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which is the best web application vulnerability scanner

DB
dave b
Wed, May 4, 2011 4:42 AM

My personal recommendation is to learn the concepts in Tamper Data and
to build on webappsec knowledge in order to write your own scanner(s).
The ones that you build for yourself will always be "the best",
because you're the customer (and you know yourself and your testing
capabilities, especially test case design and test case organization
along with time management and other principles).

I agree with  'the ones that you build for yourself will always be
"the best" '  :)
(I find most to be useless for my needs).

> My personal recommendation is to learn the concepts in Tamper Data and > to build on webappsec knowledge in order to write your own scanner(s). > The ones that you build for yourself will always be "the best", > because you're the customer (and you know yourself and your testing > capabilities, especially test case design and test case organization > along with time management and other principles). I agree with 'the ones that you build for yourself will always be "the best" ' :) (I find most to be useless for my needs).
AS
Andreas Schmidt
Wed, May 4, 2011 6:39 AM

Hi,

I would also recommend WATOBO (Web Application Toolbox).
WATOBO is focused on manual pentesting but has also some automated
scanning capabilities, e.g. SQL, XSS,..
It acts as a local proxy, similar to Webscarab, Paros or BurpSuite.

The most important advantages are:

  • Testing of CSRF protected webapps!
  • It has Session Management capabilities! You can define login scripts
    as well as logout signatures. So you don’t have to login manually each
    time you get logged out.
  • Can perform vulnerability checks out of the box.
  • It supports Inline De-/Encoding, so you don’t have to copy strings to
    a transcoder and back again. Just do it inside the request/response
    window with a simple mouse click.
  • It has smart filter functions, so you can find and navigate to the
    most interesting parts of the application easily.
  • It's written in (FX)Ruby and enables you to define your own checks
  • WATOBO is free software ( licensed under the GNU General Public
    License Version 2)

More information you can find at the project page
http://watobo.sourceforge.net

There's also a very good manual including tutorials here:
http://www.aldeid.com/index.php/Watobo - Thanks to Sebastien!

regards,

andy

Am 03.05.2011 04:22, schrieb 孙松柏:

which is the best web application vulnerability scanner .among the free
software like
Arachni
JBrofuzz
Webshag
Websecurify
Zero Day Scan
Nikto
Wapiti
W3AF
Skipfish
Grendel-Scan
Grabber
Arachni
wikto
may be sth more and  support server client mode.

FIT1-213
Department of Computer Science
Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084
http://about.me/anakin/bio


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Hi, I would also recommend WATOBO (Web Application Toolbox). WATOBO is focused on manual pentesting but has also some automated scanning capabilities, e.g. SQL, XSS,.. It acts as a local proxy, similar to Webscarab, Paros or BurpSuite. The most important advantages are: - Testing of CSRF protected webapps! - It has Session Management capabilities! You can define login scripts as well as logout signatures. So you don’t have to login manually each time you get logged out. - Can perform vulnerability checks out of the box. - It supports Inline De-/Encoding, so you don’t have to copy strings to a transcoder and back again. Just do it inside the request/response window with a simple mouse click. - It has smart filter functions, so you can find and navigate to the most interesting parts of the application easily. - It's written in (FX)Ruby and enables you to define your own checks - WATOBO is free software ( licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2) More information you can find at the project page http://watobo.sourceforge.net There's also a very good manual including tutorials here: http://www.aldeid.com/index.php/Watobo - Thanks to Sebastien! regards, andy Am 03.05.2011 04:22, schrieb 孙松柏: > which is the best web application vulnerability scanner .among the free > software like > Arachni > JBrofuzz > Webshag > Websecurify > Zero Day Scan > Nikto > Wapiti > W3AF > Skipfish > Grendel-Scan > Grabber > Arachni > wikto > may be sth more and support server client mode. > > FIT1-213 > Department of Computer Science > Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084 > http://about.me/anakin/bio > > > > _______________________________________________ > The Web Security Mailing List > > WebSecurity RSS Feed > http://www.webappsec.org/rss/websecurity.rss > > Join WASC on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83336/4B20E4374DBA > > WASC on Twitter > http://twitter.com/wascupdates > > websecurity@lists.webappsec.org > http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org
AG
Andre Gironda
Wed, May 4, 2011 7:52 AM

On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Arian J. Evans
arian.evans@anachronic.com wrote:

By the way - love the humor on WASC today. I love that post
about how the real answer is that we should all just write our
own scanners and use tamper data, funniest thing I've read in
months!

There appears to be some confusion about what I recommended to the
list, so I'm going to take the time to clarify it here. It wasn't
meant to be humorous at all -- or provide answers to anything except
for the original author's question.

My personal recommendation is to learn the concepts in Tamper Data and
to build on webappsec knowledge in order to write your own scanner(s).

I didn't say "replace web app scanners with Tamper Data", nor did I
imply that notion. I said to learn the concepts of webappsec using
Tamper Data -- i.e. in a lab setting, on your own hours/time, and at
your own learning pace.

The ones that you build for yourself will always be "the best",
because you're the customer (and you know yourself and your testing
capabilities, especially test case design and test case organization
along with time management and other principles).

The concept that application developers be capable of writing their
own test code, including a full test harness is not a new concept.
Developers have been applying these principles for over 40 years. Full
knowledge access is a general requirement for testing, which involves
a "whole system": source code, along with the build/compile
information, and the runtime. The capability to create code-aware
instrumentation available at runtime has been discussed in the
literature in early versions of Knuth's The Art of Computer
Programming -- long before the web (and most compilers) ever existed.

Crawlers are sometimes a good way to enhance test knowledge, but they
are not good at running test cases against a bespoke app. App scanners
usually have a crawling component, but they also have results-tables,
typically data-driven, and implemented in an HTTP state machine and/or
HTML/Javascript/etc parsing engine(s). This is typically known as a
protocol (HTTP) or application (DOM and plugins) driver.

While a quality front-end to an protocol driver can be found in Burp
Suite Professional -- it lacks the capability of a full browser
(Fiddler OTOH can hook into the browser's network traffic at a lower
interface -- in order to exist outside of the browser). This doesn't
make Burp Suite Professional useless by any means, but it does require
the same level-of-effort in terms of context provisioning that Fiddler
(or any tool) would. Typically, this is programmatically affected
using Burp or Fiddler extensions/plugins. This is where developing
your own scanner comes into play, especially useful for large and/or
bespoke applications. I don't know anyone outside of scanner vendors
(including SaaS scanner vendors) who don't promote this method -- and
I believe the scanner vendors only do so because they want to sell
more products.

Fortunately, for the people who don't want to build a scanner and do
not have large or bespoke apps -- they can utilize W3AF as suggested
by SAFEcode guidance. There are additional benefits to using W3AF, but
these typically require more than a point-and-shoot configuration
(note: it helps to have HTML, Ajax, Python, and Ruby knowledge at a
basic level -- as well as some basic Linux or Windows command line
skills). If you really want a point-and-shoot solution, then Arachni
will probably be a good fit.

On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Arian J. Evans <arian.evans@anachronic.com> wrote: > By the way - love the humor on WASC today. I love that post > about how the real answer is that we should all just write our > own scanners and use tamper data, funniest thing I've read in > months! There appears to be some confusion about what I recommended to the list, so I'm going to take the time to clarify it here. It wasn't meant to be humorous at all -- or provide answers to anything except for the original author's question. > My personal recommendation is to learn the concepts in Tamper Data and > to build on webappsec knowledge in order to write your own scanner(s). I didn't say "replace web app scanners with Tamper Data", nor did I imply that notion. I said to learn the concepts of webappsec using Tamper Data -- i.e. in a lab setting, on your own hours/time, and at your own learning pace. > The ones that you build for yourself will always be "the best", > because you're the customer (and you know yourself and your testing > capabilities, especially test case design and test case organization > along with time management and other principles). The concept that application developers be capable of writing their own test code, including a full test harness is not a new concept. Developers have been applying these principles for over 40 years. Full knowledge access is a general requirement for testing, which involves a "whole system": source code, along with the build/compile information, and the runtime. The capability to create code-aware instrumentation available at runtime has been discussed in the literature in early versions of Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming -- long before the web (and most compilers) ever existed. Crawlers are sometimes a good way to enhance test knowledge, but they are not good at running test cases against a bespoke app. App scanners usually have a crawling component, but they also have results-tables, typically data-driven, and implemented in an HTTP state machine and/or HTML/Javascript/etc parsing engine(s). This is typically known as a protocol (HTTP) or application (DOM and plugins) driver. While a quality front-end to an protocol driver can be found in Burp Suite Professional -- it lacks the capability of a full browser (Fiddler OTOH can hook into the browser's network traffic at a lower interface -- in order to exist outside of the browser). This doesn't make Burp Suite Professional useless by any means, but it does require the same level-of-effort in terms of context provisioning that Fiddler (or any tool) would. Typically, this is programmatically affected using Burp or Fiddler extensions/plugins. This is where developing your own scanner comes into play, especially useful for large and/or bespoke applications. I don't know anyone outside of scanner vendors (including SaaS scanner vendors) who don't promote this method -- and I believe the scanner vendors only do so because they want to sell more products. Fortunately, for the people who don't want to build a scanner and do not have large or bespoke apps -- they can utilize W3AF as suggested by SAFEcode guidance. There are additional benefits to using W3AF, but these typically require more than a point-and-shoot configuration (note: it helps to have HTML, Ajax, Python, and Ruby knowledge at a basic level -- as well as some basic Linux or Windows command line skills). If you really want a point-and-shoot solution, then Arachni will probably be a good fit.
IK
Iman Khalkhali
Wed, May 4, 2011 12:30 PM

I want to have different web application intrusion log file.
for example first I want to scan an application with XSS attack.
in the second round I want to generate path traversal attack for
gathering another log file.
Is there any application to generate different attack for scanning an
application separately?

I want to have different web application intrusion log file. for example first I want to scan an application with XSS attack. in the second round I want to generate path traversal attack for gathering another log file. Is there any application to generate different attack for scanning an application separately?
RD
Ryan Dewhurst
Wed, May 4, 2011 5:01 PM

Not one of them is best at everything. Each is different. Use as many as
possible (to a degree).

Ryan Dewhurst

blog www.ethicalhack3r.co.uk
projects www.dvwa.co.uk | www.webwordcount.com
twitter www.twitter.com/ethicalhack3r

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 5:42 AM, dave b db.pub.mail@gmail.com wrote:

My personal recommendation is to learn the concepts in Tamper Data and
to build on webappsec knowledge in order to write your own scanner(s).
The ones that you build for yourself will always be "the best",
because you're the customer (and you know yourself and your testing
capabilities, especially test case design and test case organization
along with time management and other principles).

I agree with  'the ones that you build for yourself will always be
"the best" '  :)
(I find most to be useless for my needs).


The Web Security Mailing List

WebSecurity RSS Feed
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Join WASC on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83336/4B20E4374DBA

WASC on Twitter
http://twitter.com/wascupdates

websecurity@lists.webappsec.org
http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org

Not one of them is best at everything. Each is different. Use as many as possible (to a degree). Ryan Dewhurst blog www.ethicalhack3r.co.uk projects www.dvwa.co.uk | www.webwordcount.com twitter www.twitter.com/ethicalhack3r On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 5:42 AM, dave b <db.pub.mail@gmail.com> wrote: > > My personal recommendation is to learn the concepts in Tamper Data and > > to build on webappsec knowledge in order to write your own scanner(s). > > The ones that you build for yourself will always be "the best", > > because you're the customer (and you know yourself and your testing > > capabilities, especially test case design and test case organization > > along with time management and other principles). > > I agree with 'the ones that you build for yourself will always be > "the best" ' :) > (I find most to be useless for my needs). > > _______________________________________________ > The Web Security Mailing List > > WebSecurity RSS Feed > http://www.webappsec.org/rss/websecurity.rss > > Join WASC on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83336/4B20E4374DBA > > WASC on Twitter > http://twitter.com/wascupdates > > websecurity@lists.webappsec.org > http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org >
N
neza0x@gmail.com
Wed, May 4, 2011 5:40 PM

"Use As many as possible scanners" mmmmm??? Technically could be, but in the real Corporate world, you only have some days to test and validate, so, more scanners, more time to run/validate and multiple different reports too generate. Without any consistency.

What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix?

When the developer says, please re-scan! Crap!!!

Too much maintenance.

My suggestion would be, stick with one of the well known ones: Acunetix, Appscan or WebInspect and add to your process "Educating Testing", which means, take the results of the scan and do a more intelligent-human test on the requests that look "bypassable".

With this approach you could narrow down the gap of missing defects.

And actually, the real critical vulns are found by humans not by scanners :-)

My recommendation is to use an scan that allows macro creation so that you can reach sections that the scanner itself cannot.
Think of a process with 4 steps where the first one is to enter the invoice number or credit card, the scanner will never guess it and therefore not able to touch next steps/sections/urls/parameters.

What about gotcha-enable apps??

Webinspect supports macros, Acunetix (at least in the version I used years ago) only supports login macros.

Good luck.
Sent via BlackBerry from Danux Network

-----Original Message-----
From: Ryan Dewhurst ryandewhurst@gmail.com
Sender: websecurity-bounces@lists.webappsec.org
Date: Wed, 4 May 2011 18:01:19
To: dave bdb.pub.mail@gmail.com
Cc: websecurity@webappsec.org
Subject: Re: [WEB SECURITY] which is the best web application vulnerability
scanner


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http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org

"Use As many as possible scanners" mmmmm??? Technically could be, but in the real Corporate world, you only have some days to test and validate, so, more scanners, more time to run/validate and multiple different reports too generate. Without any consistency. What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix? When the developer says, please re-scan! Crap!!! Too much maintenance. My suggestion would be, stick with one of the well known ones: Acunetix, Appscan or WebInspect and add to your process "Educating Testing", which means, take the results of the scan and do a more intelligent-human test on the requests that look "bypassable". With this approach you could narrow down the gap of missing defects. And actually, the real critical vulns are found by humans not by scanners :-) My recommendation is to use an scan that allows macro creation so that you can reach sections that the scanner itself cannot. Think of a process with 4 steps where the first one is to enter the invoice number or credit card, the scanner will never guess it and therefore not able to touch next steps/sections/urls/parameters. What about gotcha-enable apps?? Webinspect supports macros, Acunetix (at least in the version I used years ago) only supports login macros. Good luck. Sent via BlackBerry from Danux Network -----Original Message----- From: Ryan Dewhurst <ryandewhurst@gmail.com> Sender: websecurity-bounces@lists.webappsec.org Date: Wed, 4 May 2011 18:01:19 To: dave b<db.pub.mail@gmail.com> Cc: <websecurity@webappsec.org> Subject: Re: [WEB SECURITY] which is the best web application vulnerability scanner _______________________________________________ The Web Security Mailing List WebSecurity RSS Feed http://www.webappsec.org/rss/websecurity.rss Join WASC on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83336/4B20E4374DBA WASC on Twitter http://twitter.com/wascupdates websecurity@lists.webappsec.org http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org
RD
Ryan Dewhurst
Wed, May 4, 2011 5:54 PM

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree.

"Use as many as possible (to a degree)." was my original quote.

I'm not saying use every scanner at your disposal, pick 3 or 4 which you
find work best for you. Never rely on just one automated blackbox web
application scanner.

It is true in a commercial environment you are restricted by time and scope.
But nothing is stopping you from firing two scanners at a time. You will
spend slightly more time validating the scanner results but the benefits
outweigh this by a long shot. You still only have to write one report from
the results.

"What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix"

Then you have 18 potential vulnerabilities to investigate, if they are all
unique, some (most) will probably be the same vulnerability, but one or two
may not be.

For example:
I always run Nikto on every test, as well as, Dirbuster as well as w3af, as
well as a local proxy tool and lots of other tools which aid me in my work.

And of course, don't ever just rely on automated blackbox scanners.

My original point was, use whatever tools and as many tools that are going
to aid you in finding and exploiting bugs (vulnerabilities).

Ryan Dewhurst

blog www.ethicalhack3r.co.uk
projects www.dvwa.co.uk | www.webwordcount.com
twitter www.twitter.com/ethicalhack3r

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:40 PM, neza0x@gmail.com wrote:

"Use As many as possible scanners" mmmmm??? Technically could be, but in
the real Corporate world, you only have some days to test and validate, so,
more scanners, more time to run/validate and multiple different reports too
generate. Without any consistency.

What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix?

When the developer says, please re-scan! Crap!!!

Too much maintenance.

My suggestion would be, stick with one of the well known ones: Acunetix,
Appscan or WebInspect and add to your process "Educating Testing", which
means, take the results of the scan and do a more intelligent-human test on
the requests that look "bypassable".

With this approach you could narrow down the gap of missing defects.

And actually, the real critical vulns are found by humans not by scanners
:-)

My recommendation is to use an scan that allows macro creation so that you
can reach sections that the scanner itself cannot.
Think of a process with 4 steps where the first one is to enter the invoice
number or credit card, the scanner will never guess it and therefore not
able to touch next steps/sections/urls/parameters.

What about gotcha-enable apps??

Webinspect supports macros, Acunetix (at least in the version I used years
ago) only supports login macros.

Good luck.
Sent via BlackBerry from Danux Network

-----Original Message-----
From: Ryan Dewhurst ryandewhurst@gmail.com
Sender: websecurity-bounces@lists.webappsec.org
Date: Wed, 4 May 2011 18:01:19
To: dave bdb.pub.mail@gmail.com
Cc: websecurity@webappsec.org
Subject: Re: [WEB SECURITY] which is the best web application vulnerability
scanner


The Web Security Mailing List

WebSecurity RSS Feed
http://www.webappsec.org/rss/websecurity.rss

Join WASC on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83336/4B20E4374DBA

WASC on Twitter
http://twitter.com/wascupdates

websecurity@lists.webappsec.org
http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. "Use as many as possible (to a degree)." was my original quote. I'm not saying use every scanner at your disposal, pick 3 or 4 which you find work best for you. Never rely on just one automated blackbox web application scanner. It is true in a commercial environment you are restricted by time and scope. But nothing is stopping you from firing two scanners at a time. You will spend slightly more time validating the scanner results but the benefits outweigh this by a long shot. You still only have to write one report from the results. "What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix" Then you have 18 potential vulnerabilities to investigate, if they are all unique, some (most) will probably be the same vulnerability, but one or two may not be. For example: I always run Nikto on every test, as well as, Dirbuster as well as w3af, as well as a local proxy tool and lots of other tools which aid me in my work. And of course, don't ever just rely on automated blackbox scanners. My original point was, use whatever tools and as many tools that are going to aid you in finding and exploiting bugs (vulnerabilities). Ryan Dewhurst blog www.ethicalhack3r.co.uk projects www.dvwa.co.uk | www.webwordcount.com twitter www.twitter.com/ethicalhack3r On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:40 PM, <neza0x@gmail.com> wrote: > "Use As many as possible scanners" mmmmm??? Technically could be, but in > the real Corporate world, you only have some days to test and validate, so, > more scanners, more time to run/validate and multiple different reports too > generate. Without any consistency. > > What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix? > > When the developer says, please re-scan! Crap!!! > > Too much maintenance. > > My suggestion would be, stick with one of the well known ones: Acunetix, > Appscan or WebInspect and add to your process "Educating Testing", which > means, take the results of the scan and do a more intelligent-human test on > the requests that look "bypassable". > > With this approach you could narrow down the gap of missing defects. > > And actually, the real critical vulns are found by humans not by scanners > :-) > > My recommendation is to use an scan that allows macro creation so that you > can reach sections that the scanner itself cannot. > Think of a process with 4 steps where the first one is to enter the invoice > number or credit card, the scanner will never guess it and therefore not > able to touch next steps/sections/urls/parameters. > > What about gotcha-enable apps?? > > Webinspect supports macros, Acunetix (at least in the version I used years > ago) only supports login macros. > > Good luck. > Sent via BlackBerry from Danux Network > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ryan Dewhurst <ryandewhurst@gmail.com> > Sender: websecurity-bounces@lists.webappsec.org > Date: Wed, 4 May 2011 18:01:19 > To: dave b<db.pub.mail@gmail.com> > Cc: <websecurity@webappsec.org> > Subject: Re: [WEB SECURITY] which is the best web application vulnerability > scanner > > _______________________________________________ > The Web Security Mailing List > > WebSecurity RSS Feed > http://www.webappsec.org/rss/websecurity.rss > > Join WASC on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83336/4B20E4374DBA > > WASC on Twitter > http://twitter.com/wascupdates > > websecurity@lists.webappsec.org > http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org > >
AG
Andre Gironda
Wed, May 4, 2011 6:26 PM

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 10:40 AM,  neza0x@gmail.com wrote:

"Use As many as possible scanners" mmmmm??? Technically could be, but in the real Corporate world, you only have some days to test and validate, so, more scanners, more time to run/validate and multiple different reports too generate. Without any consistency.

This is not true at all. There are many ways to aggregate/consolidate
scans and data from scans. Burp Suite Professional, along with Buby,
provide this capability in their combined API through the "send to
[rprogram]" interface. It's certainly possible to generate a single
report -- and The Dradis Framework provides hooks into HTML, MS Word,
PDF generation, Mediawiki, et al. This would only serve to make the
data MORE consistent and valuable.

What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix?
When the developer says, please re-scan! Crap!!!

You obviously need to work better with app developers if they are
directing this language towards you.

My recommendation is to use an scan that allows macro creation so that you can reach sections that the scanner itself cannot.
Think of a process with 4 steps where the first one is to enter the invoice number or credit card, the scanner will never guess it and therefore not able to touch next steps/sections/urls/parameters.
What about gotcha-enable apps??

Webinspect supports macros, Acunetix (at least in the version I used years ago) only supports login macros.

The manual modes in WebInspect and Netsparker mimic what is capable
with Burp Suite Professional Scanner (including and especially the
passive scanner). However, free tools such as W3AF, Casaba Watcher,
and Watobo also do this. You could always use a browser macro
language/framework (e.g. iMacros, Selenium IDE, Selenium-RC/WebDriver,
Geb, Watir/WatiN/Watij, etc) do drive the browser through a passive,
local web proxy. This may give better results depending on the target
app. It even works well with Tamper Data since this add-on maintains a
list of URIs, parameters, headers in addition to timestamps (all
available from XML). I'm sure you will find that this methodology is
better than using an app scanner. It's not as scaleable today, but it
is more viable in the long-term. Have you seen the hardware
requirements for WI/AMP though? Talk about scalability issues...

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 10:40 AM, <neza0x@gmail.com> wrote: > "Use As many as possible scanners" mmmmm??? Technically could be, but in the real Corporate world, you only have some days to test and validate, so, more scanners, more time to run/validate and multiple different reports too generate. Without any consistency. This is not true at all. There are many ways to aggregate/consolidate scans and data from scans. Burp Suite Professional, along with Buby, provide this capability in their combined API through the "send to [rprogram]" interface. It's certainly possible to generate a single report -- and The Dradis Framework provides hooks into HTML, MS Word, PDF generation, Mediawiki, et al. This would only serve to make the data MORE consistent and valuable. > What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix? > When the developer says, please re-scan! Crap!!! You obviously need to work better with app developers if they are directing this language towards you. > My recommendation is to use an scan that allows macro creation so that you can reach sections that the scanner itself cannot. > Think of a process with 4 steps where the first one is to enter the invoice number or credit card, the scanner will never guess it and therefore not able to touch next steps/sections/urls/parameters. > What about gotcha-enable apps?? > > Webinspect supports macros, Acunetix (at least in the version I used years ago) only supports login macros. The manual modes in WebInspect and Netsparker mimic what is capable with Burp Suite Professional Scanner (including and especially the passive scanner). However, free tools such as W3AF, Casaba Watcher, and Watobo also do this. You could always use a browser macro language/framework (e.g. iMacros, Selenium IDE, Selenium-RC/WebDriver, Geb, Watir/WatiN/Watij, etc) do drive the browser through a passive, local web proxy. This may give better results depending on the target app. It even works well with Tamper Data since this add-on maintains a list of URIs, parameters, headers in addition to timestamps (all available from XML). I'm sure you will find that this methodology is better than using an app scanner. It's not as scaleable today, but it is more viable in the long-term. Have you seen the hardware requirements for WI/AMP though? Talk about scalability issues...
N
neza0x@gmail.com
Wed, May 4, 2011 6:31 PM

"Nothing is stopping you two firing two scanners at the same time",
Let me give you 3 examples of someone stopping me/all:

  1. In corporate environments you cannot only download any tool (specially freeware ones) and run it, those need to be  approved tools or at least it should be that away, I cannot imagine a Company allowing its users to download/run anything they want.

  2. Dedicated scanners: some companies have dedicated servers to install/run scans, by adding a new tool, you might want to add a new server if you want to fire up two scans at the same time. Money wise.

  3. Scanners run in a Corporate environment must be allowed by IDS/IPS, WAF, so on to go through and reach the target, as you know, every scanner has a http header that identifies it with the Network, with your approach, the Networking Team, will need to allow different scanners in the network, by the way, also those could be the ones from malicious guys.

Bottom line, it depends on your environment, for Corporate ones, at least in the three 500-Fortune Companies I have worked for, does not work that way.
Sent via BlackBerry from Danux Network

-----Original Message-----
From: Ryan Dewhurst ryandewhurst@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 4 May 2011 18:54:46
To: neza0x@gmail.com
Cc: websecurity-bounces@lists.webappsec.org; dave bdb.pub.mail@gmail.com; websecurity@webappsec.org
Subject: Re: [WEB SECURITY] which is the best web application vulnerabilityscanner

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree.

"Use as many as possible (to a degree)." was my original quote.

I'm not saying use every scanner at your disposal, pick 3 or 4 which you
find work best for you. Never rely on just one automated blackbox web
application scanner.

It is true in a commercial environment you are restricted by time and scope.
But nothing is stopping you from firing two scanners at a time. You will
spend slightly more time validating the scanner results but the benefits
outweigh this by a long shot. You still only have to write one report from
the results.

"What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix"

Then you have 18 potential vulnerabilities to investigate, if they are all
unique, some (most) will probably be the same vulnerability, but one or two
may not be.

For example:
I always run Nikto on every test, as well as, Dirbuster as well as w3af, as
well as a local proxy tool and lots of other tools which aid me in my work.

And of course, don't ever just rely on automated blackbox scanners.

My original point was, use whatever tools and as many tools that are going
to aid you in finding and exploiting bugs (vulnerabilities).

Ryan Dewhurst

blog www.ethicalhack3r.co.uk
projects www.dvwa.co.uk | www.webwordcount.com
twitter www.twitter.com/ethicalhack3r

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:40 PM, neza0x@gmail.com wrote:

"Use As many as possible scanners" mmmmm??? Technically could be, but in
the real Corporate world, you only have some days to test and validate, so,
more scanners, more time to run/validate and multiple different reports too
generate. Without any consistency.

What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix?

When the developer says, please re-scan! Crap!!!

Too much maintenance.

My suggestion would be, stick with one of the well known ones: Acunetix,
Appscan or WebInspect and add to your process "Educating Testing", which
means, take the results of the scan and do a more intelligent-human test on
the requests that look "bypassable".

With this approach you could narrow down the gap of missing defects.

And actually, the real critical vulns are found by humans not by scanners
:-)

My recommendation is to use an scan that allows macro creation so that you
can reach sections that the scanner itself cannot.
Think of a process with 4 steps where the first one is to enter the invoice
number or credit card, the scanner will never guess it and therefore not
able to touch next steps/sections/urls/parameters.

What about gotcha-enable apps??

Webinspect supports macros, Acunetix (at least in the version I used years
ago) only supports login macros.

Good luck.
Sent via BlackBerry from Danux Network

-----Original Message-----
From: Ryan Dewhurst ryandewhurst@gmail.com
Sender: websecurity-bounces@lists.webappsec.org
Date: Wed, 4 May 2011 18:01:19
To: dave bdb.pub.mail@gmail.com
Cc: websecurity@webappsec.org
Subject: Re: [WEB SECURITY] which is the best web application vulnerability
scanner


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WebSecurity RSS Feed
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websecurity@lists.webappsec.org
http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org

"Nothing is stopping you two firing two scanners at the same time", Let me give you 3 examples of someone stopping me/all: 1. In corporate environments you cannot only download any tool (specially freeware ones) and run it, those need to be approved tools or at least it should be that away, I cannot imagine a Company allowing its users to download/run anything they want. 2. Dedicated scanners: some companies have dedicated servers to install/run scans, by adding a new tool, you might want to add a new server if you want to fire up two scans at the same time. Money wise. 3. Scanners run in a Corporate environment must be allowed by IDS/IPS, WAF, so on to go through and reach the target, as you know, every scanner has a http header that identifies it with the Network, with your approach, the Networking Team, will need to allow different scanners in the network, by the way, also those could be the ones from malicious guys. Bottom line, it depends on your environment, for Corporate ones, at least in the three 500-Fortune Companies I have worked for, does not work that way. Sent via BlackBerry from Danux Network -----Original Message----- From: Ryan Dewhurst <ryandewhurst@gmail.com> Date: Wed, 4 May 2011 18:54:46 To: <neza0x@gmail.com> Cc: <websecurity-bounces@lists.webappsec.org>; dave b<db.pub.mail@gmail.com>; <websecurity@webappsec.org> Subject: Re: [WEB SECURITY] which is the best web application vulnerabilityscanner I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. "Use as many as possible (to a degree)." was my original quote. I'm not saying use every scanner at your disposal, pick 3 or 4 which you find work best for you. Never rely on just one automated blackbox web application scanner. It is true in a commercial environment you are restricted by time and scope. But nothing is stopping you from firing two scanners at a time. You will spend slightly more time validating the scanner results but the benefits outweigh this by a long shot. You still only have to write one report from the results. "What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix" Then you have 18 potential vulnerabilities to investigate, if they are all unique, some (most) will probably be the same vulnerability, but one or two may not be. For example: I always run Nikto on every test, as well as, Dirbuster as well as w3af, as well as a local proxy tool and lots of other tools which aid me in my work. And of course, don't ever just rely on automated blackbox scanners. My original point was, use whatever tools and as many tools that are going to aid you in finding and exploiting bugs (vulnerabilities). Ryan Dewhurst blog www.ethicalhack3r.co.uk projects www.dvwa.co.uk | www.webwordcount.com twitter www.twitter.com/ethicalhack3r On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:40 PM, <neza0x@gmail.com> wrote: > "Use As many as possible scanners" mmmmm??? Technically could be, but in > the real Corporate world, you only have some days to test and validate, so, > more scanners, more time to run/validate and multiple different reports too > generate. Without any consistency. > > What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix? > > When the developer says, please re-scan! Crap!!! > > Too much maintenance. > > My suggestion would be, stick with one of the well known ones: Acunetix, > Appscan or WebInspect and add to your process "Educating Testing", which > means, take the results of the scan and do a more intelligent-human test on > the requests that look "bypassable". > > With this approach you could narrow down the gap of missing defects. > > And actually, the real critical vulns are found by humans not by scanners > :-) > > My recommendation is to use an scan that allows macro creation so that you > can reach sections that the scanner itself cannot. > Think of a process with 4 steps where the first one is to enter the invoice > number or credit card, the scanner will never guess it and therefore not > able to touch next steps/sections/urls/parameters. > > What about gotcha-enable apps?? > > Webinspect supports macros, Acunetix (at least in the version I used years > ago) only supports login macros. > > Good luck. > Sent via BlackBerry from Danux Network > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ryan Dewhurst <ryandewhurst@gmail.com> > Sender: websecurity-bounces@lists.webappsec.org > Date: Wed, 4 May 2011 18:01:19 > To: dave b<db.pub.mail@gmail.com> > Cc: <websecurity@webappsec.org> > Subject: Re: [WEB SECURITY] which is the best web application vulnerability > scanner > > _______________________________________________ > The Web Security Mailing List > > WebSecurity RSS Feed > http://www.webappsec.org/rss/websecurity.rss > > Join WASC on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83336/4B20E4374DBA > > WASC on Twitter > http://twitter.com/wascupdates > > websecurity@lists.webappsec.org > http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org > >
AJ
Arian J. Evans
Wed, May 4, 2011 6:38 PM

responding to your statements below:

None of the scanners provide meaningful depth/coverage
run in point-and-shoot mode. In addition, their tests will
stomp all over each other and conflict if run concurrently.

So, the "run a bunch of different scanners" and "you
can run them in parallel" advice does not work beyond
testing simple, unauth brochureware.

This is despite the obvious fact that few people have
time to effectively run one DAST or SAST scanner
on all their apps when they need to/when their code
changes. Adding more tools will not help, but I digress.

I can see the more limited use-case where a consultant
on a pen-test engagement with enough time may choose
to run more than one tool. But that doesn't translate over
to corporate application security.


Arian Evans
Software Security Scanning Stuff

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 10:54 AM, Ryan Dewhurst ryandewhurst@gmail.com wrote:

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree.

"Use as many as possible (to a degree)." was my original quote.

I'm not saying use every scanner at your disposal, pick 3 or 4 which you
find work best for you. Never rely on just one automated blackbox web
application scanner.

It is true in a commercial environment you are restricted by time and scope.
But nothing is stopping you from firing two scanners at a time. You will
spend slightly more time validating the scanner results but the benefits
outweigh this by a long shot. You still only have to write one report from
the results.

"What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix"

Then you have 18 potential vulnerabilities to investigate, if they are all
unique, some (most) will probably be the same vulnerability, but one or two
may not be.

For example:
I always run Nikto on every test, as well as, Dirbuster as well as w3af, as
well as a local proxy tool and lots of other tools which aid me in my work.

And of course, don't ever just rely on automated blackbox scanners.

My original point was, use whatever tools and as many tools that are going
to aid you in finding and exploiting bugs (vulnerabilities).

Ryan Dewhurst

blog www.ethicalhack3r.co.uk
projects www.dvwa.co.uk | www.webwordcount.com
twitter www.twitter.com/ethicalhack3r

On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:40 PM, neza0x@gmail.com wrote:

"Use As many as possible scanners" mmmmm??? Technically could be, but in
the real Corporate world, you only have some days to test and validate, so,
more scanners, more time to run/validate and multiple different reports too
generate. Without any consistency.

What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix?

When the developer says, please re-scan! Crap!!!

Too much maintenance.

My suggestion would be, stick with one of the well known ones: Acunetix,
Appscan or WebInspect and add to your process "Educating Testing", which
means, take the results of the scan and do a more intelligent-human test on
the requests that look "bypassable".

With this approach you could narrow down the gap of missing defects.

And actually, the real critical vulns are found by humans not by scanners
:-)

My recommendation is to use an scan that allows macro creation so that you
can reach sections that the scanner itself cannot.
Think of a process with 4 steps where the first one is to enter the
invoice number or credit card, the scanner will never guess it and therefore
not able to touch next steps/sections/urls/parameters.

What about gotcha-enable apps??

Webinspect supports macros, Acunetix (at least in the version I used years
ago) only supports login macros.

Good luck.
Sent via BlackBerry from Danux Network

-----Original Message-----
From: Ryan Dewhurst ryandewhurst@gmail.com
Sender: websecurity-bounces@lists.webappsec.org
Date: Wed, 4 May 2011 18:01:19
To: dave bdb.pub.mail@gmail.com
Cc: websecurity@webappsec.org
Subject: Re: [WEB SECURITY] which is the best web application
vulnerability
       scanner


The Web Security Mailing List

WebSecurity RSS Feed
http://www.webappsec.org/rss/websecurity.rss

Join WASC on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83336/4B20E4374DBA

WASC on Twitter
http://twitter.com/wascupdates

websecurity@lists.webappsec.org

http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org

responding to your statements below: None of the scanners provide meaningful depth/coverage run in point-and-shoot mode. In addition, their tests will stomp all over each other and conflict if run concurrently. So, the "run a bunch of different scanners" and "you can run them in parallel" advice does not work beyond testing simple, unauth brochureware. This is despite the obvious fact that few people have time to effectively run one DAST or SAST scanner on all their apps when they need to/when their code changes. Adding more tools will not help, but I digress. I can see the more limited use-case where a consultant on a pen-test engagement with enough time may choose to run more than one tool. But that doesn't translate over to corporate application security. --- Arian Evans Software Security Scanning Stuff On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 10:54 AM, Ryan Dewhurst <ryandewhurst@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. > > "Use as many as possible (to a degree)." was my original quote. > > I'm not saying use every scanner at your disposal, pick 3 or 4 which you > find work best for you. Never rely on just one automated blackbox web > application scanner. > > It is true in a commercial environment you are restricted by time and scope. > But nothing is stopping you from firing two scanners at a time. You will > spend slightly more time validating the scanner results but the benefits > outweigh this by a long shot. You still only have to write one report from > the results. > > "What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix" > > Then you have 18 potential vulnerabilities to investigate, if they are all > unique, some (most) will probably be the same vulnerability, but one or two > may not be. > > For example: > I always run Nikto on every test, as well as, Dirbuster as well as w3af, as > well as a local proxy tool and lots of other tools which aid me in my work. > > And of course, don't ever just rely on automated blackbox scanners. > > My original point was, use whatever tools and as many tools that are going > to aid you in finding and exploiting bugs (vulnerabilities). > > Ryan Dewhurst > > blog www.ethicalhack3r.co.uk > projects www.dvwa.co.uk | www.webwordcount.com > twitter www.twitter.com/ethicalhack3r > > > On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 6:40 PM, <neza0x@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> "Use As many as possible scanners" mmmmm??? Technically could be, but in >> the real Corporate world, you only have some days to test and validate, so, >> more scanners, more time to run/validate and multiple different reports too >> generate. Without any consistency. >> >> What if you find 10. Vulns in Webinspect, 5 in AppScan and 3 in Acunetix? >> >> When the developer says, please re-scan! Crap!!! >> >> Too much maintenance. >> >> My suggestion would be, stick with one of the well known ones: Acunetix, >> Appscan or WebInspect and add to your process "Educating Testing", which >> means, take the results of the scan and do a more intelligent-human test on >> the requests that look "bypassable". >> >> With this approach you could narrow down the gap of missing defects. >> >> And actually, the real critical vulns are found by humans not by scanners >> :-) >> >> My recommendation is to use an scan that allows macro creation so that you >> can reach sections that the scanner itself cannot. >> Think of a process with 4 steps where the first one is to enter the >> invoice number or credit card, the scanner will never guess it and therefore >> not able to touch next steps/sections/urls/parameters. >> >> What about gotcha-enable apps?? >> >> Webinspect supports macros, Acunetix (at least in the version I used years >> ago) only supports login macros. >> >> Good luck. >> Sent via BlackBerry from Danux Network >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Ryan Dewhurst <ryandewhurst@gmail.com> >> Sender: websecurity-bounces@lists.webappsec.org >> Date: Wed, 4 May 2011 18:01:19 >> To: dave b<db.pub.mail@gmail.com> >> Cc: <websecurity@webappsec.org> >> Subject: Re: [WEB SECURITY] which is the best web application >> vulnerability >>        scanner >> >> _______________________________________________ >> The Web Security Mailing List >> >> WebSecurity RSS Feed >> http://www.webappsec.org/rss/websecurity.rss >> >> Join WASC on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83336/4B20E4374DBA >> >> WASC on Twitter >> http://twitter.com/wascupdates >> >> websecurity@lists.webappsec.org >> >> http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org >> > > > _______________________________________________ > The Web Security Mailing List > > WebSecurity RSS Feed > http://www.webappsec.org/rss/websecurity.rss > > Join WASC on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83336/4B20E4374DBA > > WASC on Twitter > http://twitter.com/wascupdates > > websecurity@lists.webappsec.org > http://lists.webappsec.org/mailman/listinfo/websecurity_lists.webappsec.org > >