OWASP Penetration Test Services

An OWASP penetration test is a controlled security assessment of a web application, API, or related application environment that uses OWASP security guidance as part of the testing methodology.

The purpose is to identify security weaknesses that could allow an attacker to bypass authentication, access another user’s information, manipulate transactions, escalate privileges, compromise application functionality, or gain unauthorized access to backend systems.

Unlike automated scans, a penetration test is done by security experts who look at how your application really works and try to safely exploit any weaknesses they find.

This difference matters because many serious vulnerabilities depend on the context, how the application works, user permissions, and business logic, not just on known software flaws.

The OWASP Top 10 provides a widely recognized baseline for awareness of the most critical web application security risks. The current released version is OWASP Top 10:2025.

The 2025 categories include:

1. Broken Access Control
2. Security Misconfiguration
3. Software Supply Chain Failures
4. Cryptographic Failures
5. Injection
6. Insecure Design
7. Authentication Failures
8. Software or Data Failures
9. Security Logging and Alerting Failures
10. Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

The Top 10 is a good starting point for application security, but it does not include everything a full penetration test should cover. The OWASP Web Security Testing Guide looks at a much wider range of areas, such as application behavior, identity, authentication, authorization, session management, business logic, client-side features, and APIs.

Web applications have become increasingly complex. A custom built application may include cloud infrastructure, APIs, authentication services, third-party integrations, mobile apps, databases, payment systems, and administrative portals.

This complexity gives attackers more chances to find weaknesses.

A security control that works well in one part of an application might not work as expected when combined with another feature. For example, an application might authenticate users correctly but not enforce authorization when users request another customer’s information. A developer might secure a webpage but leave a related API endpoint exposed. An application could also use third-party components that bring in software supply chain risks.

OWASP-aligned penetration testing helps businesses look at these connected risks instead of just focusing on single technical issues. Read the following Web Application Penetration Testing case study to learn more.

Every engagement starts with understanding the application, its architecture, business purpose, user roles, authentication model, APIs, integrations, and testing objectives.

Our consultants then conduct information gathering and application mapping before testing authentication, authorization, session management, input validation, business logic, error handling, cryptography, client-side functionality, and API security where applicable.

We use both automated tools and manual analysis because automated tools alone cannot find every security weakness. The OWASP WSTG treats web application security testing as a broad framework instead of just a checklist.

Where appropriate and authorized, we safely exploit identified vulnerabilities to validate their impact and determine what an attacker could accomplish.

An assessment may evaluate authentication and authorization controls, session management, access control, input validation, API security, business logic, cryptographic protections, application configuration, client-side functionality, error handling, and software components.

We also consider how users with different roles interact with the application. Testing multiple roles can reveal authorization weaknesses that a basic unauthenticated assessment would miss.

The exact scope depends on your application and business goals, but we customize our work to focus on the technologies and risks that matter most to you.

Authentication determines who a user is. Authorization determines what that user can do.

Even if an application verifies user identity correctly, it can still have serious security problems if it doesn’t enforce authorization properly.

Our consultants test whether users can access resources, records, functionality, or administrative features outside their intended permissions. We also evaluate account recovery processes, session handling, authentication controls, privilege boundaries, and other mechanisms that protect user identities.

Broken access control remains A01 in the OWASP Top 10:2025, making authorization testing an essential part of a modern application security assessment.

Some of the most serious application vulnerabilities do not involve a traditional technical flaw. Instead, they are concerned about how the application handles business processes.

An attacker may discover a way to bypass an approval step, manipulate a transaction, reuse a workflow, access another customer’s information, or perform an action out of sequence.

These weaknesses can be difficult for automated scanners to detect because the vulnerability depends on understanding what the application is supposed to do.

Our consultants evaluate application workflows and business logic to identify opportunities for abuse that may not be detected by vulnerability scanning.

Many modern web applications run entirely or partially in AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, or other cloud environments.

Cloud-hosted applications bring additional security considerations involving identity management, APIs, storage, cloud integrations, secrets, serverless components, containers, and third-party services.

An OWASP-aligned application penetration test can therefore form a section of a broader cloud security assessment. Tanner Security can combine application testing with cloud risk assessments, network penetration testing, and other security services when the application’s architecture warrants a larger evaluation.

Application security testing can support many cybersecurity and compliance programs, including PCI DSS, SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, CMMC, and NIST–based security programs.

Testing requirements vary depending on the framework, industry, contract, and application environment. An OWASP penetration test does not guarantee compliance, but it shows that your application security controls have been independently reviewed.

For regulated or customer-facing applications, testing can also help demonstrate due diligence and support vendor security reviews.

Businesses should consider OWASP application penetration testing before launching a new application and after significant changes to application functionality, authentication systems, APIs, infrastructure, or business logic.

If your applications change frequently, you may want to include security testing in your software development process rather than only conducting a yearly penetration test.

OWASP’s WSTG describes security testing across the software development lifecycle and stresses the value of incorporating security activities before and during deployment rather than waiting until the application reaches production.

Tanner Security provides independent penetration testing and cybersecurity assessment services backed by more than two decades of security consulting experience.

Our team brings together expertise in application security, network security, cloud environments, vulnerability assessment, governance, risk management, and compliance. This broad experience helps us see how application vulnerabilities can impact your systems and business processes.

We do not treat the OWASP Top 10 as a checklist and stop there. We use OWASP guidance as our testing methodology customized to the application’s technology, user roles, APIs, workflows, and business risks.

This helps businesses identify critical vulnerabilities and understand what they could mean in real-world situations.

OWASP penetration testing works particularly well as an element of a broader application and cybersecurity program.

• Custom Application Penetration Testing evaluates proprietary applications and unique business functionality that may require testing beyond the scope of common web application vulnerabilities.
• Mobile Application Penetration Testing evaluates iOS, Android, and cross-platform applications along with their supporting APIs and backend services.
• Network Penetration Testing assesses network infrastructure and identifies attack paths that could allow an attacker to compromise systems or move laterally.
• Cloud Risk Assessment and Penetration Testing evaluates AWS, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Google Cloud, and hybrid cloud environments.
• Network Vulnerability Assessments provide recurring visibility into known vulnerabilities, unpatched software, exposed services, and configuration weaknesses.
• IT Risk Assessment Services evaluate technology risks from a wider business perspective and help leadership prioritize information security investments.
• IT Policy Development Services help businesses create practical security policies that support application security, governance, and compliance requirements.

Together, these services help businesses find vulnerabilities across applications, infrastructure, cloud environments, and business processes.

An OWASP penetration test and a web application penetration test often describe substantially similar security testing, but the terminology emphasizes different things.

Web application penetration testing describes the type of technology being tested. The assessment focuses on web-based applications and may evaluate authentication, authorization, session management, business logic, APIs, input validation, cryptography, configuration, and other application security risks.

OWASP penetration testing focuses on the testing methodology and guidance used to evaluate the application. OWASP provides both the Top 10 awareness document and the Web Security Testing Guide, which provides a more extensive framework for testing web applications and web services.

A useful way to think about it is that “web application penetration test” describes what we test, while “OWASP penetration test” helps describe how we test it.

For that reason, businesses should not assume that an OWASP penetration test simply means running an automated scan against the OWASP Top 10. An assessment should examine the application’s architecture, authentication, authorization, session management, business logic, APIs, client-side functionality, configuration, and other relevant attack surfaces.