SaaS Penetration Testing
Your enterprise prospects want a pentest report. Here's how to get one.
Why SaaS Companies Come to Us
Four moments that send SaaS teams to a pentest
A penetration test is rarely a proactive decision for a SaaS company. It’s usually triggered by one of these four events. Whichever one you’re facing, we’ve scoped engagements for it before.
An enterprise prospect asked for a pentest report before signing
Security questionnaires and vendor diligence processes now routinely request evidence of third-party penetration testing. A signed report from an accredited provider unblocks the deal.
SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audit recommends evidence of testing
Penetration testing is recommended as part of SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certification. We scope and report against your specific framework requirements.
Investors or a board want assurance before funding or exit
Security due diligence is now standard in Series A+ rounds and M&A processes. A clean pentest report from a credible provider shortens the diligence timeline and reduces risk flags.
You're moving upmarket and need to close enterprise deals
As you move from SMB to enterprise customers, security posture becomes a procurement criterion. Testing now, before a major deal, means you're never caught unprepared during a sales cycle.
Scope of Testing
What a SaaS penetration test covers
SaaS applications have a distinct attack surface. They’re heavily API-driven, multi-tenant by design, and often tightly integrated with third-party services. Our testing methodology is built around how your SaaS is actually built - not a generic web application checklist.
Web Application Testing
Manual testing of your application across all authenticated user roles against OWASP Top 10 and beyond. Business logic flaws, privilege escalation, insecure direct object references, and session management issues that automated scanners miss.
API Penetration Testing
Testing of REST and GraphQL APIs for authentication weaknesses, broken object-level authorisation (BOLA), mass assignment, rate limiting, data over-exposure, and injection vulnerabilities. Coverage includes undocumented endpoints and internal APIs exposed via the frontend.
Authentication and Authorisation
Deep testing of login flows, password reset mechanisms, MFA implementation, OAuth and SSO integrations, JWT handling, and session token entropy. Particular attention to role-based access control gaps: can a standard user reach admin functionality?
Multi-tenancy and Data Isolation
Testing whether one tenant can access, modify, or infer data belonging to another. This is the highest-severity risk class for SaaS platforms, where a data isolation failure can be business-ending. We test horizontal privilege escalation paths across your tenancy model.
Third-party Integrations and Webhooks
Testing of OAuth integrations with third-party services (Stripe, Slack, HubSpot etc.), webhook implementations, and any inbound API traffic. Integration points are frequently overlooked in standard assessments but represent real attack surface in production SaaS.
Infrastructure and Cloud Exposure
Review of externally exposed infrastructure - S3 buckets, storage endpoints, admin panels, staging environments, and exposed services. Particularly relevant for SaaS platforms hosted on AWS, GCP, or Azure. Can be scoped as an optional add-on to the application assessment.
How It Works
From first contact to final report
We keep the process as low-friction as possible. You don’t need to have a scope document prepared before reaching out.
What You Receive
Everything included in the engagement
Every SaaS penetration test from Exploitr includes the following as standard - there are no add-on fees for standard deliverables.
Executive Report
Our primary deliverable is an executive-focused assessment report providing a non-technical summary of findings, with recommendations suitable for board, senior management, and enterprise procurement stakeholders.
Technical Report
A supplementary technical report detailing each vulnerability discovered during the engagement - including reproduction steps, severity scoring, remediation guidance, and mappings to CVE, CVSS, and MITRE ATT&CK where applicable.
Debrief Session
Every engagement includes the offer of a debrief session to present findings, discuss remediation priorities, and run an open Q&A with your technical and business teams.
Retesting
For externally-based assessments, our team offers free focused retesting of any vulnerabilities remediated post-engagement - including web application, API, and external network penetration testing.
Attack Surface Center Access
Complimentary access to our Attack Surface Center ASM platform to review, track, and collaboratively remediate findings in real time throughout and beyond the engagement.
Experienced, Consultant-led Testing
All engagements are consultant-led by in-house staff. Your consultant works with you from initial scoping through to the debrief and remediation phase - nothing is outsourced or subcontracted.
Common Questions
SaaS pentesting - frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about how SaaS penetration testing is priced, scoped, and delivered before you request a quote.
We prefer to test against a staging environment where possible, especially for SaaS platforms with active customers. If a production test is required, we agree rules of engagement in advance that define any excluded functionality and operational constraints.
Critical findings that could affect production are escalated to you immediately, not held until the report.
Before testing begins, we’ll need:
- Test accounts for each user role to be tested (admin, standard user, etc.)
- Access to a staging or test environment, or written permission to test production
- API documentation if available (Swagger/OpenAPI, Postman, or equivalent)
- A list of any systems or functionality that should be excluded from testing
- An emergency contact in case of a critical finding or connectivity issue during testing
We discuss all of this during the scoping call and confirm it in the written proposal before any testing takes place.
Yes. Our reports are written with the understanding that they may be shared with third parties such as enterprise procurement teams, auditors, investors, and board members.
The executive report is designed for non-technical stakeholders, and the technical report satisfies evidence requirements for SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 Annex A, and most enterprise security questionnaire responses.
We can also provide a letter of attestation on request.
From initial contact to report delivery, a typical SaaS engagement runs as follows:
- 1-2 days to scope and quote
- 2-3 weeks scheduling lead time
- 4-6 days active testing
- 2 business days to deliver the report
If you have a compliance deadline or a deal closing, let us know upfront and we’ll work to your timeline where possible.
Yes, the application-layer testing we conduct is cloud-agnostic.
If you’d like us to include a review of your cloud infrastructure configuration (exposed storage, overly permissive IAM, exposed admin interfaces), this can be added to the scope as an external infrastructure component. We’d discuss this during scoping and confirm it in the written proposal.
Most frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS) recommend or require annual penetration testing at minimum.
For fast-moving SaaS products with frequent releases, we’d suggest testing after any significant architectural change, such as a new authentication provider, a major API version, or a new product area in addition to the annual assessment.
Our Pentest as a Service (PTaaS) offering is designed specifically for teams that need ongoing testing coverage aligned with their release cadence.
Ready to scope your SaaS penetration test?
Tell us about your application and we'll get back to you with a fixed-price proposal within one business day. No obligation at any stage.