by performing software testing during SDLC or software development life cycle. Software testing happens to be an integral part of the software development life cycle as it accomplishes the standards of the application. Besides this, it is useful in enhancing the reputation and return on investment of the business.

Basic principles in software testing

Sometimes, when testing a large number of new features, testers forget even about the most important principles in testing and thereby make many strategic and behavioral mistakes in software testing.

In this article, I will remind you of the well-known and basic principles that should not be forgotten when testing any application or new feature.

Basic principles in software testing

Of the many principles that every tester who is testing software has probably singled out for himself, there are the main ones in the opinion of the testers community, which I would like to highlight:

1) Exhaustive testing is impossible by any of the testers . 

I think that everyone understands that it is simply impossible to test all possible cases and combinations, of course, if this is not a trivial case.

All cases simply cannot be included in the test suite, as it would take us a very long time and in the end it would not cost us such an effort. If each tester sits down and thinks over all the scenarios carefully and if you give this feature for testing to another tester, then he usually finds a bunch of possible scenarios and cases that can be included. therefore in top software testing company in India , it is customary to analyze a product or a new feature and then focus testing efforts on more risky and priority cases and areas of our product.

2) Accumulation of bugs... 

If you take a product and break it down into modules, then during the testing process you will notice that the main part of the bugs lies in one or several product modules, therefore, the effect of the accumulation of bugs can be noted. 

As a rule, this can be observed in completely different products. In order to effectively test our product, you should distribute your testing efforts according to the real density of bugs in the product modules, but if we are testing for the first time, then in proportion to the expected density. Over time, the bugs accumulation trend can change from module to module. This should be monitored and effort redistributed in further testing.

3) Effectiveness of early testing . 

It is very important to start testing as early as possible and to anticipate possible mistakes that the developer can make.

Before developing and testing this or that product, you should find out all the specifics, possible conflicts in the specification, the impossibility of a new feature to interact with another module, make sure that the tester, developer and product owner equally correctly understand how this will be implemented. Remember, the earlier bugs are found, the cheaper it is to fix them.

4) the pesticide paradox... 

If, after writing test cases, we run them many times, then ultimately these cases will not help us find new bugs. Therefore, there is a practice in testing when they revise and modernize test cases in order to catch some new bugs. 

Test cases can become more complex, be versatile so as to cover all components, modules of our product, which in turn will help us find more interesting and new bugs.

5) Testing depends on our product . 

There are many programs, products, and each of them should be approached individually in terms of testing. In some, more effort in testing is needed for security testing, in some for usability. Therefore, you should not row all products under the same brush and test according to any one template.

6) Testing shows the presence of bugs in the product, but not their absence . 

Many people think that if the new functionality has passed the testing stage, then that's it - there are no more bugs. Therein lies the erroneous judgment. Testing only reduces the likelihood of bugs in the product. Therefore, during the testing process, many bugs can be missed and this does not mean that if the product has been tested, then now this product is 100% working correctly.

7) The product is well tested and there seem to be no obvious bugs, then this is a good product... 

Sometimes when testing and looking for functional bugs, we forget to look from the other side and ask if the user needs it. If this feature does not meet the user's expectations and needs, then no matter how high-quality our product is, this is not so important.

QA SERVICES - AN OVERVIEW

Maintain open lines of conversation in between testing teams. “Opening up the communication strains among the testing groups can perform wonders for producing the testing clean.

Workflow We feel that apparent and clear workflow is often a crucial to success. See every step of product or service enhancement with us.

“By utilizing more recent browser features with inconsistent aid, that you are intentionally introducing cross–browser variation. We all know from the Browser Wars from the nineties this will come at a value.

As a consequence of this defect, a tester would most likely be capable to exam other options such as Login and Profile fantastic. But For the reason that registration is broken, this defect might be extreme on the process.

And eventually, checks are code too! So do not forget them during code assessment as they may be the ultimate gate to output.

Procedure testing consists of assessing the method as a whole, guaranteeing it really works in compliance with its necessities. This task contains end-to-conclude functionality testing and it is performed by a specialized crew before it goes Reside.

If your app or mobile web site demands password and username (not advised), pay close attention for the fields and make sure that it’s straightforward for users to enter their info.” – The Important Tutorial to Cell App Testing

We provide the complete choice of Good quality Engineering services for a wide assortment of consumer needs—throughout electronic, custom, packaged and emerging tech apps—to boost velocity and agility to sector while supplying differentiated person experiences.

, On the flip side, has a completely diverse solution: it concentrates on avoidance and improving upon the standard of software products and solutions with the early levels of the event approach. 

Reasonable: A defect due to which application conduct deviates from what is expected though the process in general is usable. As an example, a validation failure for virtually any important textual content subject.

With just about every client, we also acquire budget into account software testing companies ahead of recommending a scope for compatibility testing. See underneath for samples of browsers, running units, and devices we are able to test on.

“For a little piece, it gained’t make Significantly distinction, but With regards to a lot of data and prolonged code, it is extremely practical.” – Ways to Help your Manual Testing Abilities?

In a wider international shopper acceptance and further implementations of Cloud, Large Information and Cellular Technologies calls for rapid notice and a redefined method to the Infrastructure Technologies. When there is an infrastructure update or deployment for common organization requires, the IT enterprises Guarantee that the implementation is accurate and safe.

75. Divide and conquer. “There are Practically no actual complex responsibilities, as long as you are willing to look for ways to break them into lesser and easier elements.

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Offshore Software Testing: A Possible Alternative

It is very important that any new product that comes out on the market should be tested thoroughly before it can be presented to the public for sale. This is also true in the case of software development. 

One of the important stages in the software development life cycle is software testing. There are a number of tests such as black box/ white box/ gray box testing, unit/ integration/ system/ acceptance testing, functional testing/ non-functional testing and verification and validation conducted on the software. These are done starting from the development of the application until it reaches the marketing phase. 

The software should pass through the various testing phases before it can be used by the companies in their computers. This is the most expensive part of the software development; however this is a necessary evil. In order to reduce costs many software companies go for offshore testing.  

The outsourcing of offshore testing is a relatively recent phenomenon and many companies are not comfortable in outsourcing software testing since they do not have sufficient knowledge regarding this. Many other firms, after doing research on software testing companies, found that there are many companies throughout the world who are capable of handling all their software testing requirements at a competitive price. 

It is necessary on the part of any company to become competitive in the market and to facilitate this it is necessary they cut their operating costs as much as possible. It has become difficult since the cost of adhering to government and company regulations has become very high.

While engaging software testing company for testing your application you may come across certain teething problems which you have to overcome. 

One of the main concerns is the time zone in which your company and the offshore company operate. This may be a problem when you start off but once you get used to it there should not be any problem. Nowadays a large number of gadgets such as clocks capable of showing time in different countries, palm pilots and event reminders are available to help in your timing and communication. 

Normally there will be liaison representative from the offshore company to coordinate various issues between the Software Company and software testing company.

Another concern for outsourcing QA Services to an offshore company is the difference in the work ethics and characteristics between the offshore company and the software company; however, one has to acknowledge this and make certain allowances in their attitude in order to get a mutually satisfying working relationship. 

Cultural differences are also another factor for considering outsourcing offshore testing. In most of the cases these differences are not real but only imaginary. The prime concern for outsourcing should be the achievement of the final goal at competitive cost and on time. Most of the offshore software testing companies provide daily work status where you can see the progress each day.

The communication between the offshore company and the software company could be another area of worry; this is all the more true if there is a problem of language. However, this normally is only temporary since the offshore companies will employ suitable persons knowing that language. 

Under such circumstances one has to be careful. Most of the important information has to be put in writing and the legal department should vet it to ensure its correctness before signing any document. However, the problem is not that mind boggling since most of the outsourcing is done to countries knowing English. India is by far the world's largest market for outsourced IT work with about 18 percent of the market; but countries such as Canada, China, Israel, Russia and South Africa are also in the reckoning..

Any difference in data formats used by the parent company and offshore testing company also is a cause for concern. This problem can be overcome with the assistance of an efficient computer testing engineer. Above all, the most important of all concerns is the security that the offshore company will give your IP address and the whole system. This is a concern with any software testing. By outsourcing offshore testing one will be able to gain a lot of savings.

Conclusion :

Hope you enjoyed with this article to know the importance of Software testing and QA Services. So i am expecting more reviews from you people through comment sections. 

Thanks and Regards,

Zeppelin

Indium Software - Software testing Services|Top Software testing companies 

Software Testing Notes: The Notes That Shape the Future

While testing the software the software testing engineer prepares notes known as ‘software testing notes’ which contain important information on the use of this software.

These notes are very important from buyers/users point of view since they are in a position to judge the utility of any new software launched by the software companies by reading through the notes.

The users will go through the notes and decide whether the software is worth buying for their application. By comparing the different software available in the market using their software testing notes people will decide on the exact software that is useful to their organization.

The software testing notes not only help the users/buyers but also help the company developing and marketing to the public, industries, business houses etc.

The Qa Services notes are written by experts in the field and many people use this for taking decisions on buying. Since the buying decision of the user mainly depends on the software testing notes initially the sales of the product depends on the features coming out of software testing.

In case the features of the software is better than the competitor’s product the sales of this software will increase since the buyer would always look at price performance ratio for taking ‘buy’ decisions.


With a good quality product the software testing company will be in a position to sell more copies of this software thereby making sufficient profits. The profits will be ploughed back into the company’s research and development activities so that the company can improve the products further. This will have a cascading effect on company’s profits and goodwill earned.

One of the most important benefits in software testing notes is that it has the ability to determine analytical capability of the persons testing the software.

In case the task of software testing and preparation of testing notes is assigned to students as a project during their study this can be used as an examination for testing their capability to analyze the software thoroughly and come out with a reasonably accurate features of the software under consideration.

Learn more about: Software Testing Software

The quality of the notes written by the students will decide on the grade that the student should get and this helps in better students getting better grades and thereby getting better career opportunities.  Software testing requires a high degree of analytical skills and hence is important for the students to hone up their skills.

The teachers will already know the features of the software from the developing companies and hence can judge the student’s performance to perfection.  The software testing notes are very useful for students who have the aptitude for studying software technology and also have the analytical skills.

Software testing notes can be considered as the bread earner for the company developing the software. The companies are well informed about their products after getting the software testing notes which decide on the ‘buy’ decision of the user.

The companies get to know the strengths and weaknesses of their product and based on this they take decision either to market aggressively for selling the product if the product is good or invest more money on R&D (Research and Development) for bettering the product quality.

The software testing notes enable the companies both good and bad to improve their performances to reach a level of customer satisfaction.

Good quality software control creates products that have scope for selling in the international market which in turn will give feedback on further improvements to be done. The software testing notes increase the competition between various developing companies thereby coming out with superior products at competitive prices making the customer the king.

Conclusion :

Hope you enjoyed with this article to know the importance of Software testing and QA Services. So i am expecting more reviews from you people through comment sections.

Thanks and Regards,
Zeppelin

Indium Software - Software testing Services Company |Top Software testing companies 

Software Testing Software

Software testing can either be done manually or by using automated software. Manual testing is time consuming, error prone and expensive in some areas. In order to test the software special packages are available which can be used for automated software testing.

QA Services software is basically a testing tool specifically written for software testing and this will test and debug errors in the software. One can draw an analogy between the testing software and anti-virus software that are installed in most of the computers.

The antivirus software is computer programs that attempt to identify, neutralize or eliminate malicious software. The bugs in the computer software are analogous to virus in a computer whereas the antivirus software is analogous to automated software used for testing. Software testing is one of the major steps in the software development life cycle.

The purpose of testing is to find out the errors or mistakes either in the software or in the coding. This is similar to a C language compiler which points out the errors in the coding of any software written using C language. Similarly the software testing software points out errors in the software. Any software which has been developed by the software testing companies undergoes series of testing during the development phase and also before sending for marketing.

During the testing period, the software is checked for correctness, completeness, security testing etc. In addition they are also checked for capability, reliability, efficiency etc. Software testing is investigation performed on the software which is called as software testing questions.

The software testing software are simple and easy to use; it identifies the bugs in the software in the shortest possible time and hence the tester need not bother about manual testing. The software tester has to run the automated software on the software to be tested and this shows the errors in coding or logic which can be rectified.

Many companies nowadays develop their own testing software which can be marketed. In earlier days the software companies which were doing the testing were given the job of testing large codes. At present most of the testing is done in a modular way and to facilitate this CDs are available for different types of testing.

Learn more about: Software testing Process

The complexity of the software is quite high at present and the testing process requires some changes. Hence, the software developer companies are coming out with their own testing software. One should understand that the objective of software testing is not only to debug errors but also to evaluate the quality of software.

One way of testing a software product is by asking questions. Different modules of software are applied at different levels and these are integrated into a single software testing software. The testing software nowadays is equipped with features such as record of the tests, playback, replay etc. and this works on the principles of software engineering.

The latest trend in software development and testing is use of frameworks like x Unit frameworks which is used for unit testing. Such technological developments help in task simplification, ease of working, saving effort, time and cost. Some of the main features of the software testing software is code reuse, encapsulation, recursion, object oriented approach, testing maturity and usability etc.

The software testing software is not a replacement for manual testing and it tends to be expensive in many cases. Their cost effectiveness can be seen at a later period wherein regression testing is used. One way of building the test cases automatically is by use of model-based testing where model is used for test case generation.

Conclusion :

Hope you enjoyed with this article to know the importance of Software testing and QA Services. So i am expecting more reviews from you people through comment sections. 

Thanks and Regards,

Zeppelin

Indium Software - Software testing Services|Top Software testing companies 

Software Testing and Quality Assurance

By conducting Software testing, it is possible to measure the quality of software in terms of defects found, for both functional testing and non-functional software requirements and characteristics (e.g. reliability, usability,efficiency and maintainability).

Testing can give confidence in the quality of the software if it finds few or no defects. A properly designed test that passes reduces the overall level of risk in a system. When testing does find defects,the quality of the software system increases when those defects are fixed.To conduct various types of testing Lessons should be learned from previous projects.

By understanding the root causes of defects found in other projects, processes can be improved, which in turn should prevent those defects reoccurring and, as a consequence, improve the quality of future systems.Testing should be integrated as one of the quality assurance activities like alongside development standards, training and defect analysis.

Learn more about: What is Software Testing? Ultimate Guide for Beginners

Software Testing Process

The most visible part of testing is executing tests. But to be effective and efficient, test plans should also include time to be spent on planning the tests, designing test cases, preparing for execution and evaluating status.

The fundamental test process consists of the following main activities:

 - planning and control
 - analysis and design
 - implementation and execution
 - evaluating exit criteria and reporting
 - test closure activities

Although logically sequential, the activities in the process may overlap or take place concurrently.
Software Test plan and control

Test planning has the following major tasks:

 - Determining the scope and risks, and identifying the objectives of testing.
 - Determining the test approach (techniques, test items, coverage, identifying and interfacing the teams involved in testing, testware).
 - Determining the required test resources (e.g. people, test environment, PCs).
 - Implementing the test policy and/or the test strategy.
 - Scheduling test analysis and design tasks.
 - Scheduling test implementation, execution and evaluation.
 - Determining the exit criteria.

Test control has the following major tasks:

 - measuring and analyzing results;
 - monitoring and documenting progress, test coverage and exit criteria;
 - initiation of corrective actions;
 - making decisions.

Conclusion :

Hope you enjoyed with this article to know the importance of Software testing and QA Services. So i am expecting more reviews from you people through comment sections.

Thanks and Regards,

Zeppelin

Indium Software - Software testing Services Company |Top Software testing companies 

Guidelines For the Testing ETL

ETL is normally used to the Extract, Transform and Load Data in Data Integration and Data Warehousing projects. While there clearly defined the methodologies and it’s an best practices for the designing and development of ETL process, there is a very little literature in the Software Testing.

Transaction Processing and ETL Testing it’s different because of ETL Testing is a data centrist which contains comparing the large volumes of data over the heterogeneous data sources.We describe the brief out of the ETL Testing strategies:

Data Accuracy : Ensure the data it’s to be loaded accurately and then transformations are working in the expected form.

Data Completeness : Verify the all expected data it’s loaded

Data Integrity : Ensure the data relations a has been maintained as an expected

Data Accuracy Testing

Data Accuracy Testing it’s ensures the data is exactly transformed and it’s loaded as right a way. Some of the issues that could be identified with this testings :

• Truncation of a characters due to the column size of data type mismatch
• Columns are Wrong mapped of in the ETL Testing. Which may be result in the wrong data or nulls getting the populated in target 
• Errors during the transformation logic implementation may the result will be bad data in target table

Data Completeness Testing

The purpose of the Data Completeness testing are to verify the that all expected data is clearly loaded in the target source. Some of tests it will be runs are :

• A simple Data Completeness check form it’s verify that an counts of the rows in a driving table form of source is matched with the counting into the target table
• A better testing is to be compared to the counting of non-null data in the each column of source and target tables
• For important columns, that comparing list of duplicate values and in the counting of rows for the each distinct value it’s might be useful
• ETLPerforming the completeness checks transformed columns is an tricky, but could be done most of the timing but understand the transformation rules, then comparing counts of expected results

Data Integrity Testing

• Check for the counts of ‘unmatched’ or ‘unspecified’ rows in fact to be an dimension foreign keys and it’s comparing the % of foreign key matching expects by the running queries in the source data and target data
• For the sample data, verify the facts recordings it’s mapped to correct dimension recording using logical key and surrogate key from the source.

Read more about : Understanding Jmeter and its Usage 

Learn how to test the ETL Testing from beginner stage to latest techniques. Which is handled by the well experienced working experts. Our ETL Testing Training in Chennaiyou will learn the concepts in experts level with the practical manner.

We provides placement focused real-time ETL Testing . Our courses contains basic to present technologies and course syllabus is framed to get the job in MNC industries in chennai as once you completed the your course quickly ETL Certification. Our ETL testing expert trainers are data warehousing ETL certification certified experts and 11+ years of experience in CMM level Companies

Static Software Testing: Making the Code Clean As Early As Possible

During the stages of development of software, there is need for conducting static software testing companies on the software before it is released either to the customer for use in production or to the market for sale. Static software testing is one form of software testing where we do not have to use the software for testing. 

This is contrary to other testing methods where the program code has to run e.g. in dynamic testing it is essential that you run the software for testing. This article analyses the importance of static testing in the software testing services process and look at some considerations which need to be borne in mind when it is being carried out.

Static testing is also called as dry run testing. This is a form of software testing where the actual program or application is not used and analysis of a program is carried out without executing the program. In this testing method the programmers manually read their own code to find any errors in the software. This is not a detailed test and it checks only for the sanity of the code, document and algorithm.

This type of testing warrants checking of the code by physically going through the syntax of the code line by line to find errors; hence the best person to check is the software programmer who has written the code. By running through the requirements specifications of the software the Static software testing can be done as part of black box testing; however, in practice, it is done as white box testing.

Static code analysis is the analysis of computer software that is performed without actually executing programs built from that software. The analysis is performed either on the source code or on the object code. 

The term is usually applied to the analysis performed by an automated tool. The degree of sophistication of the analysis performed by tools varies from those that only consider the behavior of individual statements and declarations, to those that include the complete source code of a program in their analysis. 

The analysis highlights possible coding errors to formal methods that mathematically prove properties about a given program. Some of the static analysis tools are lint-like tools and metric tools and these are used for static testing of software. 

These tools are effective in checking the static within the system. The main advantage in finding bugs while doing a static software test is that they are inexpensive to fix than if they were discovered later in the development

Software testing service providers can also be categorized based on how it is executed. Execution could be in the form of verification or static analysis or it could be validation or dynamic analysis. Verification is the human examination or review of the work product. 

There are many forms of verification which ranges from informal verification to formal verification. Verification can be used for various phases in Software development life cycle and can be in the form of formal inspection, walkthrough or buddy-checking. 

Static software testing is part of the verification process. The verification process indicates to the software testers and developers that the system and software met the requirements and qualifications for quality. 

This is a signal for moving on to the next phase of software testing.

Static software qa services analysis techniques are useful in debugging at the code level and helps in a clean software development. Such testing at the code level as it is being written ensures that problems are kept to a minimum for the future. If the static software testing is kept as a normal part of the development process, you will reduce the number of errors to a minimum.

Web Security Testing

Protecting your website and computers in an online environment is a priority.

Computers are vulnerable to viruses that can pose a serious threat to networks, which makes it essential for a web security testing procedures with the potential to eliminate threats. In addition, online e-commerce websites need to provide their customers a secure environment.

Web security testing is a complex process that takes developers of these systems many hours to perfect. However, with the help of these platforms it is easy to analyze and test threats that are malicious enough to damage computers. Website security scanners require pre-defined conditions to ensure that all threats to a system are analyzed. Developers are required to ensure that the program knows when and what threats to act upon and where they are to be tested. It is essential to develop scanners that have the strength to identify most threats.

Users need to be satisfied that the web security scanner is up to date and has the capacity to deal with threats immediately. It must have the potential to determine the strength of the attack, what the potential damage could be, and deal with it on a priority basis. This will enable users to check the seriousness of the threats within minutes of the scan.

It is essential for website owners to have knowledge about every aspect of their websites. If a website is compromised then visitors will deem the site as untrustworthy, leading to a decline in traffic and consequently loss of business as well. Therefore, website security testing  is of prime importance for every website owner, potentially saving thousands of dollars in lost business.

Read more about: Security testing with watij

One of the most important things to keep in mind for website security flaws is to start testing right from the beginning and on a regular basis. It is important to scan your website regularly to ensure that you are up-to-date with the latest attack vectors and site updates. Websites go through some changes on a regular basis; therefore, it is important to have in-house expertise or a third party perform web security testing tools scans on a regular basis. The cost structure differs between both options, since maintaining an in-house testing service and hiring a third party involve different costs.

There are many website owners that are of the misconception that they do not need any web app security testing as long as they have sufficient network security protection in place. However, this is not likely to effectively protect them from web app attacks. Only regular and constant testing can ensure a safer online environment.

Web Security Scanners

Anti-virus protection is sometimes not enough when it comes to web applications. Many websites have bugs and viruses that can compromise any software. It is important for users to prevent any threats that could lead to potential long term damage. Web security scanners are capable of providing users with access to data related to a website. With new strains of viruses emerging every day, pre-installed software may not be able to detect threats.

Web security scanners prevent a threat from manifesting rather than trying to cure an infected computer. The scanner determines whether a website is safe, which enables users to avoid websites that may contain viruses and bugs. Plenty of hours are put into the development of web security scanners since the software needs to work constantly to ensure that a computer is free from any attack. The time that a scanner takes varies, depending on the type and size of the website. It also depends on the type of hosting service and number of users.

Without proper web security testing, any online business can lost the trust of its clients and visitors, which maligns the market value of a business. It is essential for companies to maintain a data security base and ensure that any shared data is safe. Installing a firewall in the network system helps keep the system intact. Firewalls carry out routine security checks and will sound an alert in case of any threat. However, constant web security testing is essential in order to ensure a threat-free environment around the clock.

Companies have the option of hiring third party web security testing services to keep a detailed track of their security systems. An increasing number of companies face numerous threats related to online security with data being exposed to hackers, phishers, and identity theft as well, which makes people lose trust in sharing their personal information online leading to a loss of business. Web security scanners and testing services offer users peace of mind and allows them to access websites or ensure that visitors are in a safe environment when visiting their sites, thereby gaining traffic in the long term.

With technology frequently mis-configured or mismanaged, web security testing services are a great way to determine points of weakness in a system. Along with testing a vulnerability assessment will help to identity vulnerabilities and address future threats. These are two steps that are the frontline in securing an organization.

SECURITY TESTING WITH WATIJ

Watij is a tool designed for functional web security testing. It’s effectively a Java API which drives an instance of Internet Explorer. You can then use your favourite unit testing framework to structure tests and make assertions of the results. Like similar functional testing tools, watij can be used to script security defects in web applications. This is inline with good security testing service providers and development practice of writing abuse cases and specifically testing for failure conditions rather than only testing for success conditions.I wrote a paper (pdf) on using functional testing tools in this way, some time ago, and since then I’ve been having a look at the various tools to find one most suitable for security testing services. Today, I whipped up some simple tests of the owasp.org website using Watij. It was easy to install and be up and running in Eclipse in a few minutes. Before starting on the tests, I wanted to define common functions, such as login and logout:

public static void login(String username, String password) throws Exception {
ie.navigate("https://www.owasp.org/index.php?title=Special:Userlogin&returnto=Main_Page");
ie.textField(name,"wpName").set(username);
ie.textField(name,"wpPassword").set(password);
ie.button(name, "wpLoginattempt").click();
}

public static void logout() throws Exception {
ie.navigate("https://www.owasp.org/index.php?title=Special:Userlogout&returnto=Special:Userlogin");
}

As you can see the syntax and API is quite intuitive. Now that these are defined, time to write the startup code for the tests – using JUnit 4 this is run only once for the whole test case:

//Run only once to initialise the browser
@BeforeClass
public static void init() throws Exception {
ie = new IE();
ie.start("https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Main_Page");
if (ie.containsText("There is a problem with this website's security certificate")) {
ie.link(name,"overridelink").click();
}
if (!ie.url().equals("https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Main_Page")) throw new RuntimeException("Error getting to the front page!");
webapp = new WebApp(ie);
}

And finally, we can write the tests which should be self explanatory:


@Test
public void testLoginLogout() throws Exception {
webapp.login(username, password);
assertTrue("Logged in.", ie.containsText("You are now logged in"));
webapp.logout();
assertTrue("Logged out.", ie.containsText("You are now logged out"));
}

@Test
public void testUserEnumeration() throws Exception {
webapp.login("notauser","test");
if (ie.containsText("There is no user by the name")) {
fail("Usernames can be enumerated through the login error messages");
}
}

@Test
public void testBruteForce() throws Exception {
int count=5;
for (int i=0;i webapp.login(username,"wrongpassword");
}
webapp.login(username,password);
if (ie.containsText("You are now logged in")) {
fail("After "+count+" incorrect login attempts, the user could still login. This exposes the accounts to brute force attacks.");
webapp.logout();
}
}

Here's a video of the result:

Quite slick. But say I'd like to test whether a user who's not logged in can post articles to the wiki. Well the "Edit" page is only displayed when you are logged in, so there's no way I can click on a non-existent link. And just because the link isn't there doesn't necessarily mean that the server won't accept the request. So what we need to do is perform the POST request to submit an article to the wiki directly and this is where watij stumbles. There's no easy way to create an arbitrary POST request. The recommended approach is to use something like HTTPUnit or HtmlUnit to perform this specific test. Ok, no problem, so I can just use the login function I've already defined in the watij tests, then read the session cookie and pass the cookie onto an HTTPunit test, right? Wrong. You can't read IE cookies from the watij API! So the only option is to re-code the login function in HttpUnit and use that instead. Lots of code duplication and now I'm mixing two different testing frameworks, not ideal.

To summarise the issues with using watij to test security:

• You can't make raw POST requests without there first being a form to post. This is problematic because a lot of security tests are really aimed at testing the server side, not the client. You could augment watir with some Java code, or HttpUnit or HtmlUnit to perform the post request...
• It doesn't appear to be possible to read IE's cookies from watij! This is really annoying, because now I can't reuse the login and logout function and simply pass the session cookie over to httpunit. I'd have to re-write the login function using httpunit - a whole lot of extra and messy work.
• Since it drives a real instance of IE, you have to trick it into ignoring client side validation or client side access control tests. (Of course client side security is no security at all)
• Tests can be quite slow, as watij waits for the entire page to load into the browser before continuing (turning off images and using ad blockers can help).

On the plus side, the JavaScript support is as good as it's gonna get so you'd very very rarely run into a web application which doesn't support IE.

On the whole, I can see the attraction for using watij to positively test functionality - but because of the reasons above, I don't think it's the best choice for performing negative testing (i.e. test what's not there). I hope to write a similar entry about Canoo's WebTest, which provides similar testing functionality, but using XML tests and it's own HTTP and Html engines.