Testing for authentication

This article is part of the new OWASP Testing Guide v4.

Back to the OWASP Testing Guide v4 ToC:
   https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Testing_Guide_v4_Table_of_Contents
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   https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Testing_Project

4.5 Authentication Testing

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Authentication (Greek: αυθεντικός = real or genuine, from 'authentes' = author ) is the act of establishing or confirming something (or someone) as authentic, that is, that claims made by or about the thing are true. Authenticating an object may mean confirming its provenance, whereas authenticating a person often consists of verifying her identity. Authentication depends upon one or more authentication factors.

In computer security, authentication is the process of attempting to verify the digital identity of the sender of a communication. A common example of such a process is the log on process. Testing the authentication schema means understanding how the authentication process works and using that information to circumvent the authentication mechanism.

4.5.1 Testing for Credentials Transported over an Encrypted Channel (OTG-AUTHN-001)

4.5.2 Testing for default credentials (OTG-AUTHN-002)

4.5.3 Testing for Weak lock out mechanism (OTG-AUTHN-003)

4.5.4 Testing for bypassing authentication schema (OTG-AUTHN-004)

4.5.5 Test remember password functionality (OTG-AUTHN-005)

4.5.6 Testing for Browser cache weakness (OTG-AUTHN-006)

4.5.7 Testing for Weak password policy (OTG-AUTHN-007)

4.5.8 Testing for Weak security question/answer (OTG-AUTHN-008)

4.5.9 Testing for weak password change or reset functionalities (OTG-AUTHN-009)

4.5.10 Testing for Weaker authentication in alternative channel (OTG-AUTHN-010)