Penetration Testing
Penetration Testing
(Pentesting) involves simulating attacks to assess the risk associated with potential security breaches. Testers discover and exploit vulnerabilities where possible to assess what attackers might gain after a successful exploitation.
Zero-day
A vulnerability unpatched by software publishers
Social-engineering
In the context of information security, refers to the psychological manipulation of people into performing actions divulging confidential information. For the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access. Ex. Phishing
Internal Penetration Test
Insider, malicious employee or attacker who has already breached the perimeter
Proprietary software
Closed source software. Computer science software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder with the intent that the licensee is given the right to use the software only under certain conditions and restricted from other users such as modification sharing studying redistribution or reverse engineering. Usually the source code is not made available.
Passive Digital Footprint
Created when data is collected about an action without any client activation
Active Digital Footprint
Created when personal data is released deliberately by a user for the purpose of sharing information about oneself
Executive Summary
Describes the goals of the test and offers a high level overview of the findings, intended for the executives in charge or the security program
Vulnerability Modeling
Done before attacking systems, attempts to discover vulnerabilities in the system that can be taken advantage of in the exploitation phase
Pre-engagement Phase
Pentesting begins with this, involves talking to the client about their goals for the pentest, mapping out the scope (extent and parameters of the test) and so on.
External Penetration Test
Simulate an attack via the Internet
Information-gathering Phase
The pentester searches for publicly available information about the client and identifies potential ways to connect to its systems
Reporting Phase
The pentester summarizes the findings for both the executives and technical practitioners
Post-exploitation Phase
The result of the exploitation is leveraged to find additional information, sensitive data, access to other systems and so on
Threat-modeling Phase
The tester uses information from the previous phase to determine the value of each finding and the impact to the client if the finding permitted an attacker to break into a system. Allows development of action plan and methods of attack
Digital Footprint
The trail of data that is left behind by users on digital services