Applications increasingly drive the world we live in. Nearly every slice of our life depends on applications, from food delivery and online shopping to booking doctor’s appointments. Recognizing this trend, businesses have rapidly adapted to it. They rely heavily on applications to deliver services, reach out, and engage with users. However, this digital transformation has significantly expanded the attack surface, inviting threat actors to exploit the vulnerabilities. As a result, there has been a marked rise in cyberattacks.
A report by Veracode confirms at least 70% of web applications have serious security vulnerabilities, such as absence or poor-quality Web Application Firewalls (WAFs), lack of encryption, weak passwords, and poor access control mechanisms.
With the increase in sophisticated threats, including SQL injection attacks, broken access controls, and cryptographic failures, addressing such vulnerabilities has never been more urgent. To prevent exploitation through vulnerability, web application scanners must be employed.
In this blog, our security experts have curated top 5 application security testing tools based on various features, functionalities, and effectiveness of pentest reports, compliance satisfaction, and cost.
Qualys WAS is a web app vulnerability scanning tool that leverages cloud-enabled vulnerabilities on any kind of asset (scan). It can help in complete discovery of every web app & API assets – internal, external, unknown, forgotten, shadow or rogue; It can scan your environment, including on-prem, web apps, multi-cloud, API gateways, containers, microservices & more.
Key features includes the following:
Rapid7 is a tool for application security testing and a vulnerability scanner, which encompasses vulnerability testing, risk management and threat intelligence across a wide range of assets.This application security testing tool can identify 1,80,000+ vulnerabilities including an array of information-type to critical-class vulnerabilities. Further, it can detect more than 4,000 exploits in their Metasploit framework.
This can perform black -box security testing, triage vulnerabilities, and help in remediating app security risks. This can identify more than 95+ attack types. Rapid7 is loaded with cloud and on-premise scan engines.
Key features includes the following:
Among enterprises, Checkmarx is a web application security testing tool for software exposure that is used by more than 14000 organizations around the world including government agencies.
By utilizing this SAST tool, your developers will be able to speed up the identification and correction of vulnerabilities within their code.
It can scan over 25+ development frameworks, offers interactive AppSec training for developers and supports scalable collaboration for enterprise level security tests. Checkmarx is an AI powered tool, offering a full suite of enterprise AppSec platforms.
Key features includes the following:
Veracode is a famous scanner that has many kinds of security tests: SAST, DAST, Software Composition Analysis (SCA), and penetration tests. This tool for testing the security of Web Applications is made to synchronize with the rapid development pace which accompanies DevOps. It offers end-to-end static application testing.
The tool allows you to scan a hundred applications and APIs at the same time, making it an ideal web application analyzer for big organizations. It can identify vulnerabilities in more than 10 languages as well as in well-known libraries like RPMs, Mavens, PyPis, and NPMs.
Key features include the following:
5. OpenVAS
OpenVAS (Open Vulnerability Assessment System) is an extensive application security testing tool within the Greenbone Vulnerability Management (GVM) framework.
The network infrastructure and online applications can be scanned for vulnerabilities and security risks in both small and large organizations. This also offers complete reports on identified weaknesses.
Key features include the following:
Nmap is used as an open-source vulnerability scanner for cloud network discovery, management, and monitoring. It is specifically meant for this purpose and can handle big cloud networks. But it can also work well against a standalone network.
Port scanning, network mapping, service detection and firewall evasion can be done using the AST tool. For an analyst the NMAP results will help in the reconnaissance phase of a pentest.
Key features include the following:
Final Thoughts
Application vulnerability analysis allows you to be proactive on weaknesses related to software development life cycle since by thoroughly inspecting them you can reduce the chances of attacks. If you decide to pick an application security testing tool, consider whether it suggests remediation measures, less false positives, and how well it can be integrated in the application environment.
Looking for a cybersecurity partner that can conduct security audits AND vulnerability analysis of your applications? Our experts at Test Unity can help. To know more, contact us now.