Web App Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking

Reconnaissance, Scanning, and Vulnerability Identification

• Methods for gathering information about target web applications:

• Passive reconnaissance techniques
• Active reconnaissance and fingerprinting techniques



• Describing the scanning and enumeration process for identifying open ports, services, and potential entry points
• Techniques for identifying subdomains, DNS enumeration, and how to analyze robots.txt and sitemap.xml of a web app 
• Exploring how to use Google Dorking and advanced Google search techniques for Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)
• Introduction to automated vulnerability scanning tools: OWASP ZAP
• Practical Exercise: Performing a vulnerability scan on a test web application and analyzing the results  

Exploitation of Web Application Vulnerabilities

• Exploring the SQL Injection (SQLi) method for manipulating databases and gaining unauthorized access
• Understanding the Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks and how they are used to execute malicious scripts in users' browsers
• Describing the Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRD) exploits and they force users to perform unwanted actions onthe  web app
• Exploring session hijacking and fixation techniques to gain unauthorized access
• Describing Bypassing Web Application Firewalls (WFAs) used to evade security mechanisms
• Practical Exercise: Exploiting vulnerabilities in a test application

Advanced Exploitation Techniques and Post-Exploitation

• Exploring privilege escalation techniques within a compromised application
• Understanding remote code execution (RCE) and file inclusion attacks (LFI & RFI)
• Discovering API vulnerabilities and how to exploit insecure APIs:

• Insecure authentication
• Rate-limiting bypass
• IDOR attacks

• Techniques used to maintain access and covering tracks in the post-exploitation phase
• Practical Exercise: Simulating an advanced attack scenario, including exploitation and post-exploitation activities

Reporting, Defensive Strategies and Secure Development Practices

• Exploring the main elements of a professional pentesting report:

• Document findings
• Impact analysis
• Remediation recommendations

• Discussing best practices for ensuring web app security:

• Coding practices
• Validation
• Authentication mechanisms

•  Understanding security measures to secure web app deployment:

• HTTPS enforcement
• Content Security Policy (CSP)
• Multi-factor authentication

• Guidelines and tips to participate in bug bounty programs and responsibly report vulnerabilities
• Case Study: Analyzing real-world data breaches caused by web application vulnerabilities
• Exercise: Conducting a secure code review to identify potential security issues