Fuzz Testing

Simple Definition for Beginners:

Fuzz testing is a software testing technique that involves providing random or unexpected inputs to a program to find bugs and security vulnerabilities.

Common Use Example:

A security team uses fuzz testing tools to generate random data inputs for a web application, helping to identify crashes or unexpected behavior that could indicate security flaws.

Technical Definition for Professionals:

Fuzz testing, or fuzzing, is a dynamic application security testing (DAST) technique that involves automatically providing invalid, unexpected, or random data to the inputs of a software application. The purpose is to identify security vulnerabilities, coding errors, and stability issues by observing how the application processes this input. Fuzz testing can uncover memory leaks, crashes, assertion failures, and potential security exploits such as buffer overflows. The process involves three key components: a fuzz generator to create the random inputs, an execution engine to feed these inputs to the application, and a monitoring system to detect and log any abnormal behavior or crashes. Fuzz testing is widely used in security testing to improve the robustness and security of software applications.