The OWASP Top 10 is a useful risk-awareness baseline, but an assessment should go beyond checking a list. Test the application's architecture, trust boundaries, authentication flows, authorization model, business logic and exposed attack surface.
What to review
Authentication & identity
Review login flows, session handling, password controls, MFA enforcement and recovery mechanisms.
Authorization
Test horizontal and vertical privilege boundaries using controlled account and role comparisons.
Input & output handling
Assess injection paths, unsafe parsing, file handling, output encoding and server-side processing.
Configuration
Check security headers, exposed services, debug features, error handling and deployment defaults.
Practical testing approach
- Map the application's attack surface and trust boundaries.
- Identify high-value functions and sensitive data flows.
- Validate suspected weaknesses manually rather than relying only on scanners.
- Capture reproducible evidence and explain business impact.
- Provide remediation guidance and retest after fixes.
Preparing for an assessment
Share the application URLs, approximate roles and workflows, available test environment and release timeline. Provide test accounts through an agreed secure channel after scoping, never in the enquiry form.
Keep scope, access assumptions and exclusions explicit. Use redacted evidence and representative test data. Report what was verified, what remains uncertain and which checks could not be completed.
Further reading
Related resources
Guides
API Security Best Practices
A practical review of API identity, object authorization, schemas and evidence.
Read articleTechnical Analysis
An Illustrative Security Assessment Walkthrough
A fictional SaaS example showing scope, evidence and reporting. Not a client case study.
Read article