Welcome
Configuration
You configure a scan by choosing settings that best describe your application, and the kind of testing you want.
Views
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
You can configure AppScan to handle multi‑factor authentication (MFA) methods required during login or automatic exploration, including one‑time passwords (OTP), security questions, and CAPTCHA challenges.
Security questions
"Security questions" is a common method used by applications and websites to add an additional layer of security to user accounts. These questions are typically personal and require users to provide specific answers that only they should know. This extra step helps verify the user's identity, especially during password recovery or when accessing sensitive information.

Welcome
Welcome to the documentation for HCL AppScan Standard version 10.12.0
Getting started
This section provides a short tour of basic product features and procedures, including using the wizard to set up a scan.
Configuration
You configure a scan by choosing settings that best describe your application, and the kind of testing you want.
- Presets
  Presets give you the main configuration views needed for a particular type of scan.
- Views
  - Starting URL and domains
    Configure the Starting URL for the scan, and any additional servers and domains to be included.
  - API
    For scanning web APIs, define your API type, explore methods, and specify domains to be tested.
  - Excluded paths and files
    You can configure AppScan to ignore certain paths in the application, or specific types of file.
  - Multi-step operations
    Record and manage multi-step operations that are required to reach specific parts of the application that could otherwise be missed.
  - Large Language Model (LLM)
    Configure AppScan to dynamically test Large Language Model (LLM) features in your applications for risks such as sensitive information disclosure, prompt injection, data exfiltration, tool abuse, and content policy violations. Target chat endpoints, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, and other LLM components, then review reproducible findings with LLM interaction history and remediation guidance.
  - Login management
    Show AppScan® how to log in to your application.
  - API key
    AppScan Standard supports API authentication for scanning APIs that require an API key.
  - Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
    You can configure AppScan to handle multi‑factor authentication (MFA) methods required during login or automatic exploration, including one‑time passwords (OTP), security questions, and CAPTCHA challenges.
    - One-time password (OTP)
      Some applications require a one‑time password (OTP) as part of their login process or automatic exploration. AppScan supports OTP‑based authentication, you need to configure the OTP before you record the login or automatic explore sequence for these sites.
    - CAPTCHA
      CAPTCHA-based logins add an extra layer of security to prevent automated bot access, but they also add complexity for DAST tools that must authenticate before scanning. When a login flow includes an image- or text-based CAPTCHA, or a reCAPTCHA challenge, AppScan provides mechanisms to reliably record and replay these flows during scanning.
    - Security questions
      "Security questions" is a common method used by applications and websites to add an additional layer of security to user accounts. These questions are typically personal and require users to provide specific answers that only they should know. This extra step helps verify the user's identity, especially during password recovery or when accessing sensitive information.
  - HTTP authentication
    Add server-level authentication and client-side certificates, if required by the application.
  - AWS authorization
    Configure AWS settings.
  - Communication and proxy
    Configure communication timeout and proxy server settings.
  - Parameters, cookies & headers
    Identify session IDs and list parameters to exclude from the scan.
  - Automatic form fill
    Provide AppScan® with valid parameter values for filling forms in your application during the scan.
  - Error pages
    Enhance your application's error page identification by adding strings or regular expressions that enable AppScan® to recognize your error pages witihin the response content, path or both. This ensures that AppScan can effectively recognize and handle your error pages, contributing to the overall accuracy of your security scans.
  - Explore options
    Define the explore method (action-based, request-based, or both) that AppScan will use to explore the application, as well as other basic and advanced explore settings.
  - Test policy and optimization
    Define the collection of tests that will be sent to the application during testing (the test policy), and apply optimization for faster scans at times in the product lifecycle when speed is more important to you than scan depth.
  - Environment definition
    Environment definition is not essential, but enables AppScan® to safely refrain from sending non-relevant tests during the scan, resulting in a faster and more accurate scan. Customizing CVSS 3.1 environmental scores will improve the accuracy of your scan results.
  - Test options
    Additional test options.
  - Advanced configuration
    This view provides access to numerous advanced settings and should only be used by experienced AppScan users or when instructed to do so by the support team to troubleshoot a problem.
  - Custom scripts
    Custom scripts make your DAST scans more dynamic. You can add JavaScript to manipulate HTTP requests and responses during a scan, either before a request is sent to the server or after a response is received.
  - Broken access control
    Compare scan results from sessions run with different user privileges to determine whether resources reserved for priviledged users are accessible to non-privileged users. This identifies broken access control, specifically privilege escalation, where lower-privilege users gain access to protected data or functions.
  - Content-based view
    Lets you define a logical structure for the application tree, for cases where a URL-based tree will just be a long list under one or two URLs. This is not essential, but can make it much easier to navigate results.
- Scan file structure
  Explains the basic structure of an AppScan Standard SCAN file.
- Scan templates
  A scan template is simply a scan configuration that has been saved so that you can use it again.
- Changing the configuration during a scan
Intelligent Finding Analytics (IFA)
Intelligent Finding Analytics (IFA) uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to analyze data, discover patterns, and make predictions, ultimately transforming data into actionable insights. IFA goes beyond regular data analysis by using advanced methods to find deeper meanings and make smart decisions.
Manual exploring
Manual exploring enables you to explore specific parts of your application, filling in fields and forms as you go. This can be a way of ensuring that particular areas of the site are covered, and that AppScan has the information needed to complete forms correctly.
Scanning
Learn how to start a scan, and what happens during the scan; how to manually manipulate the Explore stage, and how to export the results of a scan.
Data
Data view is populated with information about the structure of the site during the Explore stage of the scan.
Issues
Issues view provides access to the results of a scan. You can view results at a high level or select specific tests or objects and access more details. These details include how to fix, requests/responses, and differences between the test variants that resulted in issues. You can manipulate the severity of issues, resend tests (with or without modifications), and create reports based on Issues.
Reports
Tools
This section explains how to use additional tools provided with HCL AppScan Standard.
Integrations
This section describes integrations of other applications with AppScan Standard:
Best practices
This section contains some best practices and use cases for advanced users.
FAQ & Troubleshooting
CLI
This section describes the syntax and options available using the Command line interface.
References
Menus and toolbar summaries, and glossary

Configuring security questions

"Security questions" is a common method used by applications and websites to add an additional layer of security to user accounts. These questions are typically personal and require users to provide specific answers that only they should know. This extra step helps verify the user's identity, especially during password recovery or when accessing sensitive information.

About this task

If your application uses security questions for user authentication, it's essential to add them here. This enables AppScan to accurately identify and capture the security questions during the login recording, in-session detection, or login playback process.

To add security questions:

Procedure

Click + Add.
Type in the question exactly as defined in your application.
Type in the answer exactly as defined in your application.
Optionally define the parameter.
Click Apply.

Note:
Ensure to include all security questions and answers used by your application. Failure to do so might lead to complications when scanning, recording logins, and accessing sensitive information using AppScan.
When using this feature, it is recommended to enable the SessionManagement:ShowActionBasedPlayerWindow flag to check that the questions are answered correctly. To enable this setting:
1. Go to Tools > Options > Advanced.
2. Locate SessionManagement:ShowActionBasedPlayerWindow, and change its setting to True.
3. Run a scan. The browser will open when scanning, and you can watch as AppScan explores your site including answers.

Results

When you record login (with answer to question) or start the scan, AppScan will identify the security questions in the application during login or the scanning process after a successful login.