As organizations continue to adopt cloud-based architectures and technologies such as DevOps, they must also take steps to ensure the security of their applications. Dynamic application security testing (DAST) is an important tool in this effort, as it helps to identify potential vulnerabilities and provides insight into potential attack vectors.
DAST is a form of software testing that evaluates the security of an application by actively probing for vulnerabilities without prior knowledge of the system’s design or code. This can be done either manually or with automated tools such as static source code analysis, fuzzing, runtime application self-protection (RASP), and web vulnerability scanners. DAST tools are designed to detect common weaknesses in web applications such as cross-site scripting (XSS), injection attacks, insecure authentication mechanisms, and misconfigurations that could lead to unauthorized access or data leakage.
It’s important for organizations to understand that DAST complements other cybersecurity strategies like penetration testing and static source code analysis.