Web Application, API and Mobile Penetration Testing
Application Penetration Testing for Access Control and Logic Flaws
Scanners check headers and library versions, but they cannot tell you whether a customer can read someone else's invoices or approve their own refund. A Global Digital Forensics application penetration test proves which permission checks, API calls and business workflows an attacker with a valid account can abuse. Our senior testers work the interface, the APIs behind it and the mobile client by hand, rank each finding by business consequence and retest the fixes before release.
Scope the application
Testing Built Around the Transactions That Cost Money
A customer portal, a payments flow, a partner API and an internal admin console fail in different ways, so they deserve different test plans. We start with your product owner: who the users are, which records are sensitive and which transactions would hurt if someone forged, replayed or skipped them. The test plan follows that ranking, and the accounts, data handling, stop conditions and release deadline are agreed in writing before anyone logs in.
Customer Data Boundaries
Record level permissions, tenant separation, exports and sharing links, tested in the API where the server either checks access or does not.
Workflows That Move Money
Refunds, approvals, invitations, coupons and account recovery, pushed out of order, repeated and attempted by the wrong role.
Findings Ready for the Sprint
The build, the role, the exact request sequence and the correction, so a developer can reproduce the flaw on Monday and close it by Friday.
Four Passes Through Your Application
01 / Map: Roles, Records and Transactions
We learn the application before we attack it. Test accounts for each role, the API documentation and a walk through with the product owner tell us which permission each screen is supposed to enforce and which transaction would be the expensive one to lose.
02 / Interface: What the Screen Allows
A real intrusion rarely starts with a clever exploit. It starts with a valid account, the browser's developer tools and the question of what happens when a record number changes or a request is sent twice. We test public and authenticated features, input handling, sessions, account recovery and multifactor flows the way that person would.
03 / API: What the Server Enforces
Then we go underneath. API testing calls the endpoints directly, including the ones the browser never shows, because a permission check that lives only in the user interface is no check at all. Where mobile clients are in scope, we examine the app, its local storage and its API traffic together with the server it talks to.
04 / Retest: Proof the Fix Held
After your developers correct the findings, we rerun the original sequences and the agreed variants and record which corrections held. AI tooling helps our testers correlate hundreds of requests and draft test cases faster, and a tester confirms every result by hand before it is written up.
Every API Call Tested Against Every Role
Authorization is the application's decision about what a signed in user may do. An insecure direct object reference, usually called an IDOR, is what happens when changing an invoice number in a request returns somebody else's invoice. Hidden buttons and hard to guess identifiers do not replace a server side check, so we test the server behavior directly and show your developers the exact request that succeeded when it should have failed.
For software that serves many customer organizations, we test the walls between tenants: administrative roles, service accounts, impersonation features, bulk exports and shared links. Agreed test accounts and representative data let us push hard on those walls while keeping real customer records out of the report.
Workflows Abused the Way Fraudsters Abuse Them
Business logic flaws pass every automated check because nothing is technically broken. A refund issued twice, an approval granted by the person who requested it, an invitation that still works after the inviting account was disabled: each one depends on what the business intended, so we confirm the rule with your product owner and then try to break it by repeating, skipping, delaying or reordering steps.
We follow changes across components, because that is where access lingers. A user removed from the interface may still hold a token issued yesterday or a scheduled export that runs tonight. Tracing the agreed workflow through those pieces shows the real exposure and the exact conditions needed to trigger it. If a payment, refund or approval flow is the one you worry about most, we can build the whole engagement around that workflow.
Black Box, Gray Box or White Box Access
Black box: the stranger on the internet
We start with what anyone can reach: the public site, the app from the store and every endpoint that answers without a password. It is the right first test when the question is what your exposed surface gives away.
Gray box: the compromised customer account
Test accounts, role descriptions and API documentation let us compare what each user is meant to do with what the application lets them do. This is usually the fastest route to the answer boards want after a breach headline, which is how far one stolen customer login reaches.
White box: the code behind the finding
With source access we read the authorization, input handling and business rules behind each weakness and confirm the behavior in the running application, so developers get the precise condition to change. Teams that want the code reviewed in its own right should look at our secure source code review, and teams that want the network, cloud and identity paths around the application tested together should look at network and infrastructure penetration testing.
Not sure which access level fits your release? Call (800) 868-8189 and a senior tester will tell you which one answers your question for the least effort.
Evidence a Developer Can Reproduce
Every finding names the build and environment, the affected function, the role required, the exact request sequence and the observed result. Supporting requests and responses, and code references where we have them, take the developer straight to the failed control. Sensitive payloads stay out of the executive summary, which ranks the exposure by business consequence rather than a generic severity score so leadership funds the fixes that protect customers and revenue first.
We describe each fix in terms of the permission or business rule it restores, because patching the one request we found while leaving the pattern in place only moves the problem. The retest record then shows which corrections held, which is usually the document a customer security questionnaire or an auditor asks to see.
Application Testing Grounded in Transaction Systems
Global Digital Forensics was founded in 1992, and its examiners have testified in federal and state courts about what those systems did. That forensic habit shows up in your report, where each step is logged and each finding is reproduced before it is written.
Joseph Caruso, our founder, CEO and CTO and a CISSP, brings a technology career that began in 1980 and spans real time transaction systems and mainframe databases, and his consulting expert work in an American Express consumer class action covered reservation architecture and source code. Read the team biographies.
Send the systems and the testing window, and a senior tester will propose the scope.
Frequently asked
Release Timing, Scanners, APIs and Source Code
Can you test before a release?
Yes. A stable staging build, representative roles and a clear release boundary let developers fix findings before launch. For material code changes made after testing, we agree a short follow up review so the release that ships is the release that was tested.
Is a scanner enough for this work?
No. Scanners find candidates such as missing headers and outdated libraries. Permission and business rule flaws need context, such as which sales representative may view a pipeline or how a refund relates to its original charge, so our testers confirm those rules with your product owner and reproduce every material finding by hand.
Can a focused test cover one critical workflow?
Yes. Scope can center on a new feature, a payments flow or a single consequential transaction, and the report states the coverage plainly so everyone reads the result for what it covers.
Do you test APIs and mobile apps as well as the web application?
Yes. We call the APIs directly to test permissions, object access, data exposure and workflow enforcement, and when mobile clients are in scope we examine the app, its local storage and its API traffic together with the server.
Do we have to provide source code?
No. Black box and gray box testing proceed with agreed application access and test accounts. Source access is an option when you want the root cause in the code behind a finding.
Can you test different user roles?
Yes, and you should. Test accounts for ordinary users, privileged roles and separate customer organizations let us test the boundaries where the most consequential application findings usually sit.
How are findings ranked?
By business consequence. Each finding states what we demonstrated, the role and conditions it depends on, the data or actions it reaches and what it would mean for your customers if an attacker did the same.
Can application testing be combined with a network penetration test?
Yes. We can scope the application, its APIs, the identities behind it and the connected infrastructure together, because an attacker who lands in your application looks for the way into your network next.
Test the Release Before Your Customers Do
Tell us what the application does, who signs in to it and when it ships. On the first call a senior tester will recommend the access level, the workflows to prioritize, the timeline and the price, and that initial consultation is free.
Reviewed by Joseph Caruso, Founder, CEO and CTO, CISSP. Last reviewed .