OWASP ZAP Tutorial: A Simple Way to Detect Vulnerabilities

Have you ever thought of detecting vulnerabilities through an OWASP ZAP tutorial?

Imagine having a virtual screen protecting your online apps, spotting weaknesses before hackers can take use of them. OWASP ZAP (Zed Attack Proxy) is a powerful tool that facilitates the identification of vulnerabilities in online applications.

Beginners and specialists can do security testing with ease due to the user-friendly, open-source OWASP ZAP solution. It goes beyond just another security tool. Regardless of your needs—you can use this guide to learn how to use OWASP ZAP, get a Zap proxy tutorial, or use the Zap tool for security testing.

Because of its comprehensive coverage and ease of use, the OWASP ZAP tool is the recommended choice for security testing, as you will see.

Are you prepared to go forward now? Let's look at how web security testing is aided by the Zap security testing tool tutorial.

How to Use OWASP ZAP Tool for Security Testing

Adhere to this OWASP ZAP guide to confidently set up and perform security tests to ensure the safety of your applications.

ZAP Penetration Testing 

Through penetration testing with OWASP ZAP, you may proactively find and address security vulnerabilities before malevolent actors can exploit them.

ZAP penetration testing has the advantage of being able to extensively examine how your application functions in a variety of attack scenarios. 

ZAP assists you in identifying vulnerabilities like as SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and other typical issues that you could miss otherwise. By using OWASP ZAP's comprehensive reports and insightful analysis, you can identify the most critical vulnerabilities and ensure the security of your application. 

The OWASP ZAP Proxy Tutorial

By serving as a bridge, the ZAP proxy gathers information that might point to possible weaknesses.

• Setup and Start OWASP ZAP: Verify that the OWASP ZAP program is installed on your computer using the most recent version.

• Set Up the Proxy Configuration: Configure the proxy on your browser to send data via OWASP ZAP. This step is essential since it allows ZAP to record every HTTP request and response.

• Start a New Session: To track traffic, open a new session in OWASP ZAP. Proceed with your web application as usual, and ZAP will begin collecting data automatically.

Your ZAP proxy tutorial will prepare you for the security testing phase with these procedures.

After configuring your ZAP proxy, it's time to run a security check. With the help of this comprehensive vulnerability scanning tutorial, you can make efficient use of OWASP ZAP:

• Launch an Active Scan: Open OWASP ZAP and launch an active scan while your web application traffic is being watched. In addition to additional OWASP Top 10 security risks, this scan actively looks for widespread vulnerabilities like SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).

• Examine the Outcomes: OWASP ZAP will list possible vulnerabilities after the scan. Each discovery contains information about the type of vulnerability, the degree of risk, and the affected URL.

• Set priorities and deal with issues: Only some vulnerabilities must be taken seriously. Prioritize which issues to take care of first by using the information ZAP has supplied, paying particular attention to those that present the most significant risk to your application.

OWASP ZAP Example

First, let's look at a simple OWASP ZAP example. 

Consider that you must test a web application. Using the OWASP ZAP tool, you can intercept and examine activity between your browser and the web application to spot any vulnerabilities. 

This effectively puts you in the role of a "man-in-the-middle." OWASP ZAP will notify you of vulnerabilities that might threaten the security of your application, such as SQL Injection or Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).

Download Link:

https://github.com/zaproxy/zaproxy/wiki/Downloads

Step1

Adding a site to the testing scope

By telling the ZAP tool what the target site is, ZAP can limit the scope of the scan and only scan the target site for vulnerabilities.

1. Open the web application that you want to test.

2. In Zap you will find your website/application displayed under sites.

ZAP will spider that URL, then perform an active scan and display the results.

Zap runs on proxy, to set up the proxy in ZAP

Close all active Firefox browser sessions

ZAP tool -> Tools Menu -> Options -> Local Proxy -> Change Address = 127.0.0.1 Port = 8080.

Mozilla browser -> Tools Menu -> Options -> Advanced tab -> Network -> Settings -> Select Manual Proxy configuration:- HTTP Proxy = 127.0.0.1 Port = 8080.

Now try to connect to your application using your browser.

If you can’t connect to it then check your proxy settings again. You will need to check your browser’s proxy settings, and ZAP’s proxy settings. It’s also worth checking that the application that you are trying to test is running!

When you have successfully connected to your application you will see one or more lines in ZAP’s Sites and History tabs.

Note that most of ZAP’s tabs provide additional functionality that could be accessed via ‘right click’ menus.

Right click on the HTML -> Attack -> Active scan

ZAP will perform active scan on all the pages and display the results.

Save the ZAP session

Once you have manually explored the application it would be a good time to save the ZAP session so that you can look at it again.

If your application has multiple roles then you should explore it with each role and save the sessions in separate files.

Generating a Report

ZAP tool -> Report -> Generate HTML report (Any other options listed) -> Save and share the report.

Authentication , session and User management using ZAP

1) Context: Represents a Web application

2) Session Management Method: How are the web Sessions identified by the server and handle requests

Example: cookie based using query parameters

3) Authentication Method: How is a new session established?

It could be either Form based authentication method, HTTP based or oath methods.

4) User Management: Handling users of web application that could be used for executing actions

Example: user name/password pair

Steps to follow

1) Set proxy in local browser/access url: https://pr-uat.iptquote.com

Now include web app in context.

Context includes

(i)Authentication

(ii)Session management

(iii)Users management

Context: Form based authentication

(I) log-in from target url: https://pr-uat.iptquote.com/login.php

(ii) Login Request POST Data: username={%username%}&password={%password%}&proceed=login

(iii) Set params as: username =password

(iv) Include regex pattern for logged in or logged out response

Regex pattern for logged in response :- \Qa href=”https://pr-uat.iptquote.com/login.php?proceed=logout\E

Context: Session Management

Context: User management

For user management, we can add 2 users, one valid user let it be the “Existing user” here “superadmin” in our example and other is “Test User” invalid user.

Spider url attack applied to “Test user”

If spider url attack applied to the Test user returns get_login.php (error_message), also once spider attack completed “Test User” accesses home url only. uri’s covered: 31 is shown in the screenshot, where as only scan through https://pr-uat.iptquote.com

Spider url attack for existing valid user “Superadmin”

Here spider url attack applied to the Existing valid user. That is user with super admin logged in credentials. In the attached screenshots returns “POST login.php ( request _url) if selected, returns Uri’s covered 182 for the valid user. He can access all sites.

If you have any interest in application security then you should download ZAP and try it out.

As we approach the end of this OWASP ZAP tutorial, it is evident that this powerful tool is a vital resource for anybody concerned about online application security. With OWASP ZAP, you may quickly find vulnerabilities that you might miss otherwise. 

This enables you to take action before possible dangers materialize into significant threats. OWASP ZAP provides an easily navigable and customizable solution regardless of your level of experience in security testing.

The ability of OWASP ZAP to carry out thorough zap penetration testing is one of its most notable characteristics. This guarantees that you are thoroughly examining your application for security problems rather than merely skimming the surface. 

OWASP ZAP tutorial for beginners helps them to become proficient easily because of this thorough zap tool tutorial. This makes it an adaptable tool for a variety of users.

If you find this tutorial educational, you may connect with Toobler to gain more insights on web application development.

So, if you have any queries, connect with us. 

Links

OWASP https://www.owasp.org

Zed Attack Proxy,

https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Zed_Attack_Proxy_Project