Burp Suite
Web SecurityIntercept and test web application traffic.
Who uses it?
Penetration testers, application security engineers and bug bounty researchers.
Best for
Testing and understanding web application behaviour
Similar tools
Wireshark, Nmap
What is it?
Burp Suite is a web security testing toolkit from PortSwigger. Its proxy sits between a browser and a website.
What problem does it solve?
Web applications can have flaws that are only visible by inspecting and modifying the requests they receive.
How does it work?
A browser is configured to send traffic through Burp's proxy. Requests and responses can be inspected, modified and replayed. Scanning and manual tools help find weaknesses.
Simple example
Intercept a login request, change a parameter, and observe how the application responds.
When would a SOC analyst use it?
Less common day to day, but useful when analysts need to understand how a web attack against an application worked.
How does it work?
- 1A browser is configured to send traffic through Burp's proxy.
- 2Requests and responses can be inspected, modified and replayed.
- 3Scanning and manual tools help find weaknesses.
Simple example
Intercept a login request, change a parameter, and observe how the application responds.
When would a SOC analyst use it?
Less common day to day, but useful when analysts need to understand how a web attack against an application worked.
Who uses it?
Penetration testers, application security engineers and bug bounty researchers.
Pros
- Full visibility of web traffic
- Excellent for manual testing
- Large extension ecosystem
Cons
- Best features need a paid edition
- Requires web-security knowledge
- Only relevant for web applications
