The Advantages in Using IAST Security

Posted by julesalanna on February 28th, 2018

IAST security which stands for interactive application security testing is a type of security testing for applications and was created by using DAST and RASP technologies to analyse the behaviour of applications which still in the testing phase. It works by checking the behaviour of the applications runtime engine to check the logic, data flow and configuration by attacking it with DAST inducer. The recorded results highlight any vulnerability to help app developers to lower the risks without having to slow down schedules for production. The IAST application security testing tools can be used with or without the DAST inducer. It can instead use QA testing, however this method is not as comprehensive which is why using DAST technology as the inducer for IAST security is preferred to minimise risks once the app is live.

Advantages of IAST security

The advantages of IAST security are that the RASP allows the results from DAST to be more comprehensive as they provide in depth instructions as to what action needs to be taken and make it easier for the creator to fix the vulnerabilities faster. IT is the RASP that stops DAST from giving false positives because it is able to give users evidence of the whole attack and how the exploitation has taken place. This makes it easier to apply the application code remediation to repair any vulnerability that has been detected. When interactive application security testing tools are used with other technologies they are able to provide an effective security solution which doesn’t rely on just one testing technology but a combination of the strongest to give users accurate results. By finding problems early on in the development phase the code analysis is able to be repaired before it scans more of the app. This reduces the chance of attacks occurring in the phase of production and can give real time alerts to potential issues so that they can be remedied.

All through the app development stages any issues can be dealt with so that you don’t have a heap of security problems to put right at the end of the production line. Developing software that is secure isn’t easy, especially with the high chance of getting false positives which can be a real time drainer. For many years developers have struggled to find solutions to reduce the alerts and have also found that for some programming languages there is not enough support. Interactive application security testing tools allow developers to reduce the cost of maintaining their software by catching any bugs before they get to the production phase reducing costs by up to 100 fold.

Integration is of course important to ensure that all developers, whatever code they are using have a way to minimise risks during the production phase. Interactive application security testing allows them to integrate the software into their chosen process. Feedback from previous tools used separately meant there was a lot of data to sift through but as IAST security tools can be used with many other tools it makes it easier for developers to find and fix problems rather than spend time going through every single false positive to fix a few genuine results.