Penetration testing

What is penetration testing?

A penetration test, pen test or ethical hacking is a method to evaluate the security of an IT infrastructure by safely trying to exploit vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities may exist in web sites,operating systems, hardware devices, services and application flaws, improper configurations or risky end-user behavior. Such assessments are also useful in validating the efficacy of defensive mechanisms, as well as end-user adherence to security policies.

Penetration testing is typically performed using manual or automated technologies to systematically compromise servers, endpoints, web applications, wireless networks, network devices, mobile devices and other potential points of exposure. Once vulnerabilities have been successfully exploited on a particular system, testers may attempt to use the compromised system to launch subsequent exploits at other internal resources, specifically by trying to incrementally achieve higher levels of security clearance and deeper access to electronic assets and information via privilege escalation.

Information about any security vulnerabilities successfully exploited through penetration testing is typically aggregated and presented to IT and network system managers to help those professionals make strategic conclusions and prioritize related remediation efforts. The fundamental purpose of penetration testing is to measure the feasibility of systems or end-user compromise and evaluate any related consequences such incidents may have on the involved resources or operations.

What Are Pen Testing Tools?

KiK Security penetration test

Attackers use tools in order to make their breach attempts more successful. The same is true for pen testers. Penetration testing software is intended for human augmentation, not replacement—they allow pen testers to focus on thinking outside the box by taking over tasks that take time, but not brain power. When it comes to pen testing, it’s never a choice between penetration testing tools vs. penetration testers. Instead, it’s a choice of what penetration tools will help a penetration tester most. We also turning to penetration testing tools to advance in-house programs through strategic automation. Automation maximize time by automating the routines.

What Is the Difference Between Vulnerability Scans and Pen Tests?

KiK Security vulnerability scanning and penetration testing

While many inaccurately use vulnerability scans or vulnerability assessments as terms that are synonymous with penetration tests, others explain the differences as though you have to choose between the two. Vulnerability assessments are tools that search for and report on what known vulnerabilities are present in an organization’s IT infrastructure. Penetration tests, on the other hand, as they relate to vulnerability assessments, are conducted by testers who investigate if the vulnerability can be exploited, and the severity of that potential harm. Pen testing can make vulnerability assessments more valuable by identifying the likelihood a vulnerability can be compromised, as well as any associated risk if it is exploited. This provides vulnerability program managers a way to prioritize and manage risk more effectively.

While vulnerability scans are valuable on their own, augmenting with penetration testing maximizes their effectiveness, ensuring that you remediate not just severe vulnerabilities, but vulnerabilities that are introducing significant risk into your infrastructure.

What Are the Different Types of Pen Testing?

While it’s tempting to just request that at tester “test everything,” this would most likely lead to pen testers only scratching the surface of a number of vulnerabilities, sacrificing gathering valuable intelligence gained by going more in-depth in fewer areas, with clear objectives in mind. In order to make sure pen tests can achieve these objectives and pinpoint weaknesses, there are various different types of pen tests that focus on different areas of an IT infrastructure, including:

Web Application Tests

Web application penetration tests examine the overall security and potential risks of web applications, including coding errors, broken authentication or authorization, and injection vulnerabilities.

Network Security Tests

Network penetration testing aims to prevent malicious acts by finding weaknesses before the attackers do. Pen testers focus on network security testing by exploiting and uncovering vulnerabilities on different types of networks, associated devices like routers and switches, and network hosts. They aim to exploit flaws in these areas, like weak passwords or misconfigured assets, in order to gain access to critical systems or data.

Cloud Security Tests

Security teams work with cloud providers and third-party vendors to design and carry out cloud security testing for cloud-based systems and applications. Cloud pen testing validates the security of a cloud deployment, identifies overall risk and likelihood for each vulnerability, and recommends how to improve your cloud environment.

IoT Security Tests

Pen testers take the nuances of different IoT devices into account by analyzing each component and the interaction between them. By using layered methodology, where each layer is analyzed, pen testers can spot weaknesses that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Social Engineering

Social engineering is a breach tactic, which involves using deception in order to gain access or information that will be used for malicious purposes. The most common example of this is seen in phishing scams. Pen testers use phishing tools and emails tailored to an organization to test defense mechanisms, detection and reaction capabilities, finding susceptible employees and security measures that need improvement.

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How Often Should You Pen Test?

Penetration testing should be performed on a regular basis to ensure more consistent IT and network security management. A pen-tester will reveal how newly discovered threats or emerging vulnerabilities may potentially be assailed by attackers. In addition to regularly scheduled analysis and assessments required by regulatory mandates, tests should also be run whenever:

  • Security patches are applied
  • Network infrastructure or applications are added
  • Upgrades to infrastructure or applications are done
  • End user policies are modified
  • New office locations are established
  • Company acquisitions and mergers (should be conducted before acquiring or merging)

We recommend annual or half-annual pen tests for most organizations. However, this is more of a thumb rule rather than a mandate.An annual pen test can reduce the company’s security risks. And it’s definitely better than no pen tests at all! However, today’s businesses tend to undertake rapid changes to production systems. Therefore, they should ideally run pen tests quarterly or immediately after production deployment following a change in an application or its underlying technologies. As a rule of thumb, it’s best to split the penetration testing throughout the year, conducting a quarterly external pen test and a semi-annual internal test.
Other factors to be considered to determine pen test frequency:

  • Company size
  • Potential exposure to attack vectors
  • Industry
  • Infrastructure type/size
  • Industry-specific regulatory environment

What Are the Stages of Pen Testing?

Through penetration testing, you can proactively identify the most exploitable security weaknesses before someone else does. However, there’s a lot more to it than the actual act of infiltration. Pen testing is a thorough, well thought out project that consists of several phases:

1

Planning and Preparation

Before a pen test begins, the testers and their clients need to be aligned on the goals of the test, so it’s scoped and executed properly. They’ll need to know what types of tests they should be running, who will be aware that the test is running, how much information and access the testers will have to start out with, and other important details that will ensure the test is a success.

2

Discovery

In this phase, teams perform different types of reconnaissance on their target. On the technical side, information like IP addresses can help determine information about firewalls and other connections. On the personal side, data as simple as names, job titles, and email addresses can hold great value.

3

Penetration Attempt and Exploitation

Now informed about their target, penetration experts can begin to attempt to infiltrate the environment, exploiting security weaknesses and demonstrating just how deep they can go.

4

Analysis and Reporting

Pen testers should create a report that includes details on every step of the process, highlighting what was used to successfully penetrate the system, what security weaknesses were found, other pertinent information discovered, and recommendations for remediation.

5

Clean Up and Remediation

Pen testers should leave no trace, and need to go back through systems and remove any artifacts used during the test, since they could be leveraged by a real attacker in the future. From there, and organization can begin to make the necessary fixes to close these holes in their security infrastructure.

6

Retest

The best way to ensure an organization’s remediations are effective is to test again. Additionally, IT environments, and the methods used to attack them, are constantly evolving, so it is to be expected that new weaknesses will emerge.

What are the different types of penetration tests?

BLACK BOX TEST
BLACK BOX TEST

Аlso known as a blind test. Requires zero knowledge of the company’s assets. Penetration testers perform a complete reconnaissance phase to uncover the company’s assets and get to pick their own path around security controls as well as executing a strategy of their own.

GRAY BOX TEST
GRAY BOX TEST

In this type of tests,  penetration tester knows the role of the system and of its functionalities, and also knows (though not extensively) its internal mechanisms (especially the internal data structure and the algorithms used). However, he or she does not have access to the source code!

WHITE BOX TEST
WHITE BOX TEST

Consist in reviewing the functioning of an application and its internal structure, its processes, rather than its functionalities. Here, all the internal components of the software or application are tested through the source code, main work base of the tester.

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