Penetration Testing

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Penetration testing: What does it mean?

The goal of penetration testing is to find and exploit vulnerabilities in a computer system with the help of a cyber-security expert. Simulating an attack in this way helps identify any weak points in a system’s defences that attackers could exploit.

It is like a bank hiring someone to dress as a burglar and try to break into their building and access the vault. The bank will gain valuable information about strengthening its security measures if the ‘burglar’ succeeds in getting into the vault or bank.

Penetration testing stages

It can break down the pen testing process into five stages.

1. Planning and reconnaissance

The first stage involves:
They define the scope and goals, including the systems to be addressed and the testing methods to be used.
It gathers information (e.g., domain names, network addresses, mail servers) about a target to help identify how it operates and what vulnerabilities it might have.

2. Scanning

Following this, it is crucial to determine how the target application will react to different intrusion attempts. Typically, we achieve this by using:
Static analysis: The process of inspecting an application’s code to determine its behaviour at runtime. A static analysis tool can scan the code in one pass.
Dynamic analysis – inspecting an application’s code as it runs. Providing a real-time view of an application’s performance is a more practical scanning method.

3. Gaining access

Using the information gathered from web application attacks, including cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and backdoor, this stage identifies the vulnerabilities in the target’s system. Testers typically escalate privileges, steal data, intercept traffic, etc., to exploit these vulnerabilities to understand the damage these vulnerabilities can do

4. Maintaining access

It should test if a vulnerability can be persistent long enough to allow in-depth access by a malicious actor. An organization’s most sensitive data is lost to imitate advanced persistent threats often present in a system for months

5. Analysis

After the penetration test, we compiled the results into a report describing:
The exploitation of specific vulnerabilities.

Access to sensitive data
If the pen tester remained undetected in the system for a period,
Security personnel analyze this information and set up WAF settings and other application security solutions to patch vulnerabilities and prevent future attacks.