Web App Pentest

Web Application Penetration Testing Service

Digital Roxy runs manual web application penetration tests against SaaS platforms, e-commerce stores, customer portals, and CMS deployments. Every engagement covers the OWASP Top 10 and the business logic flaws scanners miss. OSCP-certified testers, CVSS-scored findings, free retest, and compliance attestation for SOC 2, PCI DSS, and HIPAA auditors.

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Web application pentest is manual exploitation of your live application.

A web application penetration test is a manual security engagement against your web app, SaaS platform, or customer portal. A human tester, not a scanner, authenticates as a real user, enumerates the application surface, and attempts to chain vulnerabilities into real exploits. The goal is to find the bugs that lose customer trust and trigger breach notifications. Scanners miss these because they cannot reason about application state, user roles, or business intent.

Digital Roxy web application pentests are delivered against staging or production environments under a signed scope. We cover the OWASP Top 10 by default and extend into business logic, authorization, payment flows, multi-tenancy isolation, and API-backed interactions that most web apps now depend on. Every finding in the report has been manually reproduced by a tester and scored against CVSS 3.1 with a written business-impact justification.

Web App Pentest Findings

Vulnerability Classes We Exploit in Web Apps

These are the bug classes that show up in most web application pentest reports. Every one of them gets manually exploited in a real engagement, not flagged from a scanner banner.

Critical

Injection (SQLi, NoSQLi, LDAPi, Command)

Classic SQL injection is still the most reliable way to steal entire customer databases. We hand-craft payloads against ORM layers, stored procedures, and NoSQL query builders. Blind and second-order injection paths get dedicated time on every engagement.

High

Cross-Site Scripting (stored, reflected, DOM)

Stored XSS in customer-submitted content is where account takeover chains start. DOM-based XSS in SPAs requires JavaScript source review. We test against the specific frontend framework in use: React, Vue, Angular, and Svelte each have distinct XSS patterns.

Critical

Broken Access Control (IDOR, privilege escalation)

Insecure Direct Object References are the single most common critical finding in modern web apps. Horizontal access (one user reading another's data) and vertical access (user roles bypassing admin gates) both get mapped against every endpoint.

High

Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

Image proxies, webhook processors, and document converters routinely accept URLs without validating the target. We test whether those features can reach internal services, cloud metadata endpoints, and private network ranges.

Critical

Insecure Deserialization

Java, PHP, Python, and .NET all have gadget chains that turn deserialization into remote code execution. We check every serialized object that crosses a trust boundary and test against known gadget libraries for the target language.

High

Business Logic Flaws

Race conditions in coupon redemption. Negative-quantity orders that credit accounts. Subscription cancellation flows that leave active entitlements. Refund flows that double-issue payment. These are not in OWASP Top 10 because they are specific to your application. They are in every serious pentest report.

High

Authentication & Session Management

Password reset flows that leak tokens. Session tokens that do not rotate on privilege change. Multi-factor auth bypass through backup codes. Social login flows that accept unverified email addresses. Authentication is where business logic meets cryptography, and the seams leak.

Medium

CSRF and SameSite Cookie Issues

State-changing endpoints without CSRF protection. Cookies without SameSite attributes that leak on cross-origin requests. API endpoints accepting cross-origin requests without verified origins. Still common, still exploitable, still in scope.

Methodology

Our Web Application Pentest Methodology

Methodology follows the OWASP Web Security Testing Guide (WSTG) 4.2 and the PTES reporting structure. Seven working phases with gate-reviewed handoffs.

RECON

Application Mapping

Crawl the authenticated and unauthenticated application surface. Identify frameworks, third-party integrations, client-side libraries, and exposed API endpoints. Build a complete attack surface inventory before a single exploit attempt.

AUTHN

Authentication & Session Testing

Test login, registration, password reset, MFA, SSO, and session management against OWASP WSTG Section 4.4. Session fixation, token predictability, credential stuffing, and account lockout bypass all get tested.

AUTHZ

Authorization & Access Control

Map every endpoint against every role. Test horizontal access (Tenant A reading Tenant B data), vertical access (user role bypassing admin gate), and function-level access (hidden admin URLs discoverable through source review).

INPUT

Input Handling

Injection testing across every user-controlled input: form fields, URL parameters, headers, cookies, file uploads, and JSON/XML request bodies. We test the full OWASP injection catalog plus framework-specific patterns.

LOGIC

Business Logic Testing

Domain-specific exploitation. Race conditions on resource creation. Workflow state bypass (starting steps out of order). Financial boundary conditions (negative values, overflow, precision loss). These findings are always unique to your application.

API

API Layer Testing

Modern web apps are front-ends for APIs. We test the API backing the web app against OWASP API Top 10: BOLA, mass assignment, excessive data exposure, and resource consumption abuse. Full API coverage in a web app pentest.

REPORT

Report & Retest

Executive summary, technical report, compliance attestation, and remediation roadmap. Live debrief with your engineering team. Free retest after fixes ship for a clean attestation letter.

Toolset

The Toolset Behind Our Web Pentest

Tooling is commodity. Skill is not. These are the tools we lean on during web application engagements. The thinking behind them is where the value comes from.

Burp Suite Professional

Primary web proxy for request interception, parameter tampering, and active scanning. Custom extensions for framework-specific attacks.

ffuf & feroxbuster

High-speed web fuzzing for content discovery, parameter discovery, and endpoint enumeration beyond what the sitemap exposes.

sqlmap

For SQL injection confirmation and post-exploitation. Custom tamper scripts for WAF evasion when required.

Nuclei

Template-driven vulnerability scanning for known CVEs and misconfigurations. Every template result gets manually verified before it enters the report.

Custom Python + Go tooling

For any edge case Burp Extensions cannot handle: custom auth flows, JWT manipulation, state machine enumeration, and framework-specific exploitation.

Semgrep & CodeQL

Source code review when the engagement includes white-box testing. Identifies dangerous patterns and sink-source chains faster than manual review alone.

Pricing

Web App Pentest Engagement Tiers

Three engagement sizes. Every quote is fixed-price after a 15-minute scoping call. No hourly billing.

Single App

One web application, under 100 unique endpoints, single role. Right for focused annual pentest.

From $3,500 · flat fee

OWASP Top 10 coverage
Business logic testing
1-week engagement
Technical + executive report
One free retest
CVSS 3.1 scored findings
Compliance attestation

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SaaS Platform

Multi-tenant SaaS with multiple user roles. Right for SOC 2 Type II audits and PCI-adjacent platforms.

From $8,500 · flat fee

Everything in Single App
Multi-tenant isolation testing
Role matrix access control review
API layer deep testing
2-3 week engagement
Two testers, cross-review
Two free retests over 90 days
Developer debrief call included

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E-commerce

Online store with checkout, payments, and order management. PCI DSS Requirement 11.4 ready.

From $12,500 · flat fee

Everything in SaaS Platform
Payment flow testing (PCI scoped)
Cart and checkout race conditions
Coupon and loyalty abuse testing
Order manipulation testing
Third-party payment integration review
PCI DSS 4.0 attestation package

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FAQ

Web App Pentest Questions, Answered Directly

A single-application web pentest takes one week of active testing plus one week for reporting. A SaaS platform with multiple user roles takes two to three weeks of testing plus one week for reporting. An e-commerce platform with payment flows in scope runs two to four weeks of testing. Add two to six weeks of your team's remediation time, then one week for the retest.

Both. Staging is preferred for exploitation-heavy testing because you can freely test destructive payloads against business logic. Production is tested for critical paths that only exist with real data and real traffic. Our scoping call defines exactly what gets tested where, with signed sign-off before any production testing begins.

Modern web apps are web front-ends over APIs, so the API layer is tested as part of the web application pentest by default. That includes OWASP API Top 10 coverage against the API endpoints the web app consumes. If you have a public API consumed by external developers or mobile apps, a dedicated API penetration test is the right scope, covered on our API pentest page.

Yes. SPA testing requires a different approach than server-rendered app testing. We handle the client-side framework (JavaScript source review, DOM XSS, client-side routing vulnerabilities), the API contract the SPA consumes, and the authentication token flow between SPA and backend. Our testers work daily with React, Vue, Angular, Next.js, Nuxt, and Svelte.

On request, yes. Black-box web pentests are the default scope. Adding source code access turns the engagement into a hybrid gray-box or white-box test, which finds more bugs in the same time window. White-box adds 20-30% to the engagement price but usually finds more critical findings. For SOC 2 and PCI, gray-box is the typical recommendation.

Critical findings (CVSS 9.0+) are disclosed to your team within one business hour through a shared Slack or Teams channel. Reproduction steps, CVSS justification, and initial remediation guidance ship immediately, not at the end of the engagement. We pause further testing on related attack paths until your team confirms the disclosure, to avoid the same issue masking adjacent findings.

Yes, and you should require it. Authenticated testing is where the most impactful findings live: IDOR, broken access control, business logic flaws, and privilege escalation. We need one test account per role, ideally with isolated test data so we can exploit freely without affecting real customers.

Three things make a pentest 2x more productive: (1) a test environment mirroring production with seed data, (2) one test account per user role with known credentials, (3) a one-page architecture diagram showing the tech stack and external integrations. We send a scoping questionnaire before the engagement that covers everything we need.

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