According to a 2017 study on application security, 30% of the breaches were attacks on web applications. To counter this, businesses turn to cybersecurity solutions. The two main techniques to counter and protect from web app attacks are penetration testing and source code review.

This blog evaluates both of these techniques to help you carefully evaluate what’s best for you.

Source Code Review

Also known as the source code security analysis, source code review examines a web application source code. It’s used to find mistakes that have been overlooked during the development phase. In the process, the tested scans the application’s code line by line through a code analyser. When the analyser finds potential vulnerabilities, the pen tester checks those vulnerabilities for false negatives and eliminates them.

The time it takes to review a source code varies with the app's size and the type of programming language. For instance, it may take from one to two hours to review a code that 1000 lines long. 

Strengths of Source Code Review

The benefit of a source code review is the fact that it can detect the following vulnerabilities:

Encryption errors – They include weak implementation of strong encryption algorithms and weak encryption algorithms. An example of this can be insecure key storage. 

All types of SQL injection and XSS vulnerabilities

Race conditions – Performing more than one operation at a time.

Buffer overflow – When you put more data in the buffer than it can manage.

Furthermore, if pen testing spots a vulnerable web application, the source code review lets the pen tester to go its root and save the client’s money and time. 

Penetration Testing

Pen testing is a process of ethical hacking. In the process, a pen tester hacks a web app to expose its vulnerabilities. This process takes more time than the source code review as it includes a lot of stages. It begins with the pen tester performing inspection against the target web application through web scanning and user tests. Then, the pen tester exploits the vulnerabilities to escalate the privileges to an administrative level.

Depending on how complex the project is, the total time consumed can range between twenty and four hundred hours. 

Strengths of Pen Testing

There are a few vulnerabilities in web applications that can be exposed only through penetration testing:

Search engine indexing – The web application’s local search engine can reveal sensitive data like scanned copies of driver’s license and passport.

Weak authentication – This includes weak passwords, password reuse, or invalid CAPTCHA.

The most significant benefit of pen testing is the fact that it's risk-based. During the inspection process, the tester learns about the client’s business through the web app. It aids in detecting high priority risks and build test cases that are specific to the company. For instance, if an application is a search engine, the pen tester won’t focus on XSS vulnerabilities but instead on the ones that cause data mining attacks.