For a few years now, investing in cybersecurity is essential for all types of companies, at least to contain or avoid any kind of cyber attack. Today all organizations face risks that can put their system and confidential information at risk. We live in a time of many technologies changes and one of the greatest challenges of computer security is this. To avoid cyber attacks, cybersecurity must advance to the same level. In this article, we explain what pentesting is, one of the newest computer security techniques. Keep reading!
Table of Contents
What Is Pentesting?
Due to fraud and cyber-attacks suffered by entities, pentesting or penetration tester has been launched. The pentesting or penetration test is to attack different environments or systems in order to detect and prevent possible failure. It is a technique to find those errors in the system. It is one of the most demanded practices today since thanks to this type of exam companies can remedy their weaknesses before cybercriminals do.
A pentester is a computer security auditor. They are divided into two, the red team, which is the most offensive part, and the blue team, which is the defensive part of the pentesters.
It is a method of evaluating the security of a company, a real simulated attack. They try to attack an organization with the aim of making a report with which the company obtains all the information it needs and can better its vulnerabilities. Assess the security of a system by attempting to break and access it.
In summary, pentesting or penetration tests are useful for the following reasons: to determine what possibility of success a cyberattack could have, what vulnerabilities of greater and lesser risk the company has, which of them can put the organization at risk, and which they are almost impossible to detect. Finally, also check the capacity and efficiency of IT when responding to possible attacks.
Types Of Pentesting
On the other hand, pentesting is classified according to the type of information available to the IT security professional before preparing the test. We can find three types:
White Box Or White Box
The pentester knows all the data in the system and is usually part of the company’s technical team. It has all the information about the structure, data, IP, logins, passwords, fireworks, etc. It is the most complete and is part of a comprehensive analysis of the structure. With these preliminary data, the test is sufficiently accurate when it comes to discovering the faults and the measures to be taken.
Black Box Or Black Box
It is the second-best option when hiring a pentesting. The auditor does not have any data of the organization and starts from scratch as if he were a real cybercriminal. This helps make the drill as true as possible. It is a blind test of the network structure. Given these characteristics, it is a great experience for the company, since it is a good method to recognize the weaknesses of the computer system of a business.
Gray Box or Gray Box
It would be a mix of the Black Box and the White Box. Pentesters have certain information to perform this penetration test. They do not go blind like the previous option and have a low amount of information. Given this form, the auditor will invest time and resources to identify weaknesses and threats based on the amount of information already available. It is the most recommended pentest when hiring any of these services.
Audit: Phases Of Pentesting
The process when conducting an audit is divided into five stages:
1 # Recognition
The first stage is planning and recognition. It involves defining the scope and objectives of the test, including the systems to be addressed and the test methods to be used. In addition, it is also used to collect all possible information, such as domain and network names, software, emails, etc. to better understand how the company works and its potential weaknesses.
2 # Vulnerability Analysis
The second step is to understand how the system you are trying to break will respond to various intrusion attempts. We begin to interact with the target and the system is analyzed manually or automatically to identify possible weaknesses. The scope and scope of the intrusion test are defined and the depth of the tests to be carried out and the permissiveness of the attacks are consulted with the client.
3 # Threat Modeling
Once we have all the information, we must develop a structured representation of all the information that affects the security of an application. It is the process of capturing, organizing, and analyzing all the data from one view through security experts. It enables you to make decisions about risks and produce a typical threat model or a prioritized list of IT security enhancements.
4 # Exploitation
The model helps us to see how we will attack the system, through which port to access. If the intrusion has been carried out successfully, this phase consists of the collection of private information, such as files hosted on a server or system. The purpose is to demonstrate to the client that if a cybercriminal attacked the system, they could access it and steal the information.
5 # Reporting
Finally, as we can imagine, it is about writing down all the bugs and security improvements detected. Two types of reports are made. On the one hand, a technical one for system administrators, which is written with the appropriate terminologies along with detailed solutions. On the other hand, an executive report is addressed to the board of directors so that people who are not dedicated to the world of computing understand it.
What did you think of this article about what is pentesting? Leave your comments and share!
Also Read : How To Make A Backup In Windows 10
