In today’s age of growing cyber threats, penetration testing is one of the most robust security testing tools within any cybersecurity program. In order to identify gaps in your cyber defenses, use the seven phases of penetration testing, which will help identify your security weaknesses and bolster your defenses. Consult managed IT services Sacramento to safeguard and enhance your business.
What is Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing is a simulated attack against your computer system to identify exploitable security issues. For example, using penetration testing to augment a web application firewall could be done to increase the effectiveness of a web application firewall. A penetration test aims to identify and exploit a computer system’s vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to that system or its data. By doing so, penetration testers may be able to compromise the security of the system and its users. Protect your system and data from attacks by consulting IT Support Fresno.
Penetration testing may include attempts to breach an application system and might involve the discovery of vulnerabilities, such as unsecured input fields, which could be exploited to introduce code into the application. Additionally, the test results provided by the penetration test can be used to validate your WAF security policies.
Why is it Essential to Conduct a Penetration Test?
In many cases, several incidents can affect the companies, including the failure to protect against security incidents; ineffective incident response plans; inadequate data protection security measures in business processes, insufficiently implemented security tools and systems; and less awareness among people about cyber risks.
A penetration test is the best defense against hackers and other cybercriminals. It’s the first line of defense to protect your systems, help you find weaknesses in your protection mechanism, and prevent the bad guys from breaking through.
Applying these techniques can help companies reduce their application vulnerabilities and save time and money spent addressing those vulnerability issues.
7 Phases of Penetration Testing
A penetration test begins before the simulation phase and involves gathering as much information as possible about the target network and system. An ethical hacker can study the system, find out how it works and what it’s vulnerable to, and use that knowledge to help protect it from attack. The Penetration Testing process usually goes through seven phases.
1. Gathering Information
A penetration tester should begin by gathering information about the organization’s targets through online research and contacting them for more details. This information will include information about the organization’s infrastructure, business operations, and clientele.
2. Planning and Reconnaissance
One of the most time-consuming phases of an ethical hacking audit is when a hacker discovers a vulnerability in the system. First, a hacker will note the vulnerabilities and how the system reacts. Next, the employees’ names and email addresses are searched. Finally, the objectives of the audit will determine what information is required and how much is the depth of investigation.
3. Discovery and Scanning
Another step is to know how the target application will respond to your intrusion attempts. This is usually done using the following:
- Static analysis is a type of program analysis that uses mathematical methods to study the behavior of software programs. The entire code can be scanned in a single pass.
- Dynamic analysis inspects an application’s code while it is being executed. This scanning method allows you to view the performance of your application in real-time.
4. Gaining System Access
You can uncover a target’s vulnerabilities through web application attacks, such as cross-site scripting and SQL injection. Testers use these tools to find vulnerabilities in the code that can be exploited and gain unauthorized access. Vulnerability assessment is a process to identify and assess the openness of a system or network. Exposure can be physical, logical, or operational.
5. Persistent Access
This pentest phase identifies the potential impact of a vulnerability exploit. A penetration tester should maintain an attacker foothold until all goals are accomplished. They should also take steps to prevent the attack from being compromised. For example, they need to place the network information to identify the available data and services. In addition, it can be done by using a network scanner such as Nmap.
6. Final Analysis
The results of the penetration test are then put into a report format. This report includes a detailed account of the security testing process, including where testing took place, how vulnerabilities were identified and exploited, and what recommendations were made for corrections. It also includes information on the scope of the security testing and the testing methodologies used.
7. Utilize the Results of Testing
The last stage of penetration testing is critical. The organization must use the findings from the security testing to risk rank vulnerabilities, determine the potential impact of vulnerabilities found, and decide on remediation strategies. Based on the security testing, the vulnerabilities found have been ranked as high, medium, low, and low impact. The potential effects of exposure can range from data loss to gaining access to sensitive information.
Summary
As attacks have increased frequently over the past few years, it is essential to take action to avoid future incidents. Unfortunately, there is no indication that this trend will cease shortly, so it is necessary to be prepared.
To prevent a vulnerability from being discovered, security must be managed so that penetration testing is run regularly. In addition, the software automates the pen testing process, allowing the scans to be done efficiently and quickly based on your needs.
Post courtesy: George Passidakis, Director of Sales and Marketing at Apex Technology Management