SaaS platforms are integral to business operations owing to the scalability, flexibility, and accessibility they offer to your team. As more businesses embrace SaaS solutions, cybercriminals are making them prime targets for cyberattacks.

Your SaaS platform might be targeted for credential stuffing, API exploitation, or session hijacking, which can eventually lead to data theft and reputation damage. SaaS depends on cloud infrastructure and can integrate with numerous tools, resulting in vulnerabilities and a wide attack surface.

While your SaaS provider does manage security aspects, it is a shared responsibility to ensure your platform doesn’t have weaknesses that haven’t been checked. That’s why you need to invest in SaaS penetration testing. It can help you determine your platform’s issues and bugs before attackers to ensure safe data and operations.

This article will take you through the top benefits of SaaS Penetration Testing and how it is a crucial part of your testing strategy.

What is SaaS Penetration Testing?

SaaS penetration testing is like a friendly hacker who puts your cloud through intensive tests to find weaknesses and vulnerabilities before the bad guys do. The test outcomes will help you identify the security gaps within the platform by mimicking these attacks.

The SaaS penetration testers blend their expertise with automated tools and vast experience to conduct in-depth tests. Using these tools, your testers can learn even the most complex issues by following a step-by-step process. Eventually, you can assess the security controls of your SaaS platform from all angles and tighten your software’s security.

Why Do SaaS Applications Need Penetration Testing?

The SaaS platform is the backbone of your business, as it helps you manage critical operations seamlessly. However, owing to its complexity, it is also your Achilles’ heel. Additionally, these tools can easily integrate with your in-house systems and third-party tools, thus operating on a shared cloud infrastructure.

As a result, you will notice that the SaaS applications have a wider attack surface, which can increase the chances of potential threats like weak authentication and misconfigured settings. With these technical slips, you are opening the gates wide for the attackers.

From phishing attacks to session hijacking, you can experience threats of varied complexities that can hamper your reputation. You can overcome your platform’s vulnerabilities by continuously testing them against these threats.

SaaS penetration testing helps you close these gaps before attackers notice them, strengthening your defenses and ensuring complete compliance adherence. With this proactive testing, you can protect your reputation and ensure zero losses for the business.

Types of Penetration Testing for SaaS Applications

You must test the SaaS application considering multiple perspectives to secure the solution fully. From finding the external threats to discovering insider risks, each SaaS penetration testing type is different. You can understand these methods to build a stronger defence:

 

Black-box Testing

In this testing method, you can simulate the attack made by outsiders who have no understanding of the system. Your testing team will behave like a real-world hacker while interacting with the system to expose the vulnerabilities in the login portals and user-facing features. You can use it to determine external threats and security issues.

White-box Testing

The testing team gains complete access to your application’s source code, documentation, and architecture. This allows your team to conduct a thorough analysis of the internal logic, security system, and configurations to spot complex vulnerabilities that are overlooked during superficial scans.

Grey-box Testing

In grey box testing, you can blend insider attacks with external ones to get system knowledge, such as user credentials and admin access. Your team will simulate real-world situations like compromised accounts and insider threats to give you an insight into the exploitation of partial attacks.

Internal vs External Penetration Testing

The internal testing of your SaaS application provides a detailed account of rogue employees and infected devices. With external testing, you can understand attacks made by bots or hackers. You get a complete picture of the actual security system against potential insider and external attacks.

Use of Automated Tools and Manual Methods

You must combine automated and manual methods to conduct effective SaaS penetration testing. With the automated tools, you can learn the known vulnerabilities, while skilled manual testers can identify the hidden flaws in the system. You can gain more accurate insights with this combination.

Key Components of a SaaS Penetration Test

SaaS penetration test allows you to assess the different layers of the application to determine hidden risks. Each component within the test is crucial in identifying these issues that can compromise your platform’s security and compliance:

Application Layer and Web Applications

The testing team can use this component to identify flaws in your web interface and application logic. The team will look for common issues like cross-site scripting, insecure session handling, and SQL injection, which hackers normally use to gain access.

Access Control and Authentication Checks

With this testing, you can ensure that users perform actions that are allowed for their roles on the system. Your team will check for privilege escalation with broken access control and authentication flaws, like weak password policies. This will strengthen the access points, preventing unauthorized access.

API Vulnerability and Integration Issues

While APIs are crucial to the proper functioning of the SaaS system, they can also expose your operations. With API-specific tests, you can secure your endpoints and ensure proper authentication with minimal data exposure, helping to strengthen the system’s overall security.

Data Encryption and Sensitive Data Storage

This component is crucial as it tells your tester how the data is stored, processed, and transmitted. Your team can check the system for proper encryption protocols and secure key management. These assessments can give you vital information on how user information is protected and whether the system adheres to compliance requirements.

Configuration Audits and System Access

Misconfigured settings can expose your SaaS system to serious threats. This test assesses system configurations, cloud settings, and network exposure to catch issues like insecure defaults, unmonitored access points, and overly permissive roles before hackers do.

Benefits of SaaS Penetration Testing

SaaS penetration testing is a strategic investment for your business’s security, reputation, and compliance. Let’s take note of all the benefits it delivers to your business:

Early Identify Vulnerabilities

With SaaS penetration software testing services, you can detect security flaws before hackers can. The testing team can simulate real-world attacks to find hidden vulnerabilities within the code and configuration.
By detecting these issues early, your team can fix them proactively, thus mitigating the risks associated with minor issues and compliance failures.

Better Data Security and Privacy

Data is your biggest asset, and you must ensure it is secure. With reliable penetration testing services, you can strengthen the data protection methods by learning all the ways in which the data can be leaked, exposed or stolen. It can also validate the effectiveness of your encryption and access control to keep your private data safe.

Align with Industry Standards (e.g., PCI DSS)

For maximum security, it is crucial to ensure complete compliance with industry-specific security standards like PCI DSS, HIPAA, and SOC2. Penetration testing can support your compliance efforts by testing your security controls to assess their effectiveness. Your team will share detailed reports needed for audits to help maintain regulatory certifications.

Build Customer Trust

In the era of frequent data breaches, your customers need assurance that their data is safe. With regular penetration tests, you can showcase your commitment to data protection. You can share your testing practices to ensure complete reliability and transparency, thus making your business credible and trusted among buyers.

Lower Data Breaches and Downtime Risks

When your SaaS system is hacked, it can cause data loss and substantial downtime. This can eventually hurt your revenue and reputation. You can avoid this by conducting continuous penetration tests.

It will help identify and resolve vulnerabilitiesthat  attackers exploit while ensuring maximum uptime and business continuity for your system.

Stronger Access Control

SaaS breaches are mostly caused by weak access control. With automated or manual testing services, you can assess your system’s role-based access controls with authentication systems. This will ensure that the sensitive data and functions can be accessed only by authorized users, thus reducing the risk of internal misuse or external attacks.

Improved Overall Security Posture

Apart from fixing the individual issues in your system, you can get a high-level view of your system’s security. You know the gaps in your policies, architecture and configurations to build a stronger defence.
With continuous testing, you can make your SaaS system resilient and future-proof.

6 Key Stages of SaaS Penetration Testing

Successful SaaS penetration testing involves a structured process that can help simulate real-world attacks and reveal hidden issues in your system. Each stage is crucial in determining and validating these issues for the perfect resolution.

Reconnaissance and Prior Knowledge

In this stage, your testing team will gather the maximum information about the SaaS application, the infrastructure, and user types. Depending on the testing type you will be using (grey box, black box, or white box), the information will include public data, source code, and network architecture.

With this information, the team can map the entire environment while identifying areas with potential issues.

Threat Modelling and Risk Assessment

The second stage is when your team analyzes the available information to determine the system’s attack vectors, critical assets, and potential threats. This can help prioritize the targets based on the system’s risk level, potential impact, and importance.

With this step, the team will ensure that the testing is focused, fully strategized, and in sync with real-world scenarios.

Vulnerability Scanning

Your SaaS penetration testers will combine the automated tools with manual methods to scan the application for outdated components, misconfiguration, and vulnerabilities.

In this stage, your team will spot insecure APIs, improper access, and exposed endpoints. These findings will help your team get a clear insight into the flaws that need to be tested and validated.

Exploit Vulnerabilities

After identifying the vulnerabilities in the previous phase, the testers would exploit them to check how far into the system the hacker could get. Using simulation attacks like data exfiltration and session hijacking, they can validate how the real-world attack will impact the vulnerabilities and the risks it can cause.

Post-exploitation Analysis

The testing team looks into the damage done to your system after the successful attack. They will analyze the data exposed during the attack with the access levels exposed that granted the attacker complete control.
This will help your testing team provide a complete scope of risks with the priority security improvements.

Detailed Report and Fix Vulnerabilities

This is the final stage of SaaS penetration testing, during which the team compiles and creates a report of their findings, including a list of vulnerabilities and exploited paths. They will also share the system’s impact and recommendations.

This report will guide your development and security teams in improving the software’s defences and security.

How Does Moon Technolabs Enhance SaaS Security with Expert Penetration Testing?

Moon Technolabs aims to improve SaaS security by providing expert-driven penetration testing customized to your application’s architecture. The team’s experts blend automation tools with advanced manual methods to determine weaknesses within the API, access control, and application layers.

They have years of experience in conducting white-box, black-box, and grey-box testing methods to simulate the real-world attacks that check the platform’s resilience.

Their testing team delivers a detailed report with priority risks, actionable insights, and recommendations for quick and effective security fixes. They align their approach with industry regulations to ensure complete compliance with a stronger and more secure digital environment.

Protect Your SaaS Business with Expert Penetration Testing

Our team helps you identify vulnerabilities, secure customer data, and stay ahead of cyber threats. Let’s make your SaaS application bulletproof.

Talk to Our Security Experts

Conclusion

In a threat-driven landscape, where hackers are waiting for opportunities to attack your SaaS application, securing your software is no longer an option- it’s essential. With these tests, you can identify the issues and prioritize your defences to ensure security is at the core of your application strategy.

It helps the development and security teams uplift the application, protecting it from data breaches and access threats.

Moon Technolabs has a defined process and customized testing approach that is fully committed to delivering actionable results. With our in-depth knowledge and adherence to global security, we help SaaS businesses stay ahead of threats to build trust among customers.

FAQs

01

How long does SaaS penetration testing typically take?

The SaaS penetration testing timeline depends on the complexity and scope of the application. On average, it takes anywhere between 1 to 3 weeks to complete the entire testing process, from planning, and testing to reporting and remediation.

02

Is penetration testing mandatory for SaaS compliance?

It is not explicitly required. However, in some of the compliance frameworks like SOC2, PCI DSS and HIPAA, you may need to conduct regular penetration tests to validate the security controls and maintain trust.

03

Can penetration testing prevent zero-day vulnerabilities?

Penetration testing doesn’t spot the unknown or zero-day vulnerabilities directly. But, you may be able to reduce the risks associated with such vulnerabilities by identifying the weaknesses and poor security practices in the system.

04

How much does SaaS penetration testing cost on average?

The average cost of SaaS penetration testing ranges from $4000 to $20000+. It depends on the scope of the project, application size and testing depth. Custom testing for enterprises may cost you more.

05

Does SOC 2 include penetration testing?

While it is not mandated by SOC2, they do recommend conducting penetration testing on your part to continuously assess and monitor your system. It can strengthen the audits and ensure proactive security.
About Author

Jayanti Katariya is the CEO of Moon Technolabs, a fast-growing IT solutions provider, with 18+ years of experience in the industry. Passionate about developing creative apps from a young age, he pursued an engineering degree to further this interest. Under his leadership, Moon Technolabs has helped numerous brands establish their online presence and he has also launched an invoicing software that assists businesses to streamline their financial operations.