Penetration Test - Cybersecsi

Penetration Testing is the evaluation of the security status of a computer system.

It is essential for the protection of your business to make periodic assessments of the security status of your systems and applications in order to ensure the protection of your business assets. Among the techniques of vulnerability assessment, the Penetration Test is one of the most effective: simulating the modus operandi of a hacker, the Penetration Tester identifies the vulnerabilities of computer systems, so as to prevent malicious users from using them. By performing Penetration Test applications and infrastructure can show the weaknesses of an organization, identify, through social engineering techniques, the most vulnerable users and sensitive information subject to data breach. A Penetration Tester guarantees a professional and ethical service: all identified vulnerabilities and sensitive information acquired are protected by a contract of secrecy and privacy.

A Penetration Test consists of the following steps:

Footprinting

In this phase, the Penetration Tester, through various tools, obtain information on the target system determines the network topology to be attacked, identifies publicly exposed services, obtains potentially sensitive public information from forums and search engines that can be used in subsequent phases of its activity.

Network Scanning and enumeration

In this the Penetration Tester identifies and enumerates all the services in the network of the target system; check all the versions of the services displayed, identify all the application frameworks used on web applications. Through various tools and portals that contain databases of known vulnerabilities, the Penetration Test searches for vulnerabilities regarding the versions of the enumerated services and sorts the services based on the level of vulnerability detected.

Exploit

The enumeration of services is “half the work”: the services may have been patched, the vulnerabilities may not be exploitable. To confirm the potential vulnerabilities detected in the previous phase, the Penetration Tester tries to exploit the vulnerabilities detected in the previous phase to compromise the target system; Once you get access to the system you will have the proof to prove that the system is vulnerable.

Post-Exploit

Once obtained access to a system the Penetration Test will verify the security status of the attacked system trying to obtain administrative privileges (using “Privilege Escalation” techniques); it will also attempt to attack additional machines in the system network, so as to completely compromise the network.

What differentiates a Penetration Tester from a malicious hacker?

The Penetration Tester is protected by a contract that makes its actions legal and defines the “scope” of its activities (which targets to attack, at what times, according to which modalities);
A Penetration Tester does not cause damage to the test environment, and all operations performed are reversible, in such a way as to minimize the impact of its operations on the analyzed system;
A Penetration Tester exploits its knowledge at the service of the client company, ensuring a professional and ethical service: all the identified vulnerabilities, sensitive information acquired by the activities are protected by a privacy and privacy contract, none of this information.