From $12,000 CAD

SaaS Penetration Testing

Since 2006. CISSP-ISSAP certified. Multi-tenant isolation testing, API security and SOC 2 aligned reporting for cloud-hosted platforms.

SaaS penetration testing evaluates multi-tenant isolation, API security, authentication mechanisms, authorization controls and data handling in cloud-hosted platforms. Sherlock Forensics provides SaaS-specific penetration testing from $12,000 CAD with SOC 2 alignment and CISSP-ISSAP certified examiners based in Vancouver.

The Risk

Why SaaS Companies Need Penetration Testing

SOC 2 Type II auditors expect evidence of security testing. Not a vulnerability scan report. Not a checkbox from an automated tool. They want a penetration test report that maps findings to specific control objectives. Without one, your audit timeline extends and your customers start asking harder questions.

Customer security questionnaires now arrive before the sales contract. Enterprise buyers send 200+ question assessments asking for your last pentest date, scope and remediation timelines. If you cannot provide a current report, the deal stalls. In 2025, Verizon's DBIR reported that web application attacks accounted for 26% of all breaches. SaaS platforms are web applications with amplified blast radius.

Multi-tenant architecture creates risks that do not exist in traditional applications. A single authorization flaw exposes every customer's data simultaneously. When Tenant A can access Tenant B's records through a broken object-level authorization check, the breach affects your entire customer base. Not one account. All of them.

Your API surface is larger than a traditional web application. A typical SaaS platform exposes 50-300 API endpoints. Each endpoint accepts parameters, processes authentication tokens and returns data. Each one is a potential entry point. Automated scanners test for known CVEs. They do not test whether your /api/v2/invoices/{id} endpoint properly validates that the requesting user owns that invoice.

The cost equation is simple. A pentest costs $12,000-$30,000 CAD. A multi-tenant data breach costs $4.45 million USD on average according to IBM's 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report. Factor in customer churn, regulatory fines under PIPEDA and the SOC 2 report you will never receive, and the pentest pays for itself before your next board meeting.

Scope

What We Test in a SaaS Pentest

Authentication

SSO integration testing across SAML and OIDC providers. MFA bypass attempts including token replay, backup code brute-forcing and session fixation. Session management review covering token expiry, rotation and secure flag enforcement. OAuth flow validation for implicit grant and authorization code vulnerabilities.

Authorization

RBAC testing across every user role in your application. Horizontal and vertical privilege escalation attempts. IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference) testing on all resource endpoints. Permission boundary validation between admin, member and viewer roles. API-level authorization checks that bypass front-end restrictions.

Tenant Isolation

Cross-tenant data access testing through parameter manipulation, header injection and API enumeration. Shared resource abuse including storage buckets, queues and cache layers. Database isolation validation for row-level security implementations. Subdomain-based tenant separation boundary testing.

API Security

Full endpoint enumeration from documentation and traffic analysis. Rate limiting validation on authentication and data export endpoints. Input validation testing for injection, XXE and deserialization flaws. Authentication bypass through token manipulation, key confusion and algorithm switching attacks.

Payment Flows

Stripe and payment integration testing for price manipulation, coupon abuse and plan downgrade exploitation. Subscription tier boundary testing to verify feature gating at the API level. Free trial abuse scenarios including account cycling and trial extension through API manipulation.

Data Export/Import

Bulk data extraction testing through pagination abuse and export functionality. CSV injection in downloadable reports. File upload abuse including unrestricted file types, oversized uploads and path traversal. Import functionality testing for XML injection and formula injection in spreadsheet imports.

Attack Scenarios

SaaS-Specific Attack Scenarios

These are real attack patterns we test for in every SaaS engagement. Each one has been exploited in production SaaS platforms within the past 18 months. Automated scanners miss all of them because they require understanding of application logic and multi-tenant data boundaries.

  • Tenant A accessing Tenant B's data through parameter manipulation. Changing the org_id or tenant_id parameter in API requests to retrieve another organization's records. This is the most common SaaS vulnerability we find and the most damaging.
  • Privilege escalation from viewer to admin via API. The front-end hides admin controls from viewer accounts. The API accepts the same requests from any authenticated user. A viewer sends the admin-only API call directly and gains full account control.
  • IDOR vulnerabilities in resource endpoints. Sequential or predictable resource IDs in URLs like /api/invoices/10432 allow enumeration. An attacker iterates through IDs to access invoices, reports or files belonging to other users within the same tenant or across tenants.
  • API key leakage in client-side JavaScript. Service keys, internal API tokens or third-party credentials embedded in bundled JavaScript files. These keys often have broader permissions than the front-end needs, enabling backend access that bypasses the application entirely.
  • Webhook endpoint abuse and SSRF. Webhook configuration features that accept arbitrary URLs can be exploited for Server-Side Request Forgery. An attacker points the webhook to internal infrastructure addresses (169.254.169.254 for cloud metadata) to extract secrets and access tokens.
  • Session fixation across subdomain tenants. When tenants operate on subdomains (tenant1.app.com, tenant2.app.com), cookies scoped to the parent domain allow session sharing. An attacker authenticated on one subdomain reuses the session cookie to access another tenant's subdomain.

For methodology details, refer to the OWASP Web Security Testing Guide and the OWASP API Security Top 10. Our testing methodology incorporates both frameworks with SaaS-specific extensions for multi-tenancy and B2B authorization models.

Compliance

Compliance Alignment

Our reports do not just list vulnerabilities. They map every finding to the specific compliance control it violates. Your compliance team and auditors get a direct connection between the technical issue and the regulatory requirement.

SOC 2 Type II
Findings mapped to Common Criteria (CC6.1, CC6.3, CC7.1, CC7.2). Report format accepted by all Big Four audit firms. Covers logical access controls, system operations and change management requirements.
ISO 27001
Findings mapped to Annex A controls (A.8 Asset Management, A.9 Access Control, A.14 System Acquisition). Supports your Statement of Applicability and risk treatment plan.
PCI DSS
Required if your SaaS platform processes, stores or transmits cardholder data. Findings mapped to PCI DSS 4.0 requirements including Requirement 6 (Develop and Maintain Secure Systems) and Requirement 11 (Test Security of Systems and Networks).
PIPEDA
Canadian privacy law requiring organizations to protect personal information with appropriate safeguards. A penetration test demonstrates due diligence under Principle 7 (Safeguards). Findings identify gaps in technical controls protecting customer PII.

Need a compliance-specific penetration test? We offer dedicated engagements scoped to individual frameworks. For broader security assessments, see our penetration testing services.

Pricing

SaaS Pentest Pricing

Standard SaaS Pentest

From $12,000 CAD

Fixed-price quote after scoping call. No hourly billing surprises.

  • API endpoint testing (REST, GraphQL)
  • Multi-tenant isolation validation
  • Authentication and authorization testing across all user roles
  • OWASP Top 10 and API Security Top 10 coverage
  • Executive summary and technical report with remediation guidance
  • SOC 2 aligned report format available at no extra cost
  • Retesting included within 90 days of report delivery
  • Direct access to your assigned tester during the engagement
Request a Quote

Final pricing depends on the number of API endpoints, user roles, third-party integrations and whether payment processing is in scope. Most SaaS engagements fall between $12,000 and $30,000 CAD. For a breakdown of penetration testing costs in Canada, see our pricing guide.

Human vs Machine

Is a Penetration Testing Service Worth Paying for vs Automated Scanning?

Yes. This is a direct answer because the distinction matters.

Automated scanners (Burp Suite Pro, OWASP ZAP, Nessus, Qualys) test for known CVEs in your technology stack. They check whether your framework version has a published vulnerability. They test for reflected XSS with standard payloads. They flag missing security headers. This is useful work and we run these tools as part of our engagement.

But a scanner will never discover that Tenant A can read Tenant B's invoices by changing an ID parameter from 10432 to 10433. It will never find that a viewer-role account can call the /api/admin/users endpoint because the authorization check only exists in the front-end React component. It will never test whether your Stripe webhook endpoint validates the signature before processing the event.

These are business logic vulnerabilities. They are unique to your application. No CVE number exists for them. No signature-based scanner can detect them. They require a human tester who reads your API documentation, understands your data model, creates accounts at different permission levels and methodically tests every boundary between what a user should access and what the application actually allows.

In our SaaS engagements over the past 12 months, 73% of critical findings were business logic flaws that no automated tool detected. The scanner found the missing HSTS header. The human tester found the tenant isolation bypass that would have exposed 40,000 customer records.

Run automated scans weekly. They are cheap and catch regressions. But do not mistake a green scan report for security. Get a human penetration test at least annually and after every major feature release. For API-specific testing, the gap between automated and manual testing is even wider.

Questions

SaaS Penetration Testing FAQ

How much does a SaaS pentest cost?
Starting at $12,000 CAD for a standard SaaS penetration test. Final pricing depends on the number of API endpoints, user roles, third-party integrations and application complexity. Multi-tenant platforms with complex RBAC models or payment processing integrations will fall toward the higher end. We provide a fixed-price quote after reviewing your application architecture. No hourly billing. No scope creep charges. See our penetration testing pricing guide for detailed breakdowns.
Do I need a pentest for SOC 2?
SOC 2 Type II requires evidence of security testing as part of the Common Criteria. While the AICPA does not mandate penetration testing by name, auditors consistently expect it. Every Big Four and mid-tier audit firm we have worked with has requested a penetration test report. A pentest report that maps findings to SOC 2 control objectives (CC6.1, CC6.3, CC7.1) satisfies this requirement and gives your auditor exactly what they need. See our compliance penetration testing page for framework-specific details.
How long does a SaaS pentest take?
2-4 weeks depending on application size and API surface area. A SaaS platform with 50 API endpoints and 3 user roles takes approximately 2 weeks of active testing. A platform with 200+ endpoints, complex RBAC, payment processing and multiple third-party integrations requires 3-4 weeks. Add 5 business days for report delivery after testing concludes. We provide a timeline estimate during the scoping call.
What do you need from us before testing?
Staging environment access, API documentation (Swagger/OpenAPI preferred), test accounts for each user role in your application, a list of third-party integrations and any areas you want excluded from testing. Architecture diagrams and data flow documentation are helpful but not required. We provide a detailed onboarding checklist after contract signing. Most teams have everything ready within 3-5 business days.
Will testing affect our production environment?
We test on staging environments by default. This eliminates risk to your production data and users. Production testing is available when staging does not accurately represent the live application. In those cases, we coordinate timing windows, use rate-limited testing techniques and avoid destructive operations. Account deletion, data modification and load testing are never performed on production without explicit written authorization from your team.
Is automated scanning enough for SaaS security?
No. Automated scanners detect known CVEs in frameworks and libraries. They cannot test business logic flaws, tenant isolation boundaries or authorization bypass scenarios specific to your application. In our SaaS engagements over the past 12 months, 73% of critical findings were business logic issues that no automated scanner flagged. Run automated scans for regression coverage. Get a manual penetration test at least annually and after major releases.

Protect Your Platform

Protect Your Platform Before Attackers Do

One tenant isolation bypass exposes every customer on your platform. One broken authorization check gives attackers admin access. Get a SaaS-specific penetration test from a team that has tested multi-tenant applications since 2006. See also: penetration testing services, API security testing and compliance penetration testing.

Since 2006CISSP-ISSAP certified604.229.1994

Ready to Scope Your SaaS Pentest?

Call us or fill out the contact form. We will review your application architecture, provide a fixed-price quote and give you a timeline within one business day.

Call 604.229.1994