Research Library / Case Studies /

Travel & Hospitality Technology

50+ Applications, 2 Years, 1 Goal: Scaling Continuous Security for a Global Travel Company

A multi-million-dollar travel technology company asked a hard question: are we secure enough for the next wave of cyber threats? Payatu answered with a 2-year continuous assessment across 50+ applications and a 24-hour SLA on critical fixes.

Web & Mobile Application Penetration Testing, Infrastructure Security Testing, API Security Testing, Continuous Security Assessment

At a glance

INDUSTRY

Travel & Hospitality Technology

CLIENT PROFILE

A multi-million-dollar travel technology company serving millions of customers across search, hotels, airports, and travel agencies

SERVICES

Web & Mobile Application Penetration Testing, Infrastructure Security Testing, API Security Testing, Continuous Security Assessment

ENGAGEMENT

2-year recurring assessment · 50+ applications

key Numbers

50+

Applications Under Continuous Assessment

2

Years of Recurring Security Engagement

24 Hours

SLA for Critical Vulnerability Remediation

Key Takeaways

Client – a multi-million-dollar travel technology company powering search, hotel, airport, and travel agency platforms used by millions of customers.

Problem – periodic pentesting and a dedicated internal team weren't enough; as the company onboarded new services and third-party vendors, gaps in continuous validation left 50+ applications without ongoing coverage.

What Payatu did – ran a structured, 2-year recurring assessment across web, mobile, infrastructure, and APIs, backed by defined SLAs for vulnerability remediation.

Outcome – found and closed vulnerabilities including payment bypass, privilege escalation to root, and broken access controls, with a steep, sustained decline in vulnerabilities over the engagement.

the challenge

Why the client called us in

The company had invested heavily in security: periodic pentesting by external vendors and a dedicated internal security team. But as it kept expanding, onboarding new services, integrating third-party vendors, and handling larger transaction volumes, leadership faced a hard question: are we secure enough to handle the next wave of cyber threats? Scheduled assessments and reactive response no longer felt sustainable.

Strengthen security for business-critical, revenue-facing applications
Shift from periodic testing to continuous, bulk security validation
Build a structured remediation process with clear SLAs

scope of engagement

What was in scope

Web and mobile application penetration testing across 50+ applications
Infrastructure and cloud security testing
API security testing (authentication, authorization, rate limiting)
Structured, SLA-driven remediation tracking

Our Approach

How Payatu ran the engagement

01

Process Standardization

Streamlined the client's previously unorganized pentesting process with a predefined prerequisites checklist and advisory on team structuring.

02

Continuous Testing Across 50+ Applications

Ran web and mobile application penetration testing, infrastructure and cloud security testing, and API security testing on a recurring basis across the client's full application portfolio.

03

Assumed-Breach Exercises

Conducted assumed-breach testing on individual services such as k8s, Jenkins, databases, etc. to validate real-world resilience.

04

Criticality-Based Retesting

Recommended annual or bi-annual reassessment cadence for critical applications based on risk.

05

SLA-Driven Remediation

Defined fix SLAs by severity: critical within 24 hours, high within 5 days, medium within 15 days, and low tracked against business priority.

Key findings

What we found

User Impersonation

Flaws allowed one user to assume another user's identity within the platform.

Payment Bypass

Logic flaws in the booking flow allowed transactions to be completed without valid payment.

Privilege Escalation to Root

Vulnerabilities allowed an attacker to escalate from a standard user context to root-level access.

Broken Access Controls & Hardcoded Data

Access control gaps and hardcoded credentials in config files were found across customer-facing applications, alongside HTTP verb tampering that could delete critical data.

the outcome

Results and Impact

Over two years of continuous assessment, vulnerabilities identified per cycle declined steeply as fixes compounded, and the client avoided real business impact: booking-flow failures that would have driven customer attrition, seat-selection conflicts damaging reputation, and zero-cost booking exploits risking direct revenue loss.

‍