What is a Penetration Test?
Penetration testing, commonly known as penetration testing or ethical hacking, is an authorized simulated cyberattack on a computer system used to assess the security of a system; this should not be confused with a vulnerability assessment. This test is performed to identify weaknesses (also known as vulnerabilities), including the possibility and strengths of unauthorized parties accessing system functions and data, enabling a complete risk assessment to be completed.
Type of penetration test
Depending on the specific goals of a penetration test, organizations provide testers with different levels of information or access to the target system. Sometimes a penetration testing team sets up a methodology at the beginning and sticks to it. Sometimes the testing team learns more about the system during penetration testing, which improves its strategy. In this industry, people discuss three types of penetration testing:
White box
For white-box testing, penetration testers have access to systems and system artifacts: source code, binaries, containers, and sometimes even the server that runs the system. A white-box approach provides the highest level of security in the shortest amount of time.
Black box
The team has no idea about the internal structure of the target system. They act as hackers, looking for any weaknesses that can be attacked from the outside.
Gray box
The team has an understanding of one or more sets of credentials. They also understand the target’s internal data structure, code and algorithms. Penetration testers can build test cases based on detailed design documentation (e.g. architecture diagrams of the target system).
The penetration test phase
Penetration testers intend to simulate an attack launched by a motivated adversary. To do this, they follow a scenario that usually consists of the following steps:
Reconnaissance
Gather as much target-related information as possible from public and dedicated sources to develop an attack strategy. These sources include internet searches, domain registration information retrieval, social engineering, non-intrusive network scanning and sometimes even searching spam bins. This information helps penetration testers decipher the target’s attack surface and potential vulnerabilities. Reconnaissance may vary depending on the scope and objectives of the penetration test, and may be as simple as a phone call to understand the functionality of the system.
Scanning
Penetration testers use tools to check target websites or systems for vulnerabilities, including open services, application security issues and open source vulnerabilities. Penetration testers use a variety of tools depending on what they find during reconnaissance and testing.
Gaining access
An attacker may have a variety of motives; it could be to steal, alter or delete data, to transfer funds or simply to damage your reputation. When performing each test case, penetration testers must determine the best tools and techniques to access the system, whether by exploiting weaknesses (such as SQL injection), through malware, social engineering or other means.
Maintaining access
Once a penetration tester has gained access to a target, its simulated attack must remain connected long enough to achieve its objectives: extract data, modify data or abuse functionality. The goal is to demonstrate the potential impact.
Covering tracks
The attacker must remove any traces of damage to the victim’s system, any type of data collected, log events, to remain anonymous.
Once an attacker has exploited a vulnerability, they may gain access to other machines, so the process repeats itself, i.e. they look for new vulnerabilities and try to exploit them. This process is known as spinning.
The type of penetration test tool
There is no universal solution for penetration testing. Instead, different targets require different toolkits for port scanning, application scanning, Wi-Fi intrusion, or direct network penetration. But in general, the types of penetration testing tools fall into five categories:
A reconnaissance tool for detecting network hosts and open ports；
Vulnerability scanners for finding problems with web services, web applications and APIs；
Proxy tools (e.g. dedicated web proxy or generic man-in-the-middle proxy)；
Exploitation tools for reaching systems or accessing assets；
Tools for interacting with the system after exploitation, maintaining and extending access rights and achieving attack goals.
Advantages and disadvantages of penetration testing
With the frequency and severity of security breaches increasing every year, organizations are more eager than ever to understand how to defend against attacks. regulations such as PCI DSS and HIPAA mandate regular penetration testing to ensure compliance with their latest requirements. With these pressures in mind, here are some of the advantages and disadvantages that this type of flaw-finding technique has:
Advantages of Penetration Testing
Identify vulnerabilities in upstream security assurance activities, activities such as automated tools, configuration and coding standards, architectural analysis and other lightweight vulnerability assessment activities.
Look for known and unknown software flaws and security vulnerabilities, including small bugs that do not cause much concern themselves but can be part of a complex pattern of attacks and cause significant harm.
It can attack any system, mimic the behavior of most malicious hackers, and mimic real-world adversaries as much as possible.
Disadvantages of Penetration Testing
A lot of manpower and cost.
Does not comprehensively prevent bugs and defects from entering production.
About DeHacker
DeHacker is a team of auditors and white hat hackers who perform security audits and assessments. With decades of experience in security and distributed systems, our experts focus on the ins and outs of system security. Our services follow clear and prudent industry standards. Whether it’s reviewing the smallest modifications or a new platform, we’ll provide an in-depth security survey at every stage of your company’s project. We provide comprehensive vulnerability reports and identify structural inefficiencies in smart contract code, combining high-end security research with a real-world attacker mindset to reduce risk and harden code.
