PlexTrac ConceptsInteractive Application Security Testing

Interactive application security testing (IAST) is a security practice that monitors and identifies vulnerabilities in real time as users interact with a running application. Unlike static application security testing (SAST) and dynamic application security testing (DAST), IAST works inside the application and focuses on the app’s functionality rather than the entire code and application.

Interactive application security testing (IAST) follows these steps:

1. IAST solutions are deployed in the application through code or injection.
2. As the application runs, IAST agents or sensors monitor user input, database queries, and network traffic.
3. Once vulnerabilities are detected, IAST solutions display vulnerability details along with the issue and location of the vulnerability in the code.

Benefits of interactive application security testing (IAST) include:

• Real-time monitoring within the application, which doesn’t add any time to the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline
• Faster detection and remediation because vulnerabilities can be identified during the development cycle
• Testing within a live environment provides an accurate depiction of vulnerabilities and functions of API connections

Challenges of interactive application security testing (IAST) include:

• Limited language support as IAST sensors are language specific without multi-language options
• Difficult to deploy and integrate, often requiring experts
• May slow application performance from IAST agents and sensors
• Increased potential for false negatives due to only analyzing executed code

PlexTrac aggregates pentest and vulnerability data from various scanners and tools, like  interactive application security testing (IAST), and automates reporting leveraging AI to effectively prioritize risk.

Request a demo to see how to close the loop on continuous validation by prioritizing, assigning, and tracking findings from all your scanner tools in one place with PlexTrac.

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