Test HTTP Strict Transport Security (OTG-CONFIG-007)

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

Brief Summary

The HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) header is a mechanism that web sites have to communicate to the web browsers that all traffic exchanged with a given domain must always be sent over https, this will help protect the information from being passed over unencrypted requests.
Considering the importance of this security measure it is important to verify that the web site is using this HTTP header, in order to ensure that all the data travels encrypted from the web browser to the server.

Description of the Issue

...here: Short Description of the Issue: Topic and Explanation

Black Box testing and example

Testing for the presence of HSTS header:

   $ curl -s -D- https://paypal.com/ | grep Strict

Result Expected:

   Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=14400

References

• OWASP HTTP Strict Transport Security - https://www.owasp.org/index.php/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security
• OWASP Appsec Tutorial Series - Episode 4: Strict Transport Security - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEV3HOuM_Vw