Testing methods
DAST
Dynamic Application Security Testing
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) evaluates an application in its running state by sending requests and analyzing responses, without access to source code. Because it exercises the deployed system, DAST finds issues that only appear at runtime - authentication flaws, injection, misconfiguration - but traditional DAST relies on signatures and struggles with business logic and multi-step attack chains.
Key points
- Black-box: no source code required; tests the deployed app over HTTP.
- Finds runtime issues but classic DAST pattern-matches rather than reasons.
- Complementary to SAST, which analyzes code statically.
- AI-driven testing extends DAST by investigating and chaining findings.
FAQ
What is the difference between DAST and SAST?
DAST tests a running application from the outside with no source code, finding runtime and configuration issues. SAST analyzes source code or bytecode statically, before the app runs. They find different classes of issues and are commonly used together.
Related
References
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