In general, white box testers should have access to the same tools, documentation, and environment as the developers and functional testers on the project do. In addition, tools that aid in program understanding, such as software visualization, code navigation, debugging, and disassembly tools, greatly enhance productivity during testing.
Coverage Analysis:
Code coverage tools measure how thoroughly tests exercise programs. There are many different coverage measures, including statement coverage, branch coverage, and multiple-condition coverage. The coverage tool would modify the code to record the statements executed and which expressions evaluate which way (the true case or the false case of the expression). Modification is done either to the source code or to the executable the compiler generates. There are several commercial and freeware coverage tools available. Coverage tool selection should be based on the type of coverage measure selected, the language of the source code, the size of the program, and the ease of integration into the build process.
Profiling:
Profiling allows testers to learn where the software under test is spending most of its time and the sequence of function calls as well. This information can show which pieces of the software are slower than expected and which functions are called more often than expected. From a security testing perspective, the knowledge of performance bottlenecks help uncover vulnerable areas that are not apparent during static analysis. The call graph produced by the profiling tool is helpful in program understanding. Certain profiling tools also detect memory leaks and memory access errors (potential sources of security violations). In general, the functional testing team or the development team should have access to the profiling tool, and the security testers should use the same tool to understand the dynamic behavior of the software under test.
No comments:
Post a Comment