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Penetration Testing or Pen Testing is a type of Security Testing used to uncover vulnerabilities, threats and risks that an attacker could exploit in software applications, networks or web applications. The purpose of penetration testing is to identify and test all possible security vulnerabilities that are present in the software application. Penetration testing is also called Pen Test.
Vulnerability is the risk that an attacker can disrupt or gain authorized access to the system or any data contained within it. Vulnerabilities are usually introduced by accident during software development and implementation phase. Common vulnerabilities include design errors, configuration errors, software bugs etc. Penetration Analysis depends upon two mechanisms namely Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing(VAPT).
Penetration is essential in an enterprise because -
The type of penetration test selected usually depends on the scope and whether the organization wants to simulate an attack by an employee, Network Admin (Internal Sources) or by External Sources. There are three types of Penetration testing and they are
In black-box penetration testing, a tester has no knowledge about the systems to be tested. He is responsible to collect information about the target network or system.
In a white-box penetration testing, the tester is usually provided with complete information about the network or systems to be tested including the IP address schema, source code, OS details, etc. This can be considered as a simulation of an attack by any Internal sources (Employees of an Organization).
In a grey box penetration testing, a tester is provided with partial knowledge of the system. It can be considered as an attack by an external hacker who had gained illegitimate access to an organization's network infrastructure documents.
Following are activities needs to be performed to execute Penetration Test -
Step 1) Planning phase
Step 2) Discovery phase
Step 3) Attack Phase
Step 4) Reporting Phase
The prime task in penetration testing is to gather system information. There are two ways to gather information -
There is a wide variety of tools that are used in penetration testing and the important tools are:
Penetration Testers job is to:
Manual Penetration Testing | Automated Penetration Testing |
---|---|
Manual Testing requires expert professionals to run the tests | Automated test tools provide clear reports with less experienced professionals |
Manual Testing requires Excel and other tools to track it | Automation Testing has centralized and standard tools |
In Manual Testing, sample results vary from test to test | In the case of Automated Tests, results do not vary from test to test |
Memory Cleaning up should be remembered by users | Automated Testing will have comprehensive cleanups. |
Penetration Testing cannot find all vulnerabilities in the system. There are limitations of time, budget, scope, skills of Penetration Testers
Following will be side effects when we are doing penetration testing:
Testers should act like a real hacker and test the application or system and needs to check whether a code is securely written. A penetration test will be effective if there is a well-implemented security policy. Penetration testing policy and methodology should be a place to make penetration testing more effective. This is a complete beginners guide for Penetration Testing.
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