# Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

### **Overview**

Xygeni's **Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)** tool performs automated security scanning of **running web applications and REST APIs** to uncover vulnerabilities that are exploitable at runtime. Unlike static analysis, DAST tests the application from the outside, simulating real-world attacks against live endpoints to identify security flaws before attackers do.

Through integration with CI/CD pipelines and the Xygeni platform, the DAST scanner delivers actionable findings with full HTTP request/response evidence, enabling security teams to **quickly reproduce and remediate** vulnerabilities in web-facing applications.

### **Protect Web Applications and APIs from Runtime Vulnerabilities**

Web applications and APIs are a primary attack surface. Even code that passes static analysis may expose vulnerabilities when deployed. Xygeni's DAST tool is built to detect:

* **Injection flaws** (SQL injection, OS command injection, LDAP injection, XPath injection, and more).
* **Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)** (reflected, stored, and DOM-based variants).
* **Authentication and session management issues** (session fixation, weak credentials, CSRF).
* **Security misconfigurations** (information disclosure, missing security headers, directory listing).
* **Access control weaknesses** (path traversal, IDOR, privilege escalation).
* **Known vulnerability patterns** (Log4Shell, Spring4Shell, Server-Side Template Injection).
* **Known CVEs and exposures** — the `--vuln-check` option extends detection with template-based scanning against thousands of known CVEs and misconfigurations.

The scan pipeline consists of: optional deep crawl (headless JS-aware URL discovery) → spidering and active/passive scanning → optional vulnerability check (CVE and misconfiguration detection) → report generation and upload.

The scanner supports multiple application types: traditional server-rendered apps, JavaScript-heavy Single Page Applications (SPAs), and REST APIs with OpenAPI specifications.

### Supported Application Types

| Type            | Description                                                     |
| --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Traditional** | Server-rendered web applications (PHP, JSP, ASP.NET, etc.)      |
| **SPA**         | JavaScript-heavy Single Page Applications (React, Angular, Vue) |
| **REST API**    | REST APIs with OpenAPI/Swagger specification                    |
| **GraphQL**     | GraphQL APIs with schema import or introspection                |
| **SOAP**        | SOAP web services with WSDL definition                          |

For more information regarding DAST Security, refer to these sections:

* [DAST User Interface Guide](/xygeni-products/dast-security/dast-user-interface-guide.md)
  * [Risks (DAST)](/xygeni-products/dast-security/dast-user-interface-guide/risks-dast.md)
* [DAST Scanner](/xygeni-products/dast-security/dast-scanner.md)
  * [DAST Scanner Configuration](/xygeni-products/dast-security/dast-scanner/dast-scanner-configuration.md)
* [DAST Detectors](/xygeni-products/dast-security/dast-detectors.md)


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.xygeni.io/xygeni-products/dast-security.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.