Penetration Testing Stages

An penetration test, otherwise called a pen test, is a recreated digital attack against your computer system to check for exploitable vulnerabilities. With regards to web application security, penetration testing is ordinarily used to increase a web application security. Penetration testing (or in short pentesting) can include the endeavored breaking of any number of application systems such as application convention interfaces (APIs), frontend/backend workers to reveal vulnerabilities, for example, unsanitized inputs that are helpless to code injection attacks. The penetration testing process can be broken down into five stages.

1. Planning and reconnaissance

The first stage involves:

• Characterizing the scope and objectives of a test, including the systems to be tended to and the testing strategies to be utilized.
• Social occasion insight for example network and domain names, mail server to all the more likely see how an objective functions and its possible vulnerabilities.

2. Scanning

The next step is to understand how the target application will respond to various intrusion attempts. This is typically done using:

• Static analysis – Inspecting an application’s code to gauge the manner in which it carries on while running. These devices can filter the sum of the code in a solitary pass. Refer Static applicaiton security testing (SAST) for more cover for this.
• Dynamic analysis – Inspecting an application’s code in a running state. This is a more pragmatic method of filtering, as it gives a continuous view into an application’s performance. Refer Dynamic application security testing (DAST) for more cover for this.

3. Gaining Access

This stage utilizes web application attacks, such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection and backdoors, to uncover a target’s vulnerabilities. Testers at that point attempt and adventure these vulnerabilities, ordinarily by raising benefits, taking information, capturing traffic to comprehend the harm they can cause.

4. Maintaining access

The objective of this stage is to check whether the vulnerability can be utilized to accomplish a relentless nearness in the misused system long enough for a troublemaker to pick up top to bottom access. The thought is to imitate advanced constant dangers, which frequently stay in a system for a considerable length of time so as to take an association’s most sensitive data.

5. Analysis

The results of the penetration test are then compiled into a report detailing:

• Specific vulnerabilities that were exploited
• Sensitive data that was accessed
• The amount of time the pen tester was able to remain in the system undetected

This data is analyzed by security analysts, penetration testers or consultants to help arrange an undertaking’s optimized or recommended settings and other application security solutions for fixing vulnerabilities and ensuring against future attacks.

For modern organization and best practice, some are already adopting cyber kill chain and red team operation where penetration testing is becoming part of the process for how they carry their workflow and feedback the findings for blue team follow up.

E-SPIN in the business of enterprise vulnerability management and penetration testing, as well as modern red team operation solution supply, include training and inter-related tools integration and maintenance since 2005 in the market. Feel free to contact E-SPIN for your specific project or operation requirements.