Our Offensive Testing Methodology
TrustLayerLabs combines industry-standard frameworks — OWASP Top 10, NIST SP 800-115, and PTES — with expert manual logic penetration testing to discover vulnerabilities automated scanners miss.
Global Standards We Adhere To
OWASP API & Web Top 10
Systematic auditing for Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA/IDOR), Broken Function Level Authorization (BFLA), JWT manipulation, mass assignment, server-side request forgery (SSRF), and rate-limiting bypasses.
NIST SP 800-115
Federal and enterprise-grade technical testing methodology covering target identification, target vulnerability analysis, exploitation verification, and post-exploitation risk scoring.
PTES Framework
The Penetration Testing Execution Standard structuring pre-engagement interactions, intelligence gathering, threat modeling, vulnerability analysis, and remediation-oriented reporting.
The 5 Phases of a TrustLayer VAPT Audit
Collaborative, transparent, and designed to protect production uptime while uncovering deep logic flaws.
Scoping & Mutual NDA Execution
We define precise target parameters, execute a bilateral mutual NDA, verify staging environment credentials, and agree on testing windows to guarantee zero production disruption or data corruption.
Passive & Active Intelligence Reconnaissance
Mapping subdomains, undiscovered staging endpoints, shadow APIs, CORS misconfigurations, authentication flows, public cloud storage buckets, and third-party software dependencies.
Deep Manual Logic & Authorization Penetration
Our offensive security engineers manually intercept and manipulate API traffic in Burp Suite Professional. We simulate cross-tenant privilege escalation, inspect JWT cryptographic algorithms, evaluate payment transaction workflows, and test race conditions.
CVSS v3.1 Severity Scoring & Remediation Reporting
Compiling zero-fluff, developer-centric technical reports with step-by-step reproduction curl scripts, proof-of-concept exploit recordings, CVSS v3.1 scoring, and ready-to-merge remediation code patches.
Free Retesting & Remediation Verification Letter
After your engineering team deploys remediation patches, we re-evaluate every flagged vulnerability and issue a certified Executive Attestation Letter suitable for SOC 2 auditors, enterprise procurement, and cyber insurance underwriters.
Specialized Scopes Following This Methodology
We adapt our 5-phase testing methodology to the specific architectural requirements of modern tech stacks:
Frequently Asked Testing Methodology Questions
How do you guarantee that manual testing will not cause application downtime or data corruption?
Our certified practitioners operate under strict safe harbor rules. We utilize non-destructive payloads, test against staging or isolated sandbox accounts whenever possible, avoid denial-of-service tests, and coordinate rate-limiting parameters with your DevOps team before initiating testing.
What is the difference between automated vulnerability scanning and manual penetration testing?
Automated scanners search for known software version CVEs and static syntax signatures. They cannot authenticate across complex business workflows, test multi-tenant authorization boundaries, verify payment transactions, or chain multi-step logic vulnerabilities. Our manual testing uncovers the logic flaws and BOLA bypasses that scanners miss.
Do you provide code remediation support following the assessment?
Yes. Every finding in our technical report includes copy-paste code patches and architecture guidance. Furthermore, we conduct a dedicated developer debrief call to walk your team through each vulnerability and provide one free retest within 30 days to certify that your patches are effective.
What credentials and access are required before testing begins?
For grey-box testing, we typically require two testing accounts per role (e.g. Tenant A Admin, Tenant A User, Tenant B User), API documentation (Swagger/OpenAPI or Postman), and staging environment URLs under an executed mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
Ready to Audit Your SaaS or API?
Schedule a confidential 30-minute security review with our lead security architects under mutual NDA or view our sample report to see our methodology in action.