Web Application Penetration Testing –From Beginner to Expert

Set up a home virtual penetration testing lab using virtualization tools such as VirtualBox and Workstation Player, deploy a broken web application, and practice intercepting browser requests to the server.

Set up an intercepting proxy with Burp to listen to HTTP traffic between the browser and the web app, capture requests, and observe application behavior for analysis.

Explore the Burp Suite of tools to intercept, edit, and replay web requests, map and engineer parameters, and test with Intruder payloads and decoding for base64 and other encodings.

Explore how account enumeration reveals valid usernames and guessable accounts, and assess password brute-force risk through an intrusion testing workflow using payloads and response analysis.

Explore testing for weak lock-out mechanisms in web apps by evaluating threshold-based account lockouts (three to five failed attempts), brute-force protection, and login page protections through practical checks.

Learn how to test web apps for authentication bypass by modifying parameters and requests, compare login versus non-login responses, and demonstrate bypass techniques to gain unauthorized access.

Demonstrates web app penetration testing by showcasing browser cache weaknesses, using the back button to reveal whether login credentials are captured and enabling unauthorized access.

Explore how to assess the account provisioning process via REST API by testing authentication, enumeration, and REST-based user creation, deletion, and security weaknesses.

Testing for directory traversal shows how attackers reach unauthorized admin pages by bypassing authorization checks, using wordlists and payloads to identify administrator pages and hidden configuration files.

Identify local file include (lfi) vulnerabilities and use directory traversal to access privileged files, and explore remote file include (rfi) concepts in a lab setting.

Learn how remote file include (rfi) attacks exploit parameter manipulation and weak server-side checks, bypassing data validation and whitelists to redirect users and access external files.

Demonstrates privilege escalation by intercepting and modifying cookies and requests to elevate a user from a normal role to admin, exposing missing authorization checks and improper account controls.

Explore insecure direct object reference by testing unauthorized access to files and resources via user-supplied input, including altering file paths and parameters to view restricted data.

Learn to test session token strength with a sequencer, examining cookies for uniqueness and cryptographic randomness to prevent information leakage, through a practical lab.

Assess cookie attributes such as secure and HttpOnly to prevent eavesdropping and cross-site scripting. Practice validating these protections in the lab by inspecting responses and flags.

Test session fixation by verifying that a new session token is issued after login and that unauthenticated and authenticated requests differ, preventing token reuse by attackers.

Identify and exploit exposed session variables by manipulating client-side data to access unauthorized information, using a proxy to reveal hidden fields and hidden pages through response modification.

Learn to test cross-site request forgery by showing how forged requests misuse an authenticated session to perform unauthorized actions. The lab demonstrates practical steps to observe potential data breaches.

Examine how weak business logic data validation enables price manipulation in shopping cart checkout, highlighting server-side validation gaps that let attackers alter quantities and prices.

Demonstrates how weak validation in unrestricted file uploads allows attackers to bypass content-type and extension checks by altering requests to upload non-image files as images via intercepting proxies.

Demonstrates timing attacks on login processes by measuring response times to distinguish valid from invalid credentials and reveal password-related information.

Demonstrate testing for circumvention of workflows in web app checkout by exploiting business logic flaws and client-side validation to alter price, coupon, and grand total.

Explore uploading malicious files as polyglots to exploit cross-site scripting payloads embedded in images, and understand how unrestricted file uploads enable execution and how defenders mitigate with validation and filters.

Test reflective cross-site scripting by injecting malicious JavaScript into inputs, intercepting and modifying requests, and validating reflected payloads in responses within a lab for web app pentesting.

Test stored cross-site scripting by injecting malicious JavaScript into database-stored inputs and validating permanent script execution on the page with a proof-of-concept payload.

Learn to test http verb tampering by altering request methods (get, post, put, patch, delete, options) to detect unintended disclosures and dangerous invocations, and to analyze responses.

Explore how http parameter pollution is tested in web app penetration testing by duplicating query and post parameters to observe unexpected application responses.

Explore SQL injection vulnerabilities arising from weak input validation and sanitation, and learn how attackers bypass authentication and access databases, with hands-on labs to prevent such attacks.

Learn web app penetration testing by practicing command injection testing, evaluating input validation, and triggering operating system commands with payloads in hands-on lab scenarios.

Explore bonus material in web app penetration testing, highlighting practical techniques, attack vectors, and defense concepts to enhance ethical hacking skills.