HCL AppScan Reviews

HCL AppScan is primarily used to improve application security. We are transitioning from DevOps to DevSecOps.

We are attempting to integrate these tools into our CICD pipeline in order to meet our business use cases. And if we notice that the tool is missing any business features or a feature, we will highlight them and work to have them fixed or implemented. That is how we go about it. We don't go for any generic features because that will be handled by the product team. We are here to identify our gaps and then have them implemented by the vendor team.

AppScan is only used for web scanning; we do not use it for anything else.

There are many features that are valuable. such as the APIs. API calls in AppScan, and similar to Burp Suite enterprise edition, which is also for API scans. I can trigger the scan ware API.

The HCL AppScan turnaround time for Burp Suite or any new feature request is pretty good, and that is why we are sticking with the HCL.

The dashboard, for AppScan or the Fortified fast tool, which we use needs to be improved. We always raise that as an announcement request because statistics gathering or management reports based on statistics are quite important. that is the only generic feature that we always request from the product team. The standard response is "Yes, it is in the pipeline, we will take a look." 

We would like to see all of the results in the same product. However, specific products for a specific test are available on the market. For example, you cannot upload the task report to the DAST report dashboard and instead request that the product team or vendor team create a sophisticated dashboard for that. Definitely, they will say "No, it is not possible because you have a DAST tool on the market. Go and purchase that. It will have your dashboard.  If you're a DevSecOps team, and you ask me I would like to see all of the reports uploaded and collaborated on the same dashboard of the particular product. This is the reason we are using an open-sourced vulnerable management tool.

We have been using HCL AppScan for almost four years.

We are not working with the most recent update, but with two versions earlier.

The HCL AppScan performance is both stable and reliable.

Burp Suite and HCL AppScan are both stable and reliable when compared to other products.

Scalability is a question that is determined by how you allocate your hardware. It is all about how you design your CICD program with HCL AppScan. 

Scalability is quite simple to implement or achieve. Again, this is entirely dependent on your business requirements. Generally, or in short, scalability is not an issue with HCL AppScan.

This solution is used daily.

We have contacted technical support when we need customization, and there are usually other bugs and day-to-day life hacks.

The support has improved since the transition from IBM to HCL AppScan.

We are working with tools that are all related to application security, such as Qualys, SAST, DAST, open-sourced software scan, and penetration test tools. 

Some of the penetration test tools we work with are Burp Suite, and OWASP Zap which is an open-source product.

The initial setup with most of the products, particularly the Burp Suite and the HCL AppScan, is straightforward. The only difference is that when it is customized to your specific requirements, that is when the key part comes into play. We have to engage the professional services of the product team, or the vendor team, which is where the headache begins. That is a common challenge shared by the all vendor team.

Deployment and installation of AppScan take approximately three hours, or less than that if you have all of the necessary prerequisites, hardware, a database, and everything is in place, then three hours is all you need.

We put our application into maintenance mode during the version upgrade.

We require one person for the administration of this product.

When customization is required, we have assistance from the vendor time.

Most of the HCL AppScan installations are customized. We use Pure Vanilla or a new malware product.

With the features, that they offer, and the support, they offer, AppScan pricing is on a higher level. 

They should reduce it slightly. But, in my opinion, it's not a big deal. If a tool is able to satisfy all your requirements, it doesn't matter, the cost is not a deciding factor.

There are no additional fees in addition to the licensing fee.

We looked into it and decided on two open-source vulnerable management products. We are currently conducting a proof-of-concept on those open source vulnerable management tools.

We are just looking into these open sources and experimenting with them. As a result, this is the first time we intend to incorporate this vulnerable management tool into our world.

We are looking for vulnerability management, purely for vulnerability management, that can collect reports from SAST, DAST, and other scan results and use them in the management dashboard.

Before you choose a tool, whether it is Burp Suite, AppScan, or any other tool, you must first construct your business requirements, or the business use case. And you must detail out all of the product's features, as well as map the features to the business use cases. If the product meets or exceeds the majority of the business use cases, then you only need to choose that product. Otherwise, you will end up customizing the product after you buy it, which will create issues in terms of engaging with the professional services of that specific vendor. Then there's the matter of time and money. 

Detail all of your business use cases, then map those use cases to the product feature list and choose the product.

We have a business relationship with AppScan, as customers, and some of our business partners have project outsourcing with IT companies, such as HCL, IBM, Dell, and Infosys.

I would rate HCL AppScan a nine out of ten.

I use the tool to find system information for penetration testing and ethical hacking.

The solution is easy to use. It is useful for finding basic information about systems.

The product has some technical limitations. Finding critical things with the solution is difficult because most organizations update their systems. We find the product vulnerabilities manually.

I have been using the solution for four years.

I rate the stability an eight out of ten.

I rate the scalability a five out of ten. The solution is not enough for our needs. We are testing more than 50 companies with the solution. The largest company has more than 10,000 employees. We are planning to increase the number of users of the solution.

The initial setup is not difficult. I rate the ease of setup a seven out of ten.

It took us five minutes to install the solution. We need four engineers to maintain the solution.

I rate the solution’s pricing a five out of ten.

I am using the latest version of the solution. We usually perform ethical hacking using Burp Suite. The solution will be more advanced if it can be developed using ChatGPT. I would recommend the solution to others because it is the most famous web scanner. Overall, I rate the solution a five out of ten.

The solution is used for the vulnerabilities scan on the network side.

The reporting part is the most valuable feature.

The penetration testing feature should be included.

I have been using the solution for four years.

It is a stable solution. I rate it seven out of ten.

It is a scalable solution. I rate it seven out of ten.

The initial setup is very easy. The deployment takes a couple of weeks including customer training as well. I rate it ten out of ten.

The solution is moderately priced. I rate them four out of ten.

I rate the overall solution eight out of ten.

We use HCL AppScan products to help us scan for vulnerabilities and generate reports to provide a foundation on how to fix any issues. Their 4.7 version facilitates machine learning to help us select APIs and customize our scans more specifically. We also use the HCL AppScan Standard Enterprise Source and Cloud for scanning, and we plan to add the HCL AppScan Switch Casing to our toolkit. This makes it easier for us to scan the internet and use Tenable to help us find any issues.

The most valuable feature of the solution is Postman. As a security engineer, Postman allows me to specify exactly what information I need to scan for, rather than just dropping all information and running a scan. I can also use it to do some information gathering before scanning. This allows me to specify APIs and scan accordingly. The feature also saves us time.

As a developer who has been studying and working in the security product industry for several years, I have been impressed by HCL's progress. Although the cost of their product is competitive, I believe they could make it even better by increasing their database size. Companies like Tenable have much larger databases when it comes to vulnerabilities and portals, and even though HCL is connected with other vendors such as Microsoft, their database is not as expansive. The databases for HCL are small and have room for improvement.

HCL already has four solutions: Standard, Enterprise, Open Source, and the Cloud. Perhaps in a future release, HCL can add AI products. Manual work would be made easier with artificial intelligence. Maybe HCL could develop an AI program for scanning.

I have been using the solution for five months.

The solution is scalable.

The initial setup is straightforward. This is a great advantage of HCL, as we can just download, install and run it to identify potential vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the graphical user interface is also simplified.

The implementation didn't take a lot of time; setting up the cloud was just a matter of making my account and getting familiar with the features. After that, we were all logged in and ready to go with no major changes required.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

I am currently the first person in my company to begin working with HCL. We have not yet gone to any clients, but I plan to get certified in HCL with AppScan. When we have clients that require components from HCL, I will be the representative for them as I am knowledgeable in the subject.

I would highly recommend HCL for people in the workforce. It has a user-friendly interface and the cost is much lower than Tenable. The database is good, and installation is easy. Additionally, technical support is likely to be helpful. Finally, there are a lot of other tools that come with HCL, such as scanners and detectors, which will make the job much easier.

We use it prior to product releases. The web scan portion is used to find vulnerabilities, for example, if we have opened up any ports that we should not have. The source scan is used to look for similar types of vulnerabilities. However, at the source code level, it is scanning the source code, whereas the web scan is hitting ports trying to overload it. Thus, we use both of these types of scans before every product release of several of our products.

We have it installed on-premise, although we have a guy who is looking at the cloud version.

It has certainly helped us find vulnerabilities in our software, so this is priceless in the end. 

IBM Application Security has contributed to the maturity of our AppScan risk management program.

While it depends on the product, on average ten percent of our code is open source. Many products are either zero percent open source or maybe up to ten percent. They could possible be up to twenty percent open source, but never more than that.

The most valuable feature is the web scan from our perspective. Being able to quickly find the vulnerabilities if any developer has inadvertently put them in. The source scan is of value, but it is so hard to use that it is of less value.

IBM Security AppScan Source is rather hard to use. Some improvements need to be made to the usability for AppScan Source, specifically. Our biggest problem, we have a lot of code and everything just ends up looking like spaghetti after we run an AppScan Source. It is hard to evolve from one rev to the next. Trying to reuse the things we have found in a previous release to the next release is too hard.

It is perfectly stable.

Scalability is good. However, this ties into the usability a little bit, because we have a million lines of code in one product and this is part of what makes AppScan Source so difficult to use. There are so many lines of code with so many different categories that I am likely to get lost. 

AppScan Web is a good, and it does a good job. 

For AppScan Source, you might find a better solution out there. We are not actively looking for a better solution right now, and are just using it. However, if somebody else was starting from scratch, that is what I would tell them.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: quality of the software.

I used the solution to find vulnerabilities in our website and system. I did some regular checkups.

The UI was very intuitive. It was very easy to understand. It was very easy to scan the websites, see the results, and deliver them to higher management.

It would have been better if we could use it on our desktop. A desktop version should be added.

I had used the solution for one month.

The tool was very stable. I rate the tool’s stability a seven or eight out of ten. Very few people were using the tool in our organization. The stability could have been affected if there were more users.

We had a few users.

We have used solutions like Acunetix. HCL was better. The UI was pretty good. It was intuitive, easy to understand, and reliable.

The installation was easy for me. It took a few hours. A senior employee helped me deploy the tool. The solution was deployed on the cloud.

The tool was expensive. We paid a monthly license fee. There were no additional costs associated with the product.

Someone who wants to use the solution must know why they need the solution. It is quite expensive. We must not spend much on something we do not need. If we have a need and can afford the solution, HCL is a good solution. It is very easy to understand. It has a lot of features. The reporting system is good. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.

I use the tool to scan the web interface.

Compared to other tools only AppScan supports special language.

The solution needs to improve in some areas. The tool needs to add more languages. It also needs to improve its speed.

I have been using the solution for two years.

The solution has dedicated and good tech support. We can open a ticket and we get information within two hours. Once we open a ticket we get validation or confirmation of our problem. When we get to the specialist, we will get more information.

Positive

I would rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.

The most valuable feature of HCL AppScan is scanning QR codes.

The solution could improve by having a mobile version.

I have been using HCL AppScan for approximately one year.

I have found HCL AppScan to be stable.

HCL AppScan is a scalable solution. it can easily scale up and out.

The support I have received has been good. I had an issue and I opened a ticket with the support, and everything went smooth. 

The initial setup of HCL AppScan is easy.

I rate HCL AppScan an eight out of ten.