White-box testing 1

White-box testing
White-box testing (a.k.a. clear box testing, glass box testing, transparent box testing, or structural testing) is a
method of testing software that tests internal structures or workings of an application, as opposed to its functionality
(i.e. black-box testing). In white-box testing an internal perspective of the system, as well as programming skills, are
required and used to design test cases. The tester chooses inputs to exercise paths through the code and determine the
appropriate outputs. This is analogous to testing nodes in a circuit, e.g. in-circuit testing (ICT).
While white-box testing can be applied at the unit, integration and system levels of the software testing process, it is
usually done at the unit level. It can test paths within a unit, paths between units during integration, and between
subsystems during a system level test. Though this method of test design can uncover many errors or problems, it
might not detect unimplemented parts of the specification or missing requirements.
White-box test design techniques include:
• Control flow testing
• Data flow testing
• Branch testing
• Path testing
Compare with black-box testing.

Hacking
In penetration testing, white-box testing refers to a methodology where an ethical hacker has full knowledge of the
system being attacked. The goal of a white-box penetration test is to simulate a malicious insider who has some
knowledge and possibly basic credentials to the target system.

External links
• BCS SIGIST (British Computer Society Specialist Interest Group in Software Testing): Standard for Software
Component Testing [1], Working Draft 3.4, 27. April 2001.
• http://agile.csc.ncsu.edu/SEMaterials/WhiteBox.pdf has more information on control flow testing and data
flow testing.
• http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/pex/Pex - Automated white-box testing for .NET

References
[1] http:/ / www. testingstandards. co. uk/ Component%20Testing. pdf
Article Sources and Contributors 2

Article Sources and Contributors

White-box testing  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=428829652  Contributors: Ag2402, Aillema, AnOddName, Andreas Kaufmann, Arthena, CSZero, Caesura, Chris Pickett,
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