What is Penetration Testing? The Importance of Penetration Testing

“What is penetration testing?” Penetration testing is a complex process that involves testing applications for security vulnerabilities. Easier said than done, penetration testing has become a major part of ethical hacking. People with above ordinary hacking skills hoping to make a living out of them legally are applying for penetration tester positions across a host of different companies.

 Importance of Penetration Testing:-

1.     Big companies throughout the world rely on ethical hacking methods and penetration testing to give them results in terms of their security deficiencies. Is a company’s security policy in line with requirements? This question is best answered through conducting penetration tests.

2.     Penetration tests can be used to confront and catch hackers before they cause the damage. It has been seen that a lot of companies spend resources on damage control, whereas it would be better if they followed an old saying; “Prevention is better than cure.”

3.     Penetration testers use all their ethical hacking skills to see whether they can inflict damage to your system. In this way, their final reports can help future security investments in being more effective in dealing with threats. Developers can be improved with the help of these tests as well, as they would do away with writing code that is vulnerable to hacking attempts.

A penetration test, also known as a pen test, is a simulated cyber attack against your computer system to check for exploitable vulnerabilities. In the context of web application security, penetration testing is commonly used to augment a web application firewall (WAF).

Pen testing can involve the attempted breaching of any number of application systems, (e.g., application protocol interfaces (APIs), frontend/backend servers) to uncover vulnerabilities, such as unsanitized inputs that are susceptible to code injection attacks.Insights provided by the penetration test can be used to fine-tune your WAF security policies and patch detected vulnerabilities.

Penetration testing stages:-

The pen testing process can be broken down into five stages:

1. Planning and reconnaissance:-The first stage involves:

• Defining the scope and goals of a test, including the systems to be addressed and the testing methods to be used.
• Gathering intelligence (e.g., network and domain names, mail server) to better understand how a target works and its potential vulnerabilities.

2. Scanning:-The next step is to understand how the target application will respond to various intrusion attempts. This is typically done using:

• Static analysis – Inspecting an application’s code to estimate the way it behaves while running. These tools can scan the entirety of the code in a single pass.
• Dynamic analysis – Inspecting an application’s code in a running state. This is a more practical way of scanning, as it provides a real-time view into an application’s performance.

3. Gaining Access:-This stage uses web application attacks, such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection and backdoors, to uncover a target’s vulnerabilities. Testers then try and exploit these vulnerabilities, typically by escalating privileges, stealing data, intercepting traffic, etc., to understand the damage they can cause.

4. Maintaining access:-The goal of this stage is to see if the vulnerability can be used to achieve a persistent presence in the exploited system— long enough for a bad actor to gain in-depth access. The idea is to imitate advanced persistent threats, which often remain in a system for months in order to steal an organization’s most sensitive data.

5. Analysis:-The results of the penetration test are then compiled into a report detailing:

• Specific vulnerabilities that were exploited.
• Sensitive data that was accessed.
• The amount of time the pen tester was able to remain in the system undetected.

This information is analyzed by security personnel to help configure an enterprise’s WAF settings and other application security solutions to patch vulnerabilities and protect against future attacks.

Who performs pen tests?

It’s best to have a pen test performed by someone with little-to-no prior knowledge of how the system is secured because they may be able to expose blind spots missed by the developers who built the system. For this reason, outside contractors are usually brought in to perform the tests. These contractors are often referred to as ‘ethical hackers’ since they are being hired to hack into a system with permission and for the purpose of increasing security.

Many ethical hackers are experienced developers with advanced degrees and a certification for pen testing. On the other hand, some of the best ethical hackers are self-taught. In fact, some are reformed criminal hackers who now use their expertise to help fix security flaws rather than exploit them. The best candidate to carry out a pen test can vary greatly depending on the target company and what type of pen test they want to initiate.

What are the types of pen tests?

• External pen test - In an external test, the ethical hacker goes up against the company’s external-facing technology, such as their website and external network servers. In some cases, the hacker may not even be allowed to enter the company’s building. This can mean conducting the attack from a remote location or carrying out the test from a truck or van parked nearby.
• Internal pen test - In an internal test, the ethical hacker performs the test from the company’s internal network. This kind of test is useful in determining how much damage a disgruntled employee can cause from behind the company’s firewall.

• White box pen test - In a white box test, the hacker will be provided with some information ahead of time regarding the target company’s security info.
• Black box pen test - Also known as a ‘blind’ test, this is one where the hacker is given no background information besides the name of the target company.
• Covert pen test - Also known as a ‘double-blind’ pen test, this is a situation where almost no one in the company is aware that the pen test is happening, including the IT and security professionals who will be responding to the attack. For covert tests, it is especially important for the hacker to have the scope and other details of the test in writing beforehand to avoid any problems with law enforcement.

Penetration testing methods:-

v External testing

External penetration tests target the assets of a company that are visible on the internet, e.g., the web application itself, the company website, and email and domain name servers (DNS). The goal is to gain access and extract valuable data.

v Internal testing

In an internal test, a tester with access to an application behind its firewall simulates an attack by a malicious insider. This isn’t necessarily simulating a rogue employee. A common starting scenario can be an employee whose credentials were stolen due to a phishing attack.

v Blind testing

In a blind test, a tester is only given the name of the enterprise that’s being targeted. This gives security personnel a real-time look into how an actual application assault would take place.

v Double-blind testing

In a double blind test, security personnel have no prior knowledge of the simulated attack. As in the real world, they won’t have any time to shore up their defenses before an attempted breach.

v Targeted testing

In this scenario, both the tester and security personnel work together and keep each other appraised of their movements. This is a valuable training exercise that provides a security team with real-time feedback from a hacker’s point of view.

Penetration testing and web application firewalls:-

Penetration testing and WAFs are exclusive, yet mutually beneficial security measures. For many kinds of pen testing (with the exception of blind and double blind tests), the tester is likely to use WAF data, such as logs, to locate and exploit an application’s weak spots.

In turn, WAF administrators can benefit from pen testing data. After a test is completed, WAF configurations can be updated to secure against the weak spots discovered in the test, pen testing satisfies some of the compliance requirements for security auditing procedures, including PCI DSS and SOC 2. Certain standards, such as PCI-DSS 6.6, can be satisfied only through the use of a certified WAF. Doing so, however, doesn’t make pen testing any less useful due to its aforementioned benefits and ability to improve on WAF configurations.

Job of a Penetration Tester:-

A penetration tester is not really mandatory for every company. Nowadays, a host of automated tools have been developed for conducting penetration tests in a really short amount of time. These tools deliver results within a few days as well, but the main problem of these automated tests is the uncertainty regarding future attacks.

Personalized tests are always more recommended because of the better security they offer. While personalized penetration tests do not assure 100% success rate in terms of potential future attacks, but hiring quality penetration testers can definitely give your company a much needed advantage.

Quite simply, a penetration tester’s job requires him to use all his ethical hacking experience to use a variety of penetration tools to infiltrate his company’s security system. The easier the infiltration process is, the more security problems the company has to deal with.

The following points underline the key responsibilities of a penetration tester:

1.     Creating and designing a variety of penetration tests and tools.

2.     Conducting security assessments of various network devices, servers, and systems.

3.     Running penetration tests on a wide range of computer systems, networks, and web-based applications.

4.     Identifying hacking methods that may be used by attackers in potential future attacks.

5.     Assessing both standard and web applications for identifying vulnerabilities.

6.     Uncovering loopholes in security using social engineering.

7.     Documentation and research of security findings, and discussing them with IT and management teams.

8.     Incorporating business considerations such as cost of engagement and loss of earnings.

9.     Work on improving existing security services.

10.Providing feedback on fixes for various security issues, along with verifying them as well.

Pre-Requisites and Scope of a Career in Penetration Testing

An aspiring penetration tester needs a few basic academic qualifications under his belt. An Information Technology Bachelor’s Degree is a fundamental requirement, and it is also great to familiarize with various operating systems such as Linux, OS X, and Windows. The aspirant must also be familiar with the latest developments in the world of hacking, and should have thorough knowledge regarding network security.

In terms of career growth, penetration testing is set to be an important part of information technology in the coming years. With the continuous evolution in technology, penetration testers would be required to showcase their ethical hacking techniques to bring benefits to a ton of companies around the world.