Blockchain is a very popular and technically complex topic. Initially, the technology was created as the basis for the bitcoin cryptocurrency. But over time, its scope has expanded. Today, any product that uses databases can be transferred to blockchain technology.
Safely storing digital data and operating it on a trusted platform is the goal of a successful company, and companies around the world are moving towards storing data on the blockchain. Blockchain groups data into blocks and encrypts them, which increases data security.
Blockchain solutions testing is not a trivial process since a blockchain consists of many non-standard components and actions: wallets, transactions, blocks, consensuses, mining, and gossip approvals. All this requires special attention and the availability of specific testing tools. So naturally, the product’s release on the market must be preceded by thorough testing.
Types of Blockchain Penetration Testing
Testing blockchain applications is a little different from testing regular applications and resembles the functional testing of a payment system. Test cases include checking the balance, fields, transaction statuses, and the possibility of withdrawing the same funds twice.
The following types of testing will help ensure the high quality of products built on blockchain technology:
- Functional testing will make it clear whether all applicable requirements have been implemented.
- Load testing will help evaluate the throughput of the system through which the interaction with the blockchain takes place.
- Security testing. Blockchains are anonymous, so any private key owner is the full owner of the funds and can sign transactions. The key storage and encryption blockchain security are vulnerable and interesting to attacks. Penetration testing can help you find and eliminate bottlenecks.
How large companies see blockchain testing
Blockchain is widely implemented in the modern digital world: supply chains, trading, decentralized finance, and NFT tokens. We need high-quality software products, which will not exist if we do not invest in the blockchain and its testing.
Now is the time for businesses to get into the blockchain, increase their inclusion, and test. The demand for this is huge, and very few tools are available. Any new technology, particularly blockchain, aims to prove its business applicability. Blockchain applications (decentralized apps) allow companies to find a niche in data storage and processing.
Trust as the Foundation
One of the pillars of blockchain integrity assessment is trust. To ensure it, you need to check all the blockchain components carefully, make sure that they work correctly, and that all applications communicate in the correct mode. The key to success lies in balancing the strategy, proper application design planning, and testing the entire blockchain network and connected applications. This requires a good strategy.
Therefore, companies must have a strategic plan, including the scheme of use cases, testing them, and checking the results, as well as a scheme for conducting standard and special testing.
Benefits
Blockchain testing is important to ensure that defects in a decentralized blockchain are fixed. This will protect the business from the possible consequences of the improper functioning of the security testing methodologies. QA will check all written components and ensure that the ecosystem functions correctly.
Thus, testing will allow companies to work properly with blockchain technology and related infrastructure.
Blockchain penetration testing will help reduce the risk of adding new applications by easily and quickly integrating them. In addition, testing guarantees the quality of the finished product and convenience for customers. This is important in the case of public blockchains, where clients’ money works, and one bug in a smart contract can cause huge losses.
Problems
The biggest problem in testing is the lack of experience in blockchains among developers and a limited set of special testing tools. To improve the skills of developers, their training is required. As a result, testing can be quite expensive and take a long time.
Blockchain testing is actively developing as a field of expertise, and there are still no high-quality testing tools and benchmark strategies. Every team is forced to reinvent the wheel using their device or framework. Blockchain is still new, so the scope for testing is limited. Another problem is the abundance of frameworks on which test tools may not work (Ethereum, Hyperledger, etc.)
What is Black Box testing?
When testing in a “black box,” the tester does not have information about the inner workings of the software system. Black box testing is a high level of testing that focuses on the behavior of the software. This includes testing from the perspective of an external or end user.
What is White Box testing?
White box testing is a technique that checks a system’s internal functioning and security controls. In this method, testing is based on the coverage of code statements, branches, paths, or conditions. White box testing is considered low-level testing. It is also called glassy, transparent, transparent, or code testing.
Key Difference
The choice of black box vs white box testing depends on the desired goals and functionality of the penetration test, namely:
- In the “black box” testing is carried out without the knowledge of the program’s internal structure or application, while in the “white box” testing is carried out taking into account the program’s internal structure.
- The Black Box test does not require programming knowledge, whereas the White Box test requires programming knowledge.
- Black box testing aims to check the behavior of the software, while white box testing aims to check the system’s internal workings.
- Black box testing focuses on an external perspective or end user, while white box testing focuses on code structure, conditions, paths, and branches.
- The Black Box test provides low granularity reports, while the White Box test provides high granularity reports.
Also, the work of a pentester consists of several main stages.
- Collection of information
- Vulnerability Analysis
- Operation and data processing
- Report generation
In short, Black Box blockchain pen test is a technique used to test software without knowing the program’s or application’s internal structure. In turn, a White Box Testing is a transparent box test, a code-based test, or a transparent box test in which the internal structure is known to the tester.
Conclusion
Blockchain security audit can be used in almost any industry, and over time, more companies will come to use it. However, the ever-increasing number of users, the global scale of application of the technology, and the high cost of errors in the code again emphasize the importance of testing and building effective quality assurance processes throughout the development phase.
The frequency of their conduct and various features are regulated by industry standards, however, in addition to them, there are several situations when it is advisable to perform an unscheduled inspection. An external pentest allows you to save money by optimizing the cost of information security. Furthermore, it identifies real problems and helps build an effective strategy to address them.
FAQ
It is essential to conduct regular testing of your network infrastructure. A real hacker attack can result in serious financial and reputational losses. Therefore, such testing is mandatory.
The price of security assessment process varies depending on the platform and the amount of work. However, the average cost can range from $2,000 to $2,500.
A penetration test (comprehensive risk assessment procedure) aims to understand whether a hypothetical attacker can break into a system. To do this, the testers are trying to hack it or gain control over the data and check for security weaknesses to stop the attacks of real hackers in the future.