SIFT has released a new Intelligence Report titled ‘A Web Services Security Testing Framework‘. The framework covers the entire web services security testing process incorporating detailed threat modelling, scoping and planning methodologies tailored specifically for web services applications.

Web services are a widely touted technology that aim to provide tangible benefits to both business and IT. The increasing use of this technology in the enterprise sector for the integration of distributed systems and business critical functions dictates the need for security assurance yet there is currently no security testing methodology specifically adapted to applications that implement the technology.

Although many application security testing principles can be generically applied to web services, particular aspects of the technology such as its reliance upon XML and web services specific standards require closer attention that is not provided by other testing methodologies. Thus, a comprehensive framework for evaluating the security of web service implementations during all phases of the development cycle is required.

This paper presents a framework that covers the entire web services security testing process incorporating detailed threat modelling, scoping and planning methodologies tailored specifically for web services applications. The framework provides a structured approach to assessing the security of a web service through an application-level penetration test and aims to deliver a repeatable means for security assurance.

The paper is available for download from the the SIFT site [PDF].

SIFT has just published a world-first tool for identifying rogue web methods. The Web Method Search tool is a Windows based application that uses a hybrid dictionary attack in an attempt to find unpublished administrative and other web services functions.

As web services are becoming more prevalent, poor security practices from previous generations of application architectures are being transferred to the web service space. One of these practices is the use of ‘security through obscurity’ to hide certain web methods from users – that is, web methods exist that can be called, but that are not published in the WSDL or otherwise disclosed.

The SIFT Web Method Search tool is a dictionary attack tool that can be used to brute force the web method names for a given web service under certain circumstances. That is, SOAP requests can be submitted to a web service using probable combinations of words to allow the identification of hidden web methods not published in the corresponding WSDL document. This is possible because responses to requests for non-existent web methods and web methods that exist differ markedly under most platforms.

The tool is available for download from http://www.sift.com.au/73/171/sift-web-method-search-tool.htm

Should anyone have any questions, bug reports or other suggestions please feel free to contact us via research@sift.com.au