7 Proven Tools for Web Application Penetration Testing

Web application penetration testing is a process that helps to ensure the security of your web application. It’s important for all companies in this day and age, whether you’re big or small, to remain vigilant when it comes to cyber security. There are many tools out there that can help with this process. In this blog post, we will discuss seven proven tools for web application penetration testing so that you can start using them on your website today!

1. OWASP ZAP

OWASP ZAP is one of the best vulnerability scanners that can be used to find vulnerabilities in web apps. It’s open-source, so it doesn’t cost anything and was created by The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) for performing OWASP penetration testing. As mentioned before, this tool will scan your website for any security issues including Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), SQL injections, etc. You should definitely check this out if you’re looking for a great way to start penetration testing on your site!

2. Burp Suite

Burp Suite is another great tool that can be used for web application penetration testing. It was created by PortSwigger and it’s actually a suite of tools that include an intercepting proxy, spider, repeater, intruder, decoder & compare, and a scanner. The best part about this tool is definitely the fact that you don’t have to worry about any licensing fees! You should download this if you’re looking for one comprehensive hacking program instead of having multiple ones on your computer.

3. SQLMap

SQLMap has been around since 2004 and it continues to be popular because it’s open-source software with no license fee attached either. SQLmap is a penetration testing tool for detecting and exploiting SQL injection flaws in web applications. The user simply inputs the URL of their website, selects any options that are necessary to create an exploit, and then executes it. If there’s an error or vulnerability on your site it will take care of everything else!

4. Arachni

Arachni was designed specifically with pentesting in mind (but not limited to). It’s open-source software like many other tools listed here which means no licensing fees either! One great thing about this program is how easy it is to run; you literally just download & install the package right onto your computer and let Arachnid do all the work for you (although you can still run this manually if you choose to do so).

5. WebScarab

The OWASP project is responsible for many great hacking tools but the one we are focusing on here today is their WebScarab software which helps with web app penetration testing. This program contains a proxy, spider & crawler, interceptor, and analyzer all in one convenient location! You should definitely check out this tool because it will make your life much easier when trying to find vulnerabilities on websites.

6. Astra Pentest

Astra Pentest by Astra has been around since 2015 and it’s another great tool for finding vulnerabilities in websites. Astra Pentest performs manual as well as an automatic scan of the website while also checking to make sure that all vulnerability exploits are discovered. This software is used by many companies such as Gillette, HotStar, Ford, Cosmopolitian, etc., so you know that they’re doing something right when it comes to web app pentesting.

7. Acunetix

Acunetix is a website vulnerability scanner that can be used as an automated or manual tool to find vulnerabilities on websites. Unlike the previous tools, this one has IP restrictions in place so you will need to request permission from Acuentix before using their software for pentesting purposes (in addition to paying them licensing fees).

Keep in mind that there are many other comparable products out there like Netsparker and Vega, but they come with similar restrictions & license costs attached too.

Summing Up…

If any of these tools interest you be sure to check them out further by visiting their official websites or clicking on their link above (in each description). If nothing else they’re worth looking into because they might help with your current security needs.

Enjoy!