A Beginner's Guide To Web Application Penetration Testing

A hands-on, beginner-friendly intro to web application pentesting

In A Beginner's Guide to Web Application Penetration Testing, seasoned cybersecurity veteran Ali Abdollahi delivers a startlingly insightful and up-to-date exploration of web app pentesting. In the book, Ali takes a dual approach—emphasising both theory and practical skills—equipping you to jumpstart a new career in web application security.

You'll learn about common vulnerabilities and how to perform a variety of effective attacks on web applications. Consistent with the approach publicised by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), the book explains how to find, exploit and combat the ten most common security vulnerability categories, including broken access controls, cryptographic failures, code injection, security misconfigurations, and more.

A Beginner's Guide to Web Application Penetration Testing walks you through the five main stages of a comprehensive penetration test: scoping and reconnaissance, scanning, gaining and maintaining access, analysis, and reporting. You'll also discover how to use several popular security tools and techniques, such as:

• Demonstrations of the performance of various penetration testing techniques, including subdomain enumeration with Sublist3r and Subfinder, and port scanning with Nmap
• Strategies for analysing and improving the security of web applications against common attacks
• Explanations of the increasing importance of web application security, and how to use techniques like input validation and disabling external entities to maintain security

Perfect for software engineers new to cybersecurity, security analysts, web developers, and other IT professionals, A Beginner's Guide to Web Application Penetration Testing will also earn a prominent place in the libraries of cybersecurity students and anyone else with an interest in web application security.