Testing Web Applications Using Poor Quality Data

Web applications are nowadays being used to support enterprise-level business operations and usually rely on back-end databases to deliver service to clients. Research and industry reports indicate the huge impact the quality of the data can have on businesses, especially when applications are not prepared for handling low quality data. In fact, even in widely tested and used applications, the presence of poor data can sometimes result in severe failures and bring in disastrous consequences for clients and providers, including financial or reputation losses. In this paper, we present an approach based on the runtime injection of poor quality data on the database interface used by web applications, which allows understanding how vulnerable the application is to the presence of poor quality data. Results indicate that the approach can be easily used to disclose critical problems in web applications and supporting middleware, helping developers in building more reliable services.