Penetration Testing

It is the process of evaluating the security of an organization by exploiting the vulnerabilities in a way the attackers could exploit them and thereby defending as well as documenting the procedure of attack.

Penetration testing: 

 This kind of testing simulates an attack from a malicious hacker. This testing involves analysis of a particular system to check for potential vulnerabilities to an external hacking attempt.

How to do Penetration Testing

Step 1) Planning phase

1. Scope & Strategy of the assignment is determined
2. Existing security policies, standards are used for defining the scope

Step 2) Discovery phase

1. Collect as much information as possible about the system including data in the system, usernames and even passwords. This is also called as FINGERPRINTING
2. Scan and Probe into the ports
3. Check for vulnerabilities of the system

Step 3) Attack Phase

1. Find exploits for various vulnerabilities You need necessary security Privileges to exploit the system

Step 4) Reporting Phase

1. A report must contain detailed findings
2. Risks of vulnerabilities found and their Impact on business
3. Recommendations and solutions, if any

The prime task in penetration testing is to gather system information. There are two ways to gather information -

• 'One to one' or 'one to many' model with respect to host: A tester performs techniques in a linear way against either one target host or a logical grouping of target hosts (e.g. a subnet).
• 'Many to one' or 'many to many' model: The tester utilizes multiple hosts to execute information gathering techniques in a random, rate-limited, and in non-linear.

Types of penetration testing:

Black box: The penetration tester will not be given any details pertaining to the network, or infrastructure of the network/ organization
White Box: the penetration tester will be aware of the complete details of the infrastructure to be tested
grey box: The penetration tester will be provided with a limited knowledge about the systems to be tested.