Reporting

Writing the report is final phase but we like to think backwards… hence reverse engineers right. What I mean is that the report must be a standard methodology that is a repeatable. Is this a baseline report or the 12 report of the application in the current year? Either way the report needs to be consistent in the delivery to customers, management etc.

Every application security assessment report should have as a deliverable the following sections

I.	Executive Summary - It this report is for many systems then there should be a summary paragraph that outlines the total devices tested, the dates of the testing and a summary of the results.

I think we all know that management likes visual graphics to illustrate problems so why not provide some to do that for all of the systems tested.

II. Systems Summary – If more than 1 application or system is tested, we recommend that the systems summary defined the systems and the systems boundaries and a description of the systems purpose. Each “System” may contain many sub-systems etc., it is important to provide both Executive Summary about systems as well as within the systems summary.

III. System Detail – This is a details on each system test and details of the individual hosts or applications.