Full courseThis course provides tools and methodology for conducting a security assessment of a web application using a "black box" approach, simulating the activities performed by a potential attacker. It includes practical exercises conducted on intentionally vulnerable apps.
This course teaches how to plan, carry out and report a professional web application penetration test. It follows the OWASP Web Security Testing Guide (WSTG) and the OWASP Top 10, testing applications mainly in black box and switching to gray box when source code or credentials are available. Participants spend most of their time in a lab, using Burp Suite as their main proxy to map the attack surface, manipulate traffic and go after the areas where flaws usually hide: authentication, authorization, session management, input validation, business logic and client-side security. Each topic is explained and then exploited on a deliberately vulnerable application, so participants practice every technique rather than just read about it. They leave able to run an assessment on their own and to write up findings clearly enough for a client to act on, covering impact, risk and remediation. The course suits auditors, security specialists and developers who want practical offensive web skills. This is a foundational course; for a professional assessment of your own systems, see our expert-led application security assessment service.
Basic knowledge of web application architecture and how the HTTP/HTTPS protocol works.
Familiarity with common web technologies (HTML, JavaScript, SQL) at a reading level.
Confidence using a web browser's developer tools and a general command-line environment.
Interest in hacking and cybersecurity topics; no prior penetration testing experience is required.
Introduction to application security: core concepts, the current threat landscape, and the principles behind the OWASP Top 10 and the OWASP Web Security Testing Guide (WSTG).
Web application testing methodology: black-box versus gray-box assessments, scoping, rules of engagement, and how to structure a repeatable testing workflow.
Tools and resources: setting up and driving Burp Suite (Proxy, Target, Repeater, Intruder, Decoder) together with the supporting toolset used throughout an assessment.
Information Gathering & Configuration Management: fingerprinting technologies, enumerating content and entry points, and reviewing server, TLS, and HTTP header configuration.
Testing authentication mechanisms: brute-force protections, credential handling, password-reset flows, and multi-factor authentication bypasses.
Testing authorization mechanisms: horizontal and vertical privilege escalation, Insecure Direct Object References (IDOR), and access-control bypasses.
Identifying and exploiting application logic vulnerabilities: abusing multi-step workflows, race conditions and flawed business logic.
Testing session management: session fixation, predictable or exposed tokens, and Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), and how to test each of them.
Testing input validation: SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting (reflected, stored, and DOM-based), command injection, and related injection classes, from detection through exploitation.
Testing client-side issues: CORS misconfigurations, Clickjacking, and other browser-trust weaknesses, and how to test for them.
Weak cryptography vulnerabilities: spotting weak algorithms, poor key and secret management, and insecure transport, along with their mitigations.
Denial of Service: understanding application-level denial-of-service conditions and how to test for them safely.
Bug Bounty programs: how coordinated disclosure and bug bounty programs work, and how the techniques covered apply in real engagements.
Full courseTest the security of Android and iOS apps: static, dynamic and network analysis of real mobile targets.
DISCOVER MORE Full courseAn introduction to offensive security: reconnaissance, exploitation and how an attacker thinks.
DISCOVER MORE Full courseLanguage-independent secure coding for the web: the main vulnerability classes and how to defend against them.
DISCOVER MORE Full courseUse AI coding assistants securely, with Copilot, Codex, Claude Code and SAST tools, to find and fix vulnerabilities as you write code.
DISCOVER MOREEffective date: July 21, 2026
BeDefended S.r.l. ("us", "we", or "our") operates the www.bedefended.com website (the "Service").
This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use our Service and the choices you have associated with that data.
This Privacy Policy is provided in compliance with article 13 of the GDPR 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation).
We use your data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.
Personal Data means data about a living individual who can be identified from those data (or from those and other information either in our possession or likely to come into our possession).
Usage Data is data collected automatically either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on a User’s device.
Data Controller means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.
For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, we are a Data Controller of your data.
Data Processor (or Service Provider) means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the Data Controller.
We may use the services of various Service Providers in order to process your data more effectively.
Data Subject is any living individual who is the subject of Personal Data.
The User is the individual using our Service. The User corresponds to the Data Subject, who is the subject of Personal Data.
We collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our Service to you.
While using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you ("Personal Data"). Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to email address, first name and last name.
We use only technical cookies that are strictly necessary for the operation of the Service (for example, a session cookie used by the contact form to prevent abuse). We do not use profiling or advertising cookies, and our analytics tool works without cookies.
Cookies are files with small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device.
These cookies do not collect Personal Data that can identify you and are used exclusively for the technical operation of the site.
Anyway you can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent.
Your language preference is stored locally in your browser (localStorage) and is never transmitted to us.
We may also collect information how the Service is accessed and used ("Usage Data"). This Usage Data may include information such as browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service visited, the time and date of each visit, the time spent on those pages and other diagnostic data.
BeDefended S.r.l. uses the collected data for various purposes:
- To provide and maintain our Service
- To notify you about changes to our Service
- To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Service when you choose to do so
- To provide customer support
- To gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our Service
- To monitor the usage of our Service
- To detect, prevent and address technical issues
BeDefended S.r.l. will retain your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.
BeDefended S.r.l. will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our Service, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.
Your information, including Personal Data, may be processed and maintained on computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction.
If you are located outside Italy and choose to provide information to us, please note that we can transfer the data, including Personal Data, to Italy or other EU countries and process it there.
Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.
BeDefended S.r.l. will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.
BeDefended S.r.l. may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
- To comply with a legal obligation
- To protect and defend the rights or property of BeDefended S.r.l.
- To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
- To protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public
- To protect against legal liability
The security of your data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
BeDefended S.r.l. aims to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete, or limit the use of your Personal Data.
You can contact us to make changes on your Personal Data.
If you wish to be informed about which Personal Data we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us.
In certain circumstances, you have the right:
- To access and receive a copy of the Personal Data we hold about you
- To rectify any Personal Data held about you that is inaccurate
- To request the deletion of Personal Data held about you
Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.
We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service ("Service Providers"), to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.
These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
We use a self-hosted instance of Plausible Analytics, an open-source, privacy-friendly web analytics tool, to measure aggregate traffic on our Service.
All analytics data is collected and stored on our self-hosted instance and is not shared with any third-party analytics provider. Plausible does not use cookies and does not collect or store any Personal Data: statistics (such as pages visited, referrer, browser type and country) are anonymous and aggregated, and are used solely to understand and improve how the Service is used. For more information about this measurement approach, see the Plausible data policy.
Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.
We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.
Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 16 ("Children").
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 16. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the new Privacy Policy on this page.
You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by mail: Via Caprera 47, 10136 Torino (TO) - Italy