Penetration Test Improve Your Digital Security With Penetration Testing

As security threats get more sophisticated and advanced organizations of all sizes are vulnerable to hackers. To continue to secure sensitive data and meet security regulations, businesses must proactively identify vulnerabilities in their IT infrastructure. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is with penetration testing, a controlled authorized simulation of a cyberattack aimed at finding and closing system vulnerabilities.

What is Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing, also known as ethical hacking or pen testing, is the practice of assessing an information system’s security by simulating a cyberattack from a threat actor. It entails security experts staging an attack, or “white hat hacking,” an organization to expose flaws and weaknesses. Penetration testing is aimed at discovering flaws in security implementations, while evaluating real-time detection and response of the organization in such attacks. After rechecking the control for further testing, the testers provide detailed results on probable risks, and suggestions to plug those holes.

Importance of Penetration Testing

1. Finding Vulnerabilities Before the Bad Guys Do: The entire purpose of pen testing is to identify and correct vulnerabilities before hackers can exploit them. By simulating real-world attack scenarios, breaches can be identified.
2. Measuring the adequacy of Security Measures: This will help you to determine whether the existing security measures are working well or not. Even with the best of intentions, security vulnerabilities or misconfigurations in firewalls, and shortfalls in antivirus programs intrusion detection systems and access controls may be present. A pen test is intended to show if those security systems are working as they should, whether there are any vulnerabilities missed during system design, and if an attacker will be able to gain unauthorized access.
3. Adherence to Regulatory Compliance: Various sectors have regulatory standards for data security. Healthcare organizations, for example, must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), while organizations that process payment information must abide by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). For compliance with standards, regular penetration testing is often required. By conducting a penetration test, businesses can ensure that they comply with the legal and regulatory frameworks and avoid fines and penalties.
4. Preventing Data Breaches: A data breach can lead to financial losses, damage the reputation of an organization, and trigger legal consequences. Penetration testing lowers the risk of breaches because it finds potential exploits that would allow bad actors to access private information.
5. Improving Incident Response: Penetration testing can be used to test the effectiveness of an organization’s staff in responding to incidents. If a simulated attack works, penetration testers will be privy to how quickly the organization detects the breach and what measures they take in response. This data can then inform better incident response and preparation for real attacks.

Types of Penetration Testing

1. Black Box Testing: In this approach, the penetration tester has no information about the target system before performing the testing. This type of test works like a real hacker, but without insider information. The tester simply tries to locate vulnerabilities using only publicly available data, by trial and error. This approach is slow and, since it does not include prior knowledge, some of the vulnerabilities may be missed. Still, it closely simulates actual attack scenarios.
2. White Box Testing: The White Box testing approach provides the penetration tester with access to all details of a target system (such as source code, network architecture, and internal credentials). It is a process in which the tester can thoroughly investigate the system and identify security flaws that are hard to spot with a Black Box test. White Box testing also helps in verifying the integrity of internal security controls, and aids in identifying additional critical flaws within complex solutions that could eventually result in system malfunction.
3. Gray Box Testing is a combination of Black Box and White Box In a Grey-Box approach, the penetration tester might have some internal access or a basic understanding of network architecture and system, apart from that they are limited. Grey box testing combines elements of both insider and outsider threat models, so it is especially good for assessing security from a public vs. private perspective.
4. External Penetration Testing: The main purpose of external penetration testing is to harden those systems and infrastructure that are accessible publicly, such as web servers, email servers and firewalls. Such a test can be used to detect vulnerabilities in the internal systems of a target.
5. Another example of Internal Penetration Testing is simulating an attack from within the company once a hacker has breached through perimeter security, or even from an insider threat. The purpose of such a test is to audit internal systems networks and applications for security flaws that might allow someone operating with Normal User Permissions to behave as the admin, or worse, to determine the worst thing an insider could do.

Penetration Testing Process

1. Planning and Scoping: The initial step within the penetration testing method is to decide what the test can do, generally by determining your goals and scope. This means determining which network systems/apps are to be tested, as well as the methodologies used. In the planning phase, there are also rules of engagement to define, like will the testers have full internal access. The company also needs to pinpoint any compliance necessities that the test must satisfy.
2. Determine what information a hacker can get on the target system (reconnaissance phase) This might include (but is not limited to) open-source intelligence (e.g., OSINT domain name research, IP address mapping, public database scanning, and network structure mapping). With the information, a tester can more easily visualize the attack surface and develop exploitation strategies.
3. Vulnerability Analysis: Once the reconnaissance phase is completed, the tester will search for different vulnerabilities in the system. This can occur when using insecure protocols, out-of-date software, unpatched systems, weak passwords, and misconfigured systems (if this is the case, all clients in a cohort would be rerouted). During this phase, the tester will often employ automated tools like vulnerability scanners to quickly identify likely vulnerabilities.
4. Exploit: The tester will attempt to use any discovered vulnerabilities to obtain unauthorized access to resources data, or systems. This stage mimics a real attack where the tester enters the target by utilizing the intelligence that they found during reconnaissance. Certain exploitation techniques such as privilege escalation SQL injection, and cross-site scripting (XSS) are prevalent in the security community.
5. Lateral Movement and Post Exploitation: Now they have access to how far in the network they can move. Horizontally — this is an effort by the attacker to hop from one infected system to another (i.e., in the same latitudinal band). This step is when the testers estimate how a potential breach may affect their organization, and what type of information might be obtained, modified, or stolen.
6. Reporting- The final stage of penetration testing is writing up the results. The pen tester creates a detailed report of all vulnerabilities discovered, including their exploitation, the impact these could have, and some remediation recommendations. This document also contains ways to mitigate the risks and improve the general security posture of an organization.

Pen testing is a complex but vital undertaking. Trained professionals from eMazzanti can help you with this necessary defense tool.